accounting miami · ’97, macc ’99, jd ’02) joined deloitte’s anti-money-laundering...

ACCOUNTING MIAMI2 0 1 5

News from the Department of Accounting at the University of Miami School of Business Administration

ACCOUNTING PHDS LAND DREAM JOBSBY JENNIFER LECLAIRE

The University of Miami has graduated its first two accounting PhD students. John Barrios and Yamin Hao both landed enviable positions at major universities.

After graduating in June, Barrios serves as an assistant professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He calls it a dream position, and one that his dissertation co-chairs at University of Miami’s accounting program urged him to take.

“This is a top school with respect to business and economics,” he says. “It’s a great privilege to start my career at such a prestigious place.”

Barrios is still dreaming. His goal is to gain full professor status within 10 years. Ultimately, he hopes to contribute to our understanding of “individuals in the accounting profession and the integration of individual preference and attributes and information disclosure in general.”

Hao graduated with her accounting PhD in August. Her job as assistant professor in accounting at the University of Alberta, Alberta School of Business, is waiting for her. Like Barrios, she calls this her dream position.

“The Alberta School of Business gives faculty members great support for their research, which is what I am always looking for,” says Hao. “My long-term career goal is to become a successful researcher in accounting. In the next 10 years, I hope I can have my work published in top journals, and have earned my tenure by then.” n

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Letter from the Chair 2

Class Notes 2

Department Hosts FICPA OMP Forum 3

Former Miami Students Join PhD Program 3

Inaugural Accounting Alumni and Friends Homecoming CPE Forum 4

FanTAXtic Competition 6

Sharing Our Expertise 6

Florida Accounting Symposium 7

New Online Masters Program 7

Donor Recognition 8

Alumni: Richard Berkowitz’s Secrets to Accounting Success 10

New Five-year Senior Spring Internship Program 11

Forensic Students Participate in Mock Trial 11

Advisory Board Members 12

Faculty Listing 13

Faculty Editorial Board Activity 13

Faculty Awards and Honors 14

FICPA Scholarship Winners 14

Firm Panelists Give Students Career Advice 15

Visiting Professor and New Part-time Lecturers 16

Research: A Study in Sharing 16

Research: Bubble Trouble 17

New Internal Audit Course Offers Internships 18

Alumni: “Get-Out-of-A-Jam” Sam Abrams 18

Phillips Scholarship Memorializes Esteemed Professor 19

Accounting Alumni: Reconnect With the U 20

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A C C O U N T I N G M I A M I | 2 0 1 5

Dear Students, Parents, Alumni and Friends: I am very pleased to report that we had another great year of progress in our quest to become one of the best accounting departments in the country. As you will see elsewhere in the newsletter, we had some significant “firsts” this year that we are extremely proud of:

• Our first batch of PhD students graduated this spring, and we are very pleased with their initial placements: John Barrios has joined the faculty at the University of Chicago and Yamin Hao is a faculty member at the University of Alberta;

• We hosted a successful inaugural CPE Forum with several distinguished speakers and guests in attendance;

• We launched a five-year accounting program that will allow our undergraduate students to participate in spring internships for the first time; and

• We expanded employment opportunities for our graduate students by facilitating internal audit internships in several well-known local companies.

We continue to make big strides on all major fronts. Our incoming class of students in both the undergraduate and graduate programs is better than ever. We have improved our MAcc and MST programs, adding courses that are more relevant and of contemporaneous importance to the accounting profession. Our world-class faculty continues to grow in numbers and prominence across the globe. Student placements are at an all-time high. And, thanks to your generosity and support, individual contributions to the department have increased significantly, providing us with the resources vital to continued advancement.

We expect to continue building on the momentum prevailing in the department, the School and across the University. Our sincerest thanks to all of our students, faculty, alumni and friends, without whose support none of this would be possible. We look forward to hearing from you and learning of your successes, new endeavors and suggestions. Please keep in touch and email me at [email protected].

We will continue to strive to make U even prouder with our accomplishments over the years to come!

Go ‘Canes!!!

LETTER FROM THE CHAIR

Sundaresh RamnathChair, Department of Accounting

Class Notes

Richard Pollack (BBA ’75), director of forensic accounting at Berkowitz Pollack Brant, celebrated his 40th wedding anniversary with his wife, Amy, who he met at the “U.” They have five grandchildren. His firm of 200 employees celebrated its 35th anniversary.

Raymond Zomerfeld (BBA ’81) was elected to the executive committee of the citizens board.

Isabel Marini (BBA ’85, MPrA ’86) celebrated her 20th anniversary with Ryder. In August 2014, she took on a new position as group director, fleet management solutions field finance in finance.

Robert Moreiro (MBA ’97, MAcc ’99, JD ’02) joined Deloitte’s anti-money-laundering consulting practice as a manager in October 2014.

Ian Bristol (JD ’98, LLM ’99) was promoted to managing director in KPMG’s mergers and acquisition tax practice.

Adam Korenfield (BBA ’00), tax director at BDO, married his beautiful bride, Shauna Berry, on July 4, 2015.

(CONTINUED ON PAGE 10)

Connect with fellow University of Miami Accounting alumni and stay updated on the latest news and upcoming events at the new School of Business

Accounting Alumni Networking Group on LinkedIn

bus.miami.edu/accountinglinkedinJoin at

http://bus.miami.edu/accountinglinkedin

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A C C O U N T I N G M I A M I | 2 0 1 5A C C O U N T I N G M I A M I | 2 0 1 5

Jake Krupa earned both a Bachelor of Science and Master of Accounting from the University of Miami as a participant in the department’s accelerated program. As part of the program, Jake passed the CPA exam and is currently a licensed CPA in the state of Florida. After graduating in 2012, Jake worked as an assurance associate for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for two years, specializing in financial services clients, before returning to pursue his PhD in January 2015.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

DEPARTMENT HOSTS FICPA OFFICE-MANAGING PARTNER FORUMBY ROCHELLE BRODER-SINGER

Last November, the Department of Accounting hosted an Office-Managing Partner Forum for the Miami-Downtown chapter of the Florida Institute of CPAs. Around 100 members of the Miami-Downtown FICPA chapter, as well as School of Business faculty and accounting students, enjoyed breakfast and a question-and-answer forum at the University of Miami’s Newman Alumni Center. The forum was one of two that the chapter holds annually, at which managing partners from public accounting firm offices answer questions that have been submitted in advance, as well as those asked directly by audience members.

For the department, hosting the forum was an invaluable opportunity to reach out to the business community and support one of the FICPA Miami-Downtown chapter’s most popular events, providing space, food, equipment and more. For the chapter, the University’s Newman Center “was a much-needed new location,” said Amanda Bonifay, the chapter’s 2014-2015 chair and director at Goldstein Schechter Koch. Just as importantly, Bonifay says, was the opportunity for public accounting firms and the students they may hire in the future to have a chance to interact. “We all participate heavily in recruiting at UM, so having an additional opportunity to meet students was important,” she explained.

FICPA members also enjoyed the opportunity to talk with accounting department faculty about everything from the

From left to right: Amanda Bonifay, 2014-2015 Chair and Event Moderator,

FICPA Miami-Downtown Chapter; Rodrigo J. Melendez, KPMG; Tony Argiz,

MBAF; Sanford Horwitz, GSK; Albert Lopez, BDO; Hector Tundidor Jr.,

Ernst & Young

Matt Phillips joins the School’s PhD program in accounting from EY, where he spent nearly three years auditing public South Florida companies. Matt received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in 2010 from the University of Miami. His research interests include public company audit quality, the impact of Sarbanes Oxley regulation, and corporate governance. n

TWO FORMER STUDENTS JOIN THE PHD PROGRAM

curriculum and their students to industry issues. “It’s great to talk to professors about what we’re seeing with our students that we hire right out of school,” Bonifay said. “Interacting with the professors also helps us as professionals stay on top of issues, and we can interact with them about different changes in the industry, technical issues, different changes in accounting standards or tax codes.”

The department and the FICPA plan to collaborate further on future events. n

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The School’s inaugural Accounting Alumni and Friends Homecoming CPE Forum, held in late October 2014, hosted nearly 100 attendees at the Four Seasons Hotel on Brickell. The all-day event was a high-profile addition to the accounting department’s continuing professional education program. “The event was a perfect opportunity for the University, the School of Business and the Department of Accounting to make an impact within the South Florida business community and engage leaders in the industry,” says Diana Falsetta, an associate professor in the department and co-organizer of the forum.

The keynote speaker was James R. Doty, chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), a nonprofit corporation established by

research pursuits around tax policies. Post-lunch sessions included an SEC update, internal audit issues, and updates on income taxes and global tax policy.

“Participants said that they really enjoyed the content and the presenters,” says Maggie Alvarez, a lecturer and program manager in the department. Similarly, positive sentiments were echoed by the attending CPAs who were required to evaluate each session in order to receive six CPE credits. n

ALUMNI

ACCOUNTING FORUM TREATS ATTENDEES TO HIGH-PROFILE KEYNOTE SPEAKER AND HOT TOPICS BY BOB WOODS

James R. Doty, chairman of the Public Company

Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), was the

event’s keynote speaker

Congress in 2002 to oversee the audits of public corporations. The first of the day’s five sessions, “Employer’s Reporting Obligations Under the Affordable Care Act,” was presented by Mary Gorman, a member of Ernst & Young’s indirect employment tax practice in Baltimore. Next up was a panel discussion that clarified the new revenue recognition standard that will impact accounting reports at certain public companies and nonprofit organizations beginning after December 15, 2016. The morning sessions concluded with a pair of distinguished alumni and faculty presentations, first from Bill Pruitt (BBA ’66), president of Pruitt Enterprises LP. He was followed on the dais by the late Lawrence Phillips, professor emeritus of accounting at the School, who recalled his academic and


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Diamond

THANK YOU, SPONSORSA special thank you goes to the sponsors of this inaugural event. Their generous support ensured the event’s success.

Gold

Silver

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Distinguished Alumni Award: Sundaresh Ramnath presented William (“Bill”) Pruitt Jr. (BBA

’66) with the Distinguished Alumni Award.

Distinguished Faculty Award

Lawrence Phillips was awarded the Distinguished Faculty

Award by Sundaresh Ramnath.

DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD AND DISTINGUISHED FACULTY AWARD

SAVE THE DATE FOR THE NEXT CPE FORUM IN JUNE 2016!

1. Moderator and faculty member Oscar Holzmann; alumnus Jose

Alvarez, Costa Farms; alumnus Henry Pujol, Royal Caribbean

International; and Dave Barr, KPMG – New Revenue Recognition

Standard Panel. 2. Moderator Jorge Salguiero, Deloitte LLP; Adair

Barton, Dycom Industries; Alex Domenech, NextEra Energy Inc.;

and Tom Rothrock, Mastec, Inc. – Internal Audit Issues Panel. 3. Alumni Joaquin Sole Nido and Timothy Izsler, Crowe Horwath LLP.

4. Alumna Melissa Matos, Royal Caribbean International; faculty

member Kay Tatum; and alumna Lina Honig, Royal Caribbean

International. 5. Presenters Stephen Nesi, PwC LLP, and Ravi Rao,

PwC LLP. 6. Accounting lecturer Seth Levine; accounting lecturer

Mario Perez; Jorge Salguierro, Deloitte LLP; and alumnus Alex

Joya, Alvarez and Marsal Taxand LLC. 7. Presenter and alumnus

Leo Chomiak, Grant Thornton LLP – Tax Update and Global Policy.

8. Alumnus Bill Pruitt; alumna Jamie Byington, Cherry Bekaert LLP;

alumna Camila Cote, EY LLP; and Tim Lamaccia, EY LLP.

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The School of Business team practiced for weeks, individually and as a group, preparing to compete against other universities from Florida and across the southeast. They all hobnobbed over dinner the night before, then everyone showed up the next morning for the head-to-head regional showdown.

What could be a scenario for a Hurricanes sporting event actually involved the annual Deloitte FanTAXtic National Tax Case Study Competition. And instead of athletes, this School of Business team comprised five accounting students. Alas, the squad didn’t move on to the national finals, yet everyone enjoyed an invaluable experience that enhanced their education and bolstered their job prospects.

Sponsored by Deloitte Tax LLP with support from the Deloitte Foundation, the FanTAXtic Competition originated in 2002 as a creative way to familiarize accounting

students nationwide with the tax profession. Last November, 77 teams from 54 schools vied for scholarship prizes in regional matchups, with nine finalists competing at Deloitte University, near Dallas, in January. The team from the University of Wisconsin-Madison won top honors.

“I was a first-semester sophomore and hadn’t taken any tax classes yet,” says

STUDENTS

ACCOUNTING TEAM HAS A FANTAXTIC TIME

Deloitte FanTAXtic Competition (from left to right): Jordan Adams (MST

graduate student), Rex Phan (senior), Alessandra Baixeras (senior) Maggie

Alvarez (faculty advisor), Jason Pymento (sophomore), James Newlin

(sophomore).

James Newlin, “so it was pretty intimidating at first.” He crammed, though, and had strong support from his teammates — fellow sophomore Jason Pymento, seniors Alessandra Baixeras (BBA ’15) and Rex Pham (BBA ’15), and Jordan Adams, a graduate student in the Master of Taxation program.

Every team was given the same real-world case

for which they presented a plan of action, role-playing as Deloitte tax specialists advising “clients” portrayed by Deloitte employees. “The case involved a small tech firm going public,” Adams reports. “We advised their executives on various matters, such as start-up expenses, hiring and compensation.”

The School of Business team was among 10 that made presentations at Deloitte’s offices in downtown Miami. “It was very realistic in simulating the professional working relationship,” says Pham, a rising Master of Taxation student.

Although the School’s team didn’t advance, “it was not a defeat at all,” Adams insists. “I was impressed at how much we grew as individuals and as a team.” Adds Newlin: “I would recommend that any accounting student who gets the opportunity to enter the Deloitte competition seize it.” — by Bob Woods n

SHARING OUR EXPERTISERECENT FACULTY RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS AROUND THE WORLD

Miguel Minutti-MezaCAPANA Conference 2015 (Discussant) – Shanghai, China International Symposium on Audit Research 2015 (Presenter) – Boston, MAJournal of Accounting Research Conference 2015 (Panelist) – Chicago, ILAmerican Accounting Association Auditing Section Midyear Conference (Panelist) – Miami, FL UC Berkeley Seminar 2015 (Presenter) – Berkeley, CA

DJ Nanda American Accounting Association, “Executive Turnover and Familial Relations: Family Controlled Firms and Family CEOs in Italy,”

August 2014 – Atlanta, GAAmerican Accounting Association, panel member “Perspectives from AAA Award Winners,” August 2014 – Atlanta, GA

Eric H. WeisbrodInternational Symposium on Audit Research – Boston, MAEuropean Accounting Association Annual Congress – Glasgow, ScotlandAmerican Taxation Association Midyear Meeting – Washington, D.C.Southern Methodist University – Dallas, TXUniversity of Texas: Dallas – Dallas, TX

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When auditors work together on professional en-gagements, do they share tax-avoidance strategies for the benefit of a client? Do subjects in research studies put forth less effort when being paid a minimal amount for participat-ing in online surveys? How do financial incentives and mutually shared interests affect honesty?

More than 75 accounting doctoral students and faculty from six universities had an opportunity to discuss these types of questions at the inau-gural Florida Accounting

Symposium, hosted by the School of Business Administra-tion on September 5-6, 2014.

“Our goal was to provide a forum that would showcase our research and expose our doc-toral students to a wide range of accounting methodologies,” said DJ Nanda, professor of accounting, who served on the symposium’s six-person pro-gram committee with Diana Falsetta, associate professor of accounting.

The symposium was orga-nized by the University of Miami, University of Florida and

FACULTY

SCHOOL HOSTS FIRST FLORIDA ACCOUNTING SYMPOSIUMBY RICHARD WESTLUND

Florida State University, and drew attendees from those schools as well as Florida Inter-national University, Florida Atlantic University, the Univer-sity of South Florida, the University of Tampa and the University of Central Florida.

“The symposium provided me with a great opportunity to meet colleagues who I normally wouldn’t see,” said John Barrios, a then School of Busi-ness doctoral accounting student. “I also benefitted from seeing the high caliber of research being done around the state.”

At the symposium, doctoral students from the three orga-nizing schools introduced faculty members from different schools to encourage peer-to-peer interactions, according to Nanda. “We had a very engaged audience, and there were lots of questions and extensive discus-sion of the presentations,” he added.

Falsetta noted that the many questions from attendees

focused on the methodologies of the studies, as well as the outcomes. “Several of the stud-ies took an archival approach, collecting data from existing resources to look for significant patterns,” she said.

For example, one of the papers presented, authored by the School’s Pietro Bianchi, Miguel Minutti Meza, Eric Weis-brod and Falsetta, took an archival approach, looking at audit engagements in Italy. Another presentation, “Scoun-drels or Stars? Theory and Evidence on the Use of Online Laborers in Accounting Re-search,” used an experimental method to examine the impact of lower pay on subjects partici-pating in online surveys.

Other studies presented at the symposium included “The Relative Contributions of Value Relevance and Mispricing to the Pricing of Abnormal Accruals” and “An Experimental Investiga-tion of the Effects of Financial Incentives and Mutual Shared Interest on Honesty.” n

The School of Business Administration has expanded the programs it offers online with a new Master of Professional Accounting program. Designed for those with no prior accounting experience or coursework, the fully online program, which began in May 2015, centers on the fundamental accounting and financial reporting skills used in business. It prepares individuals for careers in corporate financial accounting, management accounting and taxation. The accounting program is the School’s second master’s program to be offered fully online. The first, a Master of Science in Finance program, began in January 2015.

“The expansion of the School’s fully online programs illustrates our ongoing commitment to meet the evolving demands of

working professionals seeking educational options that are rigorous, yet flexible,” said Gene Anderson, the School’s dean. “With its modular classes and flexible scheduling, the Master of Professional Accounting program enables professionals to learn from the same world-class faculty who teach in our on-campus programs while earning their degree, no matter where they live and work.”

Participants have the option of earning a Certificate in Accounting Practice alone or completing the certificate while earning the full master’s degree.

More information about the online programs can be found at miami.edu/online. n

SCHOOL EXPANDS FULLY ONLINE PROGRAMS WITH MASTER OF PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING

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2014-2015 ACCOUNTING SCHOLARSHIPS

• Accounting Students Endowed Scholarships

• Arthur Andersen LLP Endowed Scholarship in Honor of William D. Pruitt

• Marvin J. Brittman Endowed Scholarship in Accounting

• Capra Family Memorial Scholarship Fund

• Crowe Horwath LLP Outstanding Student Scholarship

• Deloitte Services LLP

• Barry J. Dick International Tax Scholarship

• EY Scholars-Accelerated Master of Accounting

• Sylvia Frank Freed Endowed Scholarship in Accounting

• Benedict R. Harrow Endowed Scholarship Fund

• Kaufman, Rossin and Company Distinction in Accounting Scholarship Award

• Eloise Kimmelman Scholarship in Accounting

• KPMG Accounting Scholarship in Memory of Lewis Davis

• Edward and Hillelene Lustig Endowed Scholarship in Accounting

• Accounting Scholarship in Memory of Howard Magram

• McClain & Company Endowed Scholarship in Memory of Mariana D. Herrera, BBA ‘72

• Howard A. Mesh Endowed Scholarship in Accounting

• Arthur P. Metzger/Deloitte Touche Program in Public Accounting

• Martin A. Miller Accounting Scholarship Fund

• The Lawrence C. Phillips Memorial Endowed Scholarship in Taxation Fund

This list includes gifts that were made directly to the Department of Accounting between June 1, 2014, and May 31, 2015.

Cody F. Aldridge BBA ’11

Alvarez & Marsal Taxand LLC

Antonio L. Argiz Jr. BSC ’08

Silvia Arguelles BBA ’00

Clara R. Arritola BBA ’80

Luis E. Arritola BBA ’77, MBA ’80, JD ’88

Faye L. Ashby BBA ’93, MBA ’95

John L. Babitt BBA ’92, MBA ‘99

BDO USA LLP

Charlotte L. Berceli AB’63, MA ’65 Ronald J. Berceli BBA ’63

Berkowitz Pollack Brant LLP

Richard A. Berkowitz JD ‘81

Pietro A. Bianchi

Khrystyna Bochkay

Leslie S. Brittman

Marvin J. Brittman BBA ’64

Elizabeth Brodie Stefan E. Brodie

Barry F. Brown BBA ’63

Sharon C. Brown BBA ’66

Ciro L. Buttacavoli

Jamie J. Byington BBA ’81

Kelly M. Calisto BBA ’09, MPRA ‘10

Susan K. Chapman BBA ’75

John D. Chesley BBA ’99

Karen K. Chomiak Leo W. Chomiak MSTX ‘86

Angela L. Christie JD ’93, LLMT ‘95

Roman Chychyla

John J. Coleman BBA ’11

Camila M. Cote BBA ‘94

Eric Coombs

Crowe Horwath LLP

Shirley Dennis-Escoffier BBA ’73, MBA ’75, PhD ‘81

James T. Deiotte BBA ’11

Jeffrey J. Deptula AB ’82

Jeston Dumas

Madeline F. Elias BBA ’95, MBA ‘97

Eloise Kimmelman Foundation

Ernst & Young LLP

Ernst & Young Foundation

Diana Falsetta

Miguel G. Farra AB ’75, JD ‘78

George I. Fernandez BBA ’87, MBA ‘96

Carla Finley

Don W. Finn Toni J. Finn

Fleet Advantage LLC

Larry Fletcher

Brett Friedman MBA ‘94

Ned A. Ford

Alan N. Garcia BBA ’96, MBA ‘97

Mikel Gastaminsa BBA ’12

We extend our deepest thanks to our donors, whose gifts are essential to all the work we do at the School of Business Department of Accounting. On behalf of all of our students, faculty and staff, thank you for your generous gifts to support the department this year.

THANK YOU TO OUR 2014-2015 DONORS

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Grant Thornton LLP

Grant Thornton Foundation

Debra Greenberg Ronald Greenberg

Tony Gutierrez BBA ’95, MSTX ‘97 Jacqueline Gutierrez

Cristina M. Hale BBA ’04, MSTX ‘05

Shavaugn C. Hegley BBA ’88

Elaine Henry

Jane J. Herron

Connie R. Hestdalen BBA ’96, MPRA ‘97

Sidney D. Holland BBA ’73

Jasmine N. Holmes BBA ’14, MACC ‘14

Jean S. Hutzler Jeffery C. Hutzler

Elizabeth L. M. Iszler BBA ’88 Timothy J. Iszler BBA ’89

Laurie Kahn Marc A. Kahn JD ’77

Elliot S. Kessler BBA ’87, MSTX ‘88

Adam S. Korenfield BBA ’00

KPMG Foundation

KPMG LLP

John R. Lambert

Jose S. Lamela Jr. BBA ‘86

Nelson J. Lane BBA ’81 Vivian H. Lane

Cynthia G. Leiva BBA ’02, MSTX ‘03

Andrew J. Leone Karen A. Leone

Carolina B. Levine BBA ’92 Seth Levine BBA ’84, MPRA ’85, MBA ‘90

Ann S. Lieff

Hillelene S. Lustig BBA ’55

Mark A. Margulies BBA ’89, MSTX ‘90

Isabel M. Marini BBA ’85, MPRA ‘96

MasTec Inc.

Marisol M. Messir BBA ’97, MBA ‘99

Michael L. Milligan BBA ’93

Mitchell International Realty

Morrison, Brown, Argiz & Farra LLC

Jay D. Mussman BBA ’85, JD ’88

Sonia E. Narvaez BBA ’94

Boris N. Nedeff BBA ’05

Stephen H. Nesi

Claire B. Newlin BBA ’90 James Newlin Sr.

Nancy G. Pastroff MED ’66

Matt S. Pattullo BBA ’95

Pepper Hamilton LLP

George L. Pita BBA ’83

PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP

Barbara M. Pruitt Peter T. Pruitt

William D. Pruitt Jr. BBA ’66

Doris Z. Pujol Henry L. Pujol BBA ’89, MBA ‘94

Humberto M. Reboredo BBA ’97

Louis M. Reidenberg BBA ’61

Rosalind Zacks

Richard Sacher

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

Barth Satuloff BBA ’67, MBA ‘69

Doris W. Sirkin JD ’49 Leon Sirkin

Jennifer R. Smith BBA ’91, MSTX ‘92

Aaron Solomon BBA ’04

Anne E. R. Sopshin BSED ’85 Jeffrey A. Sopshin BBA ’86

Richard S. Staveley BBA ’90, MBA ‘97

Robert H. Sweet BBA ’65

Toyota of South Florida

Tracie A. Volpe BBA ’98

David Vorrath

Eric H. Weisbrod

Pam M. Westberg

The William D. Pruitt Jr. Living Trust

Amy M. Wilson BSHS ’11

Ya-Wen Yang

Raymond J. Zomerfeld BBA ’81, MSTX ‘89

WE NEED YOUR HELPWe depend on the generosity of our alumni, partners and friends to continue to support our strong academic programs, help fund faculty research, attract and retain the top faculty in our field, attract the best students at every level and provide financial support to our students. As we work to increase the Department of Accounting endowment, your support is crucial.

Please make a donation to the department, either by calling the School’s Office of Alumni Relations and Development at (305) 284-4052 or via the School’s website at bus.miami.edu/gift. Click “Give Online” and under “Designation,” select The Accounting Department from the drop-down menu.

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In 1980, Richard Berkowitz set out to build a great place to work, where people could pursue fulfilling careers and provide outstanding service to clients with even the most complicated prob-lems. Thirty-five years later, his certified public accounting firm has done that and more.

Berkowitz Pollack Brant has more than 200 accountants, specialists and consultants, making it one of the largest accounting firms in South Florida and one of the top 100 in the United States. Berkowitz, an alumnus of the University of Miami School of Law, expects the firm’s rev-enues to exceed $50 million in 2015 — and the firm recruits heavily from the University.

“We have several dozen firm members who hold degrees from [the University]. The school attracts very smart students who understand the interesting ways that Miami works,” says Berkowitz, CEO of the firm that bears his name. “This is not a traditional city with big public com-panies; it’s more entrepreneurial and creative. The mix of cultures and backgrounds and

comfort with diversity are also traits that we want within our firm.”

The firm created a scholarship for accounting students in memory of its late business partner, Barry Dick, who passed away in 1998. Berkowitz calls him an “important figure” in the firm and someone who had a positive impact on everyone he met. Dick, he explains, understood the multicul-tural future better than anyone.

“Barry was a pioneer in the world of interna-tional tax accounting. It barely existed when he started focusing on this type of work. He shared his skills with young accountants in the firm, and today we are recognized as one of the top inter-national tax firms in the southeast U.S. This is Barry’s legacy,” says Berkowitz, who is heavily involved in his community and has received a wide array of honors and awards for his contribu-tions to the business community and philanthropic support of organizations. “He loved the University of Miami, and it was a fitting tribute to a man who made such an impact on our firm, our firm members and the international tax profession.”

So how has the firm survived and thrived through the ups and downs of the Florida econo-my? The firm’s people-centric, family-centric corporate culture is vital to its success. From day one, Berkowitz focused on building a transparent management team that could grow together. The industry has taken notice. Florida Trend has named the firm one of the best companies to work for in the state for four consecutive years. Location is another key factor. The firm special-izes in helping entrepreneurs build companies, but it also has diverse practice areas like real estate, health care and international — all critical industries in the region.

“We have been fortunate to anticipate and weather the downturns. We opened our Boca Raton office on January 1, 2008, and have taken advantage of opportunities when they became available,” says Berkowitz, noting that University of Miami has been part of his success. “Account-ing is an apprenticeship profession. Hiring smart young accountants and teaching them how to service clients creatively and as consultants is the way our firm grows and thrives.” n

ALUMNI

RICHARD BERKOWITZ’S SECRETS TO ACCOUNTING SUCCESSBY JENNIFER LECLAIRE

(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2)

CLASS NOTES

Michelle Zanzuri Zuckerman (BBA ’03, MBA ’06) was promoted to supervisor in MBAF’s tax and accounting practice. Michelle Zanzuri Zuckerman and Andrew Zuckerman also celebrated the birth of their son, Jacob William Zuckerman, on June 26, 2015: 7 lbs., 11 oz., 20.5 inches.

Jessica Sanders Bodie (MST ’04) was promoted to director in Grant Thornton’s tax practice in Ft. Lauderdale.

Raixel Francisco (BBA ’04) joined Cherry Bekaert’s litigation department.

Laura Jennings (MST ’04), a tax associate at Berkowitz Pollack Brant, was married on January 30, 2015 in Miami.

Ana Long (BBA ’04) was promoted to manager in KPMG’s tax practice.

Katie French (BBA ’05), Deloitte advisory, practice married fellow UM alum Dustin Regan on June 20, 2015.

Ana Wendelken (MAcc ’05) was promoted to manager at Cherry Bekaert.


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With the increasing demand for forensic accountants and fraud investigators, the University of Miami School of Business is getting creative to equip the next generation for the international business scene.

One of the culminations of the accounting department’s forensic accounting class, for example, is a presentation of how they investigated a case. The students serve as expert witnesses in a mock trial.

“This presentation brings together many of the skills the students will need in a career in forensic accounting, and any other field they may choose,” says Katherine Newman, an expert in forensic accounting/fraud investigation and University adjunct faculty member who teaches the course. “Students practice making presentations in front of a group so they can get comfortable with public speaking.”

STUDENTS

NEW FIVE-YEAR SENIOR SPRING INTERNSHIP PROGRAM PROVIDES STUDENTS ROBUST EXPERIENCEAs those familiar with the profession’s compliance cycle know full well, the first few months of every year are the busiest. So what better time to offer students a full-immersion internship that will keep them competitive in the job market while allowing them to still acquire both undergrad and graduate accounting degrees in just five years.

Those are key reasons behind the accounting department’s new Five-Year Accounting Program with Senior Year Internship that was launched late last fall. “Firms want interns to get their feet wet during that busy time,” says Department Chair Sundaresh Ramnath. “They get help with the heavy workload, and the interns get to see what it’s all about.”

The Big Four — large global, national and regional public

accounting firms — are participating in the program along with some large private companies in the community. Typically recruiting talent a year in advance, the firms have already interviewed and selected their candidates; seniors who participate in this program will spend about 10 weeks training and working with engagement teams on real-life audit and tax clients.

“They will perform like any other first-year staff on the engagement team,” says Camila Cote (BBA ’94), an assurance partner at Ernst & Young’s Miami office. “What’s unique about this program is that, because we are so incredibly busy during those months, their opportunity for seeing diverse types of clients is much greater.”

While the firms certainly benefit from having more able hands on deck, the value to interns from the program is indispensable — especially considering that internships are often a direct pipeline to full-time employment. “It’s like a prolonged interview, on both sides,” Cote adds. “It’s a great opportunity for the interns to validate their career choice and get a true picture of what their future is going to look like.” — by Bob Woods n

STUDENTS

FORENSIC ACCOUNTING STUDENTS BECOME EXPERT WITNESSES IN MOCK TRIALBY JENNIFER LECLAIRE

As Newman sees it, the department’s forensics accounting course is unique because it analyzes current examples in the news to determine the stakeholders, red flags, how the issue could have been prevented, how corporate culture contributed, what internal controls could safeguard corporations in the future, and how to assess damages and remedies.

“Since we usually have students of many nationalities in our class, they learn other points of view and help each other when there are cultural differences,” Newman says. “For example, the justice system in many other countries is very different from the U.S., so our foreign students are getting good exposure to our system, and our U.S. students are learning how different it can be in other countries.”

Newman offered a laundry list of benefits accounting students gain from the mock trial, including organizing a complex set of

data into something jurors and lawyers can understand; the importance of meticulous quality control so they can maintain credibility; designing visual aids to help jurors understand complex situations; researching how markets, economic conditions and tax law affects business; and learning how to make supportable assumptions.

“Throughout the whole semester, including this mock trial, we talk about integrity and ethics,” Newman says. “Given the proliferation of fraud and theft in business and government in the U.S. and globally, we need to start changing the culture so that it is no longer acceptable to perpetrate fraud or to ignore the red flags and allow it to go on.” n

12



CLASS NOTES

Cristina Gomez-Cruz (BBA ’06, MST ’07) was promoted to supervisor in MBAF’s tax and accounting practice. Cristina Gomez and Gonzalo Segnini also celebrated the birth of their daughter, Victoria Segnini.

Stacy Nagy (BBA ’06) joined Deloitte’s consulting - S&O practice.

Jaclyn Hessel (BS ’07) joined KPMG as a senior associate on the campus recruiting team.

Rachel Oster (BA ’07) was promoted to manager in Deloitte’s advisory practice.

David Acevedo (BBA ’08) was promoted to senior in MBAF’s assurance practice.

Jeffrey Cooperman (BSBA ’08) was promoted to manager in KPMG’s assurance practice.

Kelly Calisto (BBA ’09, MAcc ’10) was promoted to manager in Grant Thornton’s assurance practice in Ft. Lauderdale.

Michelle Garcia (BBA ’09, MST ’10) was promoted to manager in MBAF’s tax and accounting practice.


UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ACCOUNTING ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS

BOARD CHAIR:

Mark Margulies, BBA ’89, MSTX ’90 Florida Tax Practice Leader Grant Thornton LLP

MEMBERS:

Jamie Byington, BBA ’81 Partner Cherry Bekaert LLP

Camila Cote, BBA ’94 Partner Ernst & Young LLP

Madeline Elias, BS ’95, MBA, Tax ’96 Miami Managing Partner, Tax Services, BDO USA LLP

Miguel G. Farra, BA ’75, JD ’78 Tax and Accounting Chairman Morrison, Brown, Argiz & Farra LLC

Brett Friedman, MBA ‘94 Director McGladrey

Tony Gutierrez, BBA ’95, MSTX ’97 Associate Director, Tax Berkowitz Pollack Brant

John R. Lambert Partner KPMG LLP

Jose S. Lamela Jr., BBA ’86 Partner Crowe Horwath LLP

Isabel Marini, BBA ‘85, MPRA ‘86 Group Director, FMS Field Finance Ryder

Stephen Nesi Partner PwC

Ernie Perez Managing Director Global Practice Leader Transaction Tax Alvarez & Marsal Taxand LLC

From left to right: George Pita, Bill Pruitt, Jose Lamela, Timothy Iszler, Raymond Zomerfeld, Madeline Elias, Brett

Friedman, Jamie Byington, Mark Margulies, Peter Pruitt, Henry Pujol, Tony Gutierrez, Stephen Nesi.

SPECIAL THANK YOUWe would like to extend a special thank you to Timothy Izsler (BBA ’89) for his past service on the Accounting Advisory Board. We appreciate your many contributions and commitment to the Department of Accounting and the University.

George Pita, BBA ’82 CFO - Operations Mastec Inc.

Bill Pruitt, BBA ’66

Peter Pruitt Managing Partner, Florida and Puerto Rico Deloitte LLP

Henry Pujol, BBA ‘89, MBA ‘94 Senior Vice President Chief Accounting Officer Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

Raymond Zomerfeld, BBA ’81 Partner Vizcaino and Zomerfeld LLP

13


Maggie Alvarez Accounting Lecturer BA, Florida International University

Pietro A. Bianchi Assistant Professor of Accounting PhD, IE Business School

Khrystyna Bochkay Assistant Professor of Accounting PhD, Rutgers University

Joe Bylinski Part-time Accounting Lecturer PhD, The Ohio State University

Leo Chomiak Part-time Accounting Lecturer MST, University of Miami

Roman Chychyla Assistant Professor PhD, Rutgers University

Jacklyn A. Collins Accounting Lecturer MPA, University of Miami; MBA, St. John’s University

Shirley Dennis-Escoffier Associate Professor of Accounting PhD, University of Miami

Diana Falsetta Associate Professor of Accounting PhD, University of South Carolina

Mark Friedman Associate Professor of Accounting PhD, New York University

Maria Fogarty Part-time Accounting Lecturer BS, University of Florida

Joe Genovese Part-time Accounting Lecturer BBA, Niagara University

Oscar Holzmann Associate Professor of Accounting PhD, Pennsylvania State University

FACULTY AND LECTURER LISTINGUNIVERSITY OF MIAMI SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ACCOUNTING FACULTY

FACULTY EDITORIAL BOARD ACTIVITY

Diana Falsetta Editorial Board, Journal of the American Taxation Association Editorial Board, Advances in Accounting Behavioral Research

Miguel Minutti-Meza Editorial Board, Journal of Accounting Research Editorial Board, Contemporary Accounting Research Editorial Board, Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory

DJ Nanda Editorial Board, Contemporary Accounting Research Editorial Board, Journal of Management Accounting Research

Sundaresh Ramnath Editor, Accounting Horizons

EDITORIAL BOARD POSITIONS

Adam Korenfield Part-time Accounting Lecturer MST, University of Miami

Andrew Leone Vice Dean of Faculty and Arthur P. Metzger Professor of Accounting PhD, University of Pittsburgh

Seth Levine Accounting Lecturer MPrA, MBA, University of Miami

Daniel Medina Part-time Accounting Lecturer MAcc, IT, Florida International University

Miguel Angel Minutti-Meza Assistant Professor of Accounting PhD, University of Toronto

Dhananjay Nanda Professor of Accounting PhD, University of Rochester

Katherine Newman Part-time Accounting Lecturer BSBA, University of Florida

Mario Perez Accounting Lecturer MST, Florida International University

Lawrence Phillips Emeritus Professor of Accounting PhD, The Ohio State University

Olga Quintana Associate Professor of Accounting DBA, George Washington University

Sundaresh Ramnath Department Chair and Associate Professor of Accounting PhD, Pennsylvania State University

Juan M. Rodriguez Accounting Lecturer MPA, University of Miami

Avi Rushinek Associate Professor of Accounting PhD, University of Texas at Austin

Manuel Sicre Accounting Lecturer MBA, St. Thomas University

Kay Tatum Associate Professor of Accounting PhD, Texas Tech University

Eric Weisbrod Assistant Professor PhD, Arizona State University

Michael Werner Accounting Lecturer MPrA, University of Miami

Michael Willenborg Visiting Accounting Professor PhD, Pennsylvania State University

Peter Wysocki Professor of Accounting PhD, University of Rochester


CLASS NOTES


Richard A. Lavina (BBA ’09), in PwC’s leasing and insurance practice, is celebrating his five-year anniversary with the firm.

Gabriela Garcia Todoroff (BBA ’09, MST ’10) was promoted to manager in Deloitte’s tax practice.

Christy Castillo (BBA ‘10) joined Ryder System as a senior accounting analyst.

Christopher J. Gonzalez (BBA ’10) was promoted to manager in KPMG’s assurance practice.

14



CLASS NOTES

Rob Maccarone (BBA ’10, MST ’11) transferred to Deloitte’s mergers and acquisitions tax practice.

Alicia Mucci (BBA ’10) transferred to KPMG’s financial management group in the firm’s management consulting practice.

Charles Walker (BSBA ’10) joined Deloitte’s advisory practice as a senior consultant after four years with Goldman Sachs.

Susana Buhler (MAcc ’11) was promoted to semi-senior in MBAF’s tax and accounting practice.

Michael Gohari (BBA ’11), in KPMG’s assurance -technology practice, was elected president of the NY ’Canes community. If you are in New York, please reach out!

Mike Bakutes (BSBA ’12, MSA ’13) was promoted to Senior Consultant and transferred from Deloitte’s assurance practice to financial accounting securitization and valuation services in advisory practice.

Cori LeDoux (MST ’12) was promoted to senior associate in KPMG’s tax practice.

Gregory Marx (MST ’12) was promoted to senior accountant in Cherry Bekaert’s tax practice.


STUDENTS

SCHOOL STUDENTS CONTINUE TRADITION OF WINNING FICPA SCHOLARSHIPSThree School of Business accounting students earned 2014 scholarships from the FICPA Educational Foundation. Part of the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants (FICPA), the foundation raises money from individual FICPA chapters around the state for the scholar-ships. Each chapter earmarks its donation to support scholarships for students in its region, and the foundation selects the recipients. Univer-sity of Miami School of Business accounting students are consistently selected as recipients of these scholarship awards, which is a testament to their commitment to academic excellence.

“The cost of an education is always rising, and we want anyone who has the desire to work in accounting to have the opportunity to attend the best schools and learn so they can come in and work for us one day,” says Amanda Bonifay, 2014-2015 chair of the Miami-Downtown chapter of the FICPA and a director at Goldstein Schechter Koch. — by Rochelle Broder-Singer n

George Gulisano, President, FICPA Miami-Dade Chapter

(BBA ’82), Hannah Barquin (BBA ’14, MST ’14) Laura

Fiacco (BBA ’15) and Jasmine Holmes (BBA ’14, MAcc

’14) at the 2014 FICPA Educational Foundation Ocean

Reef Family Retreat, where they were presented with

their scholarship awards.

FACULTY AWARDS AND HONORS• Pietro Bianchi

Best Paper Award – International Accounting Section 2015 Midyear Meeting (with Diana Falsetta, Miguel Minutti-Meza and Eric Weisbrod)

• Shirley Dennis-Escoffier University of Miami’s Excellence in Teaching Award, Master of Taxation Program, Class of December 2014 and Class of May 2015

• Diana Falsetta Best Paper Award – International Accounting Section 2015 Midyear Meeting (with Pietro Bianchi, Miguel Minutti-Meza and Eric Weisbrod)

• Miguel Minutti-Meza SBA’s Junior Faculty

Research Award 2015 – Walter C. Johnson Assistant Professorship Best Paper Award – International Accounting Section 2015 Midyear Meeting (with Pietro Bianchi, Diana Falsetta and Eric Weisbrod) Provost Research Award 2014

• DJ Nanda Outstanding Management Accounting Paper Award at the 2015 AAA Annual Meeting for “Corporate Social Responsibility an Agency Problem? Evidence from CEO Turnovers,” co-authored with John Barrios and Marco Fasan

• Sundaresh Ramnath University of Miami’s

Excellence in Teaching Award, Selected by the Professional MBA Class of June 2014. University of Miami’s Master of Accounting Excellence in Teaching Award, December 2014

• Eric Weisbrod Best Paper Award – International Accounting Section 2015 Midyear Meeting (with Pietro Bianchi, Diana Falsetta and Miguel Minutti-Meza)

• Michael Werner University of Miami’s Excellence in Teaching Award, Masters of Accounting Program, Class of May 2015

15


Freshman and sophomore accounting students at the School are typically a bright bunch, absorbing their coursework like sponges. Nonetheless, they’re often unsure about which accounting specialty — tax, audit or advisory — to pursue as upperclassmen or in one of the department’s master’s programs, let alone out in the real world.

That common quandary was the impetus for an informative panel event held in September 2014 in which partners from more than a dozen accounting firms spoke with nearly 80 students — the majority of them in their first or second year of the undergraduate program — about the profession. “Most of those students haven’t taken

specialized courses yet, so they have limited knowledge about what area they’d like to concentrate in,” says Diana Falsetta, an associate professor in the School’s accounting department and who helped organize the first of what has already been slotted as an annual confab.

The gathering, held at Newman Alumni Center, kicked off with an informal meet-and-greet session. Then the partners — hailing from the accounting firms that regularly recruit on campus and some of whom serve on the department’s advisory board — were equally divided into three panels, representing the three specialties.

“The panelists talked about their own career paths, their area of expertise and what they

do on a daily basis,” Falsetta says, adding that she wished such an eye-opening get-together had been available when she was an accounting student. Each panel discussion was followed by a lively Q&A period.

“One consistent message from all the panelists was how much the accounting profession is about people and relationships,” Falsetta says. “Providing expert services is critical, of course, but we need to maintain solid relationships with clients as well.”

Following the panel portion of the evening, the attendees assembled informally for pizza, cold drinks and more networking. The initial feedback, from partners and students, was overwhelmingly positive, Falsetta reports. — by Bob Woods n

STUDENTS

FIRM PANELISTS GIVE STUDENTS CAREER ADVICE


CLASS NOTES

Mike Paulosky (BSBA ’13, MST ’13) was promoted to senior associate in Grant Thornton’s tax practice in Ft. Lauderdale.

Jessica Savin (MAcc ’13), an associate at Berkowtiz Pollack Brant, received her CPA license on April 30, 2015.

Ziyue Xie (MST ’13) was promoted to semi-senior in MBAF’s tax and accounting practice.

Daniel Kaminker (BSBA ’14) was promoted to associate II in Grant Thornton’s assurance practice in New York City.

Max Keil (BSBA ’14) began his career at Berkowitz Pollack Brant in November 2014.

Benny Taveras (BSBA ’14, MACC ’15) started as an associate in Grant Thornton’s international tax practice in Miami.

16


Mike Willenborg is the Richard F. Kochanek Professor of Ac-counting at the University of Connecticut. He received his PhD in accounting from The Pennsylvania State University and was a senior manager at KPMG prior to returning to academia. He currently serves, or has served, as editor or editorial board member of most top accounting journals and has published numerous articles in premier journals in accounting and finance. Mike is also an exceptional teacher; he was voted “MBA Core Teacher of the Year” for 13 of the 14 years he taught in the MBA program at the University of Connecticut. He has received numerous

FACULTY

VISITING PROFESSOR AND NEW PART-TIME LECTURERSother awards for his exemplary teaching. Mike is joining us as a visiting professor for the 2015-16 academic year.

NEW PART-TIME LECTURERS Joe Bylinski graduated with a PhD in accounting from The Ohio State University and was an associate professor at Uni-versity of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He has served as a consul-tant for leading multinational corporations and has provided expert legal testimony in several cases. Joe teaches Financial Statement Analysis.

Maria Fogarty was the senior vice president of internal audit and compliance for NextEra Energy Inc., prior to joining the School as a part-time lecturer for the new internal auditing class that she helped develop. Maria graduated from the University of Florida with a BS in accounting and worked with Touche Ross & Co., prior to joining NextEra. Maria teaches Internal Auditing.

Joe Genovese was an audit and transaction advisory partner when he retired after 33 years at Ernst & Young. He has since served as a consultant at EY and was an associate director in the inspection division of the PCAOB. Joe obtained his BBA in account-ing from Niagara University and is a CPA. Joe teaches Auditing.

Adam Korenfield (BBA ’00) started his career at Arthur Andersen before moving to BDO USA LLP, where he is currently a senior tax director. Adam gradu-ated from the University of Miami with a BBA and with an MS in Taxation from Florida Interna-tional University. Adam is a CPA and teaches Partnership Taxation and Seminar in Taxation.

Leo Chomiak (BBA ’85, MSTX ’86) is an international tax partner with Grant Thornton and has over 27 years of experience in the public accounting and private industry. Leo’s broad client-serving experience covers international taxes involving global business transformation engagements, including

post-acquisition integration, evaluating and implementing strategies focused on facilitating a client’s business goals and objectives in a tax-efficient manner, and evaluating and implementing structured financ-ing strategies. Leo graduated from the University of Miami with a BBA and a Master of Science in Taxation and is a CPA. Leo teaches Taxation of Multina-tional Corporations.

Daniel Medina is a director in Berkeley Research Group’s Global Investigations & Strategic Intelligence practice in Miami. Dan provides forensic investiga-tion, forensic technology, forensic accounting and litiga-tion support services to companies, attorneys and gov-ernment agencies. Dan graduated from Florida Interna-tional University with a BBA and a Master of Accounting in Infor-mation Systems and is a certified fraud examiner and a certified anti-money-laundering specialist. Dan teaches Foren-sics Accounting. n

RESEARCH

A STUDY IN SHARINGHOW AUDITORS IN ITALY SHARE TAX-SAVING STRATEGIES, AND WHY AN AUDITOR WITH BETTER INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS CAN MEAN LOWER COMPANY TAXES.In Italy, where tax rates are even higher than in the U.S., tax strategies may be spread by individual auditors through their own professional networks, according to research presented by School of Business faculty at the Florida Accounting Symposium. Accounting faculty members Pietro Bianchi, Miguel Minutti-Meza, Eric Weisbrod and Diana Falsetta took an archival approach, looking at audit engagements in Italy.

“Our study indicated that the spread of tax savings strategies via social networks happens internationally and is not specific to U.S. corporations or the U.S. tax code,” noted Weisbrod. “Another finding was that firms engaging better-connected auditors exhibited

comparatively lower effective tax rates.”Bianchi, co-author of the study “Auditor Networks and Tax

Avoidance: Evidence from Private Firms,” presented the team’s findings at the symposium. He explained that under the framework established by the Italian Board of Statutory Auditors, three to five accountants from different firms work closely together on corporate audits, and then issue a collective opinion. “That structure allowed us to analyze the networks of individual auditors,” Bianchi said. “We found that the transfer of knowledge occurs between individuals and not necessarily between firms.”

For small private companies, the auditor is one of a small number of outside financial experts who interact with management, noted Weisbrod. This puts an auditor in a position to advise on a number of issues, including tax strategy. “However, auditors who are influential in the auditor network have a professional reputation to uphold,” he added. “That means they might avoid providing clients advice about tax strategy if any of the strategies would be aggressive or could impair the auditor’s independence.” — by R.W. n

17


Since it seemed as though everyone in the financial services industry was swept up in the market euphoria fueled by the dotcoms in the late 1990s, a team of researchers wondered: Did that include the public accounting firms charged with assessing the viability of these Internet companies?

Andrew Leone, the School’s Arthur P. Metzger Professor of Accounting, explored that question with three co-authors, examining auditor going-concern (GC) opinions during this period. “Our question was this: While we could understand why investors got a little euphoric and companies got a little overly optimistic, shouldn’t auditors have noticed there was a cash problem with some of these companies and issued going-concern opinions at a higher rate than they did?” Leone says. Auditors issue a going-concern opinion when a

company’s financial condition is so weak or precarious that the auditors have doubts about the company’s ability to continue operating as a going concern.

The team examined a sample of 756 Initial Public Offering (IPO) filings from 1996 to 2000 and a sample of non-Internet IPO registrants. They were surprised to find that when there was a high volume of stressed Internet companies filing to go public — from January 1999 to April 2000 — the Big 5 auditing firms were less likely to render going-concern opinions. “To us, one explanation was that, like investors and other stakeholders, accounting firms also got caught up and were overly optimistic about the future of these companies,” Leone asks. “If they had stuck by their standard, historical assessment of companies, they might have flagged these companies as being a GC

company.” By flagging a company, auditors would have communicated that they had doubts about its financial sustainability.

The researchers point to the unique market conditions at play during the dotcom boom as a contributing factor for the lower number of going-concern opinions. Before the boom, the expectation was that a company would be profitable or on the verge of being profitable before going public. This was not the case during the boom, when many start-up companies running negative operating cash flows were still able to raise significant amounts of capital through IPOs, issuing more stock to optimistic investors or borrowing from optimistic lenders.

“This was a period where there was a sense that our financial fundamentals were no longer applicable. It was more about how much you were

making in sales as opposed to whether you were making a profit,” Leone says. “In defense of the accounting firms, it was tricky making an assessment of companies’ likelihood of surviving. The auditors could look around and see a lot of these companies were losing money but the hot stock market was making it likely they would still be able to raise money.”

Leone and his collaborators’ research does not suggest any reporting inaccuracies on the part of Big 5 firms, but they don’t let them off the hook completely, writing “While we do not suggest the Big 5 were a major cause of the Internet IPO bubble, it does seem these largest audit firms did little to slow it from inflating.”

The research, by Leone, Sarah Rice and Michael Willenborg from the University of Connecticut and Joseph Weber from MIT, came together in the article “How Do Auditors Behave During Periods of Market Euphoria? The Case of Internet IPOs,” which appeared in the spring 2013 issue of Contemporary Accounting Research.

Because economists have long been interested in studying such market bubbles and the potential for future bubbles, Leone believes these findings may be of interest to audit regulators and standard setters. “The lesson is that when we have these bubbles it’s hard not to get pulled into it — no matter what type of stakeholder you are,” Leone says. “It’s hard not to be a little bit more optimistic than you otherwise would be ... especially when your client is saying ‘all our competitors are raising money, so why wouldn’t you expect us to be able to do so as well?’” n

RESEARCH

BUBBLE TROUBLEWERE AUDIT DECISIONS AFFECTED BY THE RAMPANT OPTIMISM OF THE DOTCOM BOOM? BY JILL SCHOENIGER

18


STUDENTS

NEW INTERNAL AUDIT COURSE OFFERS INTERNSHIPSAn old adage sums up Maria Fogarty’s life in 2014: When one doors closes, an-other opens. In June of last year, Fogarty retired as senior vice president of internal audit and compliance for NextEra Energy, ending a 32-year career with the Juno Beach company. Just a few months later, she was a newly hired adjunct professor at the School, teaching Master of Accounting graduate students the department’s first-ever course on internal auditing.

“This is a very relevant course in today’s environment,” Fogarty says, alluding to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, a federal law requiring public companies to opine on internal controls over financial reporting. Congress passed the sweeping legislation

following several high-profile corporate and accounting scandals, most notably at Enron, Tyco and WorldCom.

Serendipitously, Fogarty knocked on the School’s door around the same time the department considered adding internal auditing to its Master of Accounting cur-riculum. “I approached the School, and they asked me to develop the course,” she recalls. “Coming from the corporate side, I knew that accounting newcomers would have to understand internal controls, so I brought a practical approach to teaching those principles.”

The curriculum takes that real-world element one giant step farther by allowing students who complete the course ACC 606 — now taught by Fogarty in the spring and fall semesters — to apply for a related spring internship. This year’s inaugural cohort was divided among six local partici-pants, including the University of Miami, Florida Power & Light (FPL, a subsidiary of NextEra), Ryder, Royal Caribbean, Mastec and Miami-Dade County. After working 40 hours initially, the interns spent eight hours

a week over the next two months con-ducting a real internal audit.

“It was like a television cooking show,” says Tony Maceo, FPL’s internal audit man-ager (and who worked under Fogarty). “Our interns were given all the different ingredi-ents and were expected to present a finished product. We had everything ready for them, then walked them through the process of how an internal audit is planned, executed, completed and reported.”

While the interns certainly benefited, it was a win-win experience, Maceo adds. “Our company’s leadership takes pride in community outreach, and this helped us build relationships with the University and its accounting students, and hopefully establish an employment pipeline going forward.”

As for Fogarty and her role, “it was difficult to develop the course without having taught before,” she admits, “but that part is over. Now I’m looking forward to interacting with the students, which I really enjoy.” — by Bob Woods n

Sam Abrams (BBA ’14, MAcc ’15) may have laid down his pitching glove for accounting software, but he hasn’t laid his Major League Baseball (MLB) aspirations to rest.

A graduate from the University of Miami with a bachelor’s degree and Master of Accounting, he still remembers the day he earned the nickname “Get-out-of-a-jam Sam.”

After some time off of the team, Abrams, a relief pitcher, had perfect timing for a great game. In the third inning of Coral Gables Super Regional game 2, the game was tied;

ALUMNI

‘GET-OUT-OF-A-JAM SAM’ HEADS TO GRANT THORNTONBY JENNIFER LECLAIRE

bases were loaded with nobody out. Abrams shut down Virginia Commonwealth University’s batters. The final score moved the Hurricanes on to the College World Series and was a big moment for Abrams. “A dream of mine since I was a little kid was to go to the College World Series in Omaha wearing a Miami Hurricanes uniform, and I knew it could happen on that day,” he recalls.

Now his accounting career begins. Abrams began working at Grant Thornton in September as an audit associate. But his ultimate goal is to work in the

front office of a MLB team. “Ever since I was a little kid

I always envisioned working in baseball, whether as a player or on the business side,” Abrams says. “So combining baseball and business together in my career is definitely my goal.”

Abrams sees plenty of correlations between baseball and accounting, including work ethic, which he strengthened while playing Hurricanes baseball. “Whether it was 5:30 a.m. running or working out five days a week, we learned what hard work was all about, and we did it together as a

team,” he says.That conduct will serve him

well in the accounting field, and getting a start at Grant Thornton — one of the world’s leading organizations for independent audit tax and advisory firms — will lay a strong foundation for his MLB goals.

“I have a couple close family friends that are accountants, and they steered me in the direction of accounting,” Abrams says. “They told me it was the best place to begin a career in business, because with this degree I could go many different directions in my career.” n

19


Lawrence C. Phillips — or Larry, as he became fondly known during his 26 years as a respected and well-liked mem-ber of the accounting department’s faculty — passed away on January 20 at the age of 76. During his tenure, from 1985 until his retirement as professor emeritus in 2011, Phillips served as chair of the department and interim dean of the School of Business Admin-istration. Above all, he was recognized as an exceptional educator, regarded for his integrity, humble nature and continual quest for knowledge.

“The people who knew Larry, whether his colleagues or students, appreciated his pas-sion for taxation and accounting,” says Kay Tatum, his surviving spouse and her-self an admired associate professor of accounting in the department since 1986. While Phillips’ academic credentials

PHILLIPS SCHOLARSHIP MEMORIALIZES ESTEEMED PROFESSOR

were indubitable — he also served as president of the American Taxation Association and as editor and co-author of several taxation textbooks — “two words people used over and over again to describe Larry are ‘professional’ and ‘gentleman,’” Tatum says.

To further Phillips’ legacy, a scholarship fund has been established in his honor. The Lawrence C. Phillips Memorial Endowed Scholarship in Taxa-tion Fund will celebrate his life and contributions to the School by helping students achieve the same high level of education their predecessors enjoyed. Specifically, the fund will award Master of Science in Taxation students with tuition and

expenses while pursuing their MST degree.

“I took several undergraduate classes with Dr. Phillips, and thanks to him, I got into the Master in Tax program,” recalls Melissa Valls Stansbury (BBA ’06, MST ’07), currently the interna-tional tax manager at FedEx’s Caribbean and Latin American headquarters in Miami. “Even though my GMAT scores were not great, he said the fact that I was a straight-A student was more important to him. That really meant the world to me, given that as an international student from Venezuela, it was my goal and my dream to stay in Miami. He was a great person, and I’m sure he will truly be missed by his students.”

“HE WAS A GREAT PERSON, AND I’M SURE HE WILL TRULY BE MISSED BY HIS STUDENTS.” – Melissa Valls Stansbury

Phillips’ zeal for education rubbed off on family members as well. Laura Phillips Bever, one of his two daughters, earned a master’s in account-ing from the University of Florida and had a career at Ernst & Young, while her sister, Julia Phillips, received a PhD in psychology from Ohio State. “Larry’s granddaughter, who is pursuing accounting at Saint Mary’s College of California, recently texted me that she had been offered internships by both Deloitte and PwC,” Tatum reports, “and his grandson got an A+ in his first accounting course at Purdue University.”

Phillips had envisioned an eponymous scholarship when he retired, and after his pass-ing, Andrew Leone, the School’s vice dean of faculty and the Arthur P. Metzger Professor of Accounting — and whom Phillips had recruited in 2008 — moved the idea forward. To date, nearly $37,000 has been donated to the fund, but to create an endowment of life-long benefit, a minimum initial funding of $50,000 must be contributed.

To make a contribution, checks payable to the Univer-sity of Miami (with “Lawrence Phillips Endowed Scholarship” on the memo line) can be mailed to University of Miami School of Business, 5250 Uni-versity Drive, Jenkins 215, Coral Gables, FL 33146. Donors can also make secure contributions online at miami.edu/larryphillips.

Gifts of all sizes will be greatly appreciated. The names of donors giving $2,500 and above will be included on a special memorial plaque honoring Phillips, to be displayed in the department offices. n

University of MiamiP.O. Box 248092Coral Gables, FL 33124-6537

NON-PROFITORGANIZATION

U.S. POSTAGEP A I D

MIAMI, FLORIDAPERMIT NO. 438

RE-CONNECT WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF ACCOUNTING

TELL US ABOUT

WE NEED YOUR HELP GIFTS OF TREASURE

Name______________________________ Degree/Year __________________________________ Major_______________________

Company Name__________________________________________________ Title_________________________________________________

Business Address_________________________________________________ City/State/Zip_________________________________________

Business Phone___________________ Fax_____________________ Email________________________________________________

Home Address____________________________________________________ City/State/Zip_________________________________________

Home Phone_____________________ Preferred Mailing Address (please check one): Home Work

We depend on the generosity of our alumni, partners and friends to continue to support our strong academic programs, attract the best students at every level, provide financial support to our students, help fund faculty research, and attract and retain the top faculty in our field. YES, I want to support the department with a gift of $_____________

PAYMENT I have enclosed my check payable to the University of Miami Department of Accounting. I am requesting a one-time charge on my credit card listed. I would like to be billed on the credit card listed for the total amount of $______ to be paid in _____ monthly installments of $__________ starting ___/___ (mo/yr) and ending in ___/___ (mo/yr) MasterCard VISA American Express Discover Card Number ________________________ Exp Date______________ Name as it Appears on Card__________________________________ Signature ____________________________Date _________________

GIFTS ONLINETo make your donation online, visit bus.miami.edu/gift Designation - Accounting Department.

GIFTS BY PHONE, STOCKS & SECURITIES, ESTATE PLANNING & PLANNED GIFTSPlease call the office of Alumni Relations & Development at 305-284-4052 for assistance in making a gift or for more information about planned giving opportunities.

GIFTS OF TIME AND TALENTMentor Program (a year-long one-to-one mentoring relationship with a student). Learn more at bus.miami.edu/mentor. Please contact me about opportunities.

RETURNING THIS FORMCut along dotted line and return to us in the attached self-addressed, postage-paid envelope.

accounting miami · ’97, macc ’99, jd ’02) joined deloitte’s anti-money-laundering...

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