UC I Accounti ng
Bulletin
Fall 2014, 1st Edition
News and Research from UC Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business Accounting Area
Welcome and Introductions
I
interests and even a summary of their
current research. We often hear that
people outside academe have no idea
of what we work on or do when not in
the classroom teaching—no, we do not
sit in our offices and try to make up new
ways of doing debits and credits nor new
journal entries. I hope you find these short
summaries informative.
We also have a page devoted to our Accounting
PhD program and information about our Master and
Undergraduate program and student activities. It is fun
being at a top-tier research university—you get to be
around smart faculty and smart students on a daily basis
doing things you love.
I hope you find the bulletin informative and will plan to
visit the school in the near future. Please drop me a line if
you have any comments at tshevlin@uci.edu. I also would
like to thank Patricia Wellmeyer and Lina Tran for taking
charge of the organization of this issue—such a publication
does not happen without a lot of work and coordination.
Now back to my research and supervision of PhD students.
t is with great pleasure that we present this first Accounting Bulletin from The Paul Merage School of Business
at the University of California, Irvine, highlighting the
faculty, students, programs and research being done at
the business school. Production of this first issue coincides with the completion of the first year of our highly
successful Master of Professional Accountancy (MPAc)
program in which we graduated 54 students. The faculty
and staff have worked very hard to develop and deliver
a high quality program. I would like to thank faculty Mort
Pincus and Patricia Wellmeyer and staff Burt Slusher, Lina
Tran, Becky Medina and Jacqueline Rodio for all their hard
work. Teaching in the program this past spring, I found the
students to be conscientious and interested in the material—taxes and business strategy.
Much is going on at the school and within the accounting
department. The cover shows our new building as envisioned
by the architects, which will add needed classrooms, team
rooms and open space for all our students. Daily, I supervised
(well watched with fascination) construction from my office
window. It also features an Au Bon Pain Café and a small
Starbucks—but if it is anything like the other Starbucks on
campus, the lines will be long!
I strongly encourage you to take the time to read (or
just browse) the remainder of this issue. You will find brief
bios on all the faculty including their research and teaching
Professor Terry Shevlin
Paul Merage Chair in Business
Faculty Director, PhD Program
Accounting Area Coordinator
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ISSUES FACING
THE ACCOUNTING
PROFESSION
“We live in a ‘VUCA’ world today which is: Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and
Ambiguous. So that’s the VUCA world we live in and it requires different
skills than, for example, people leading companies in the ‘90s and the early
part of the 21st century.”
—Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever
The Financial Reporting Environment Today
The accounting landscape as it stands and is developing today is very different
from the landscape that existed as recent as even a decade ago. Once thought to
be mainly by-products of economic swings and dealt with on a reactionary basis
by the profession, the increased globalization and complexities of the current
business environment have made uncertainty and ambiguity ever prevalent
considerations in financial accounting and reporting. Most of the items you see
on the current agendas of major regulators (FASB, IASB, PCAOB, AICPA) are
calls to action to identify ways/mechanisms in which to effectively and efficiently
deal with the uncertainties and intricacies brought about by rapid advancements
in technology such as enterprise systems/big data and continuous monitoring
and cloud capabilities, the development of new and more globalized forms of
business exchange and revenue streams, and the ever growing overload and
difficulty of rules/standards surrounding recognition and disclosure of the above
in financial reports.
While with the recent completion and/or near completion of several major
technical projects (namely, the completion and issuance of a new converged
revenue recognition standard earlier this year and near completion of new lease
accounting and financial instrument classification and measurement standards),
the FASB and IASB have shown progression towards addressing some of the
measurement/recognition issues brought about by the uncertainties noted
above, many more issues remain open and/or in early stages of being addressed.
Specifically, of prime importance on the FASB’s and PCAOB’s current list of
objectives is the seemingly challenging goal of increasing the transparency
and relevance of disclosures provided in financial reports (including thorough
enhancements to the auditor opinion) while simplifying, and thereby, increasing
their understandability to the investing public.
Whether the profession will ever achieve this objective and/or be able to
effectively deal with the ongoing challenges brought about by the fast-paced
and increasingly complex nature of the accounting and business landscapes
we face today, only time will tell. One thing is certain in the midst of all of
this uncertainty, however— organizations will be turning more and more to
accounting professionals to deal with these changes and complexities. Those
of us in or aspiring to enter the accounting world (i.e. students, professionals,
educators/researchers) will need to learn and seek out answers to problems
faster than the rate of change to succeed. We will need to continue to work
at our abilities to acquire new skills and embrace new technologies through
education and collaboration. Only then will we be able to stay ahead of and
effectively deal with whatever accounting uncertainties tomorrow’s business
environment brings us next.
– Patricia Wellmeyer
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Summary of Squar
Milner event
On October 24, 2014
The Paul Merage
School of
Business held a
first of its kind
audit committee
conference aimed
at providing the
audit committee
community with
informative updates on significant
changes in the audit and financial
reporting environments. The
conference was a collaborative effort between the school’s
accounting area and its sponsors,
Squar Milner, Paul Hastings,
AON, Pondel Wilkinson, and RR
Donnelley, and featured Jay Hanson,
PCAOB Board Member as keynote
speaker, and a number of experts
participating in panel discussions on
the following important topics:
• The recent PCAOB proposal to
expand the auditor reporting
obligation beyond the financial
statements. Like the SarbanesOxley Act requirements of 12
years ago, this proposal augments
disclosure by auditors to a level not
seen in the U.S., with the potential
to significantly increase audit costs
and legal exposure.
• The sweeping changes to the
revenue standards issued in June
2014. This standard will pervasively
change how revenue is recognized
and the back-up systems, contracts
and documentation necessary to
support it.
• New increased compliance and
internal control requirements
for public companies resulting
from the recent revision to the
20-year old COSO framework.
These changes become effective
this year.
FACULTY BIOS
transactions, review of press releases, 10K, 10Q, 8K, Annual
Reports and other SEC filings. Her work in the Advisory practice involved evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal controls developed to help ensure the accurate reporting of financial information.
Julie has been engaged for multiple professional speaking events, and has been actively teaching undergraduate
and MPAc courses at The Paul Merage School of Business
since 2013.
MACHIAVELLI (MAX) W.
CHAO, JD
Adjunct Lecturer
Max received his law degree from the
University of Southern California. He
has worked as an auditor at KPMG LLP,
and tax consultant at Ernst & Young
LLP. He has also worked at the California Court of Appeal, and was an associate at the law firm
of Graham & James LLP. In 1999, he established his own law
practice specializing in business transactions, real estate,
estate planning, and tax matters.
Since 2004, Max has taught at The Paul Merage School of
Business in the Fully-Employed MBA, Healthcare Executive
MBA, Master of Professional Accountancy, and undergraduate programs. He teaches business law, financial and managerial accounting, taxation, and ethics.
NATE FRANKE, CPA, MBA
Adjunct Lecturer
Nate is a member of the American
Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
He graduated from the University of
California, Santa Barbara, and earned an
MBA from the University of California,
Irvine. In addition to teaching at the
Merage School, Nate serves as the chief financial officer for
RGP, a NASDAQ listed company with over 3,000 employees
globally.
Nate joined RGP after 22 years at Deloitte & Touche LLP,
where, for 13 years, he served as an audit partner primarily
working with publicly traded companies in the consumer and
technology industries.
Nate has been teaching several courses in financial accounting and reporting at both the undergraduate and graduate
levels at The Paul Merage School of Business since 1987.
LUCILE FAUREL, PhD
Assistant Professor of
Accounting
Lucile earned her PhD from New York
University and joined The Paul Merage School of Business in 2008. Her
research interests include reactions to,
and (mis)pricing of, accounting and
financial information, voluntary disclosure choices, contract
design and incentives, financial reporting quality, the role of
social media in the pricing of accounting information, and
the determinants and consequences of corporate investment
strategies. Her research has been published in top accounting
journals, including the Journal of Accounting and Economics
and the Journal of Accounting Research. She currently teaches
MPAc and MBA-level courses in financial statement analysis
as well as MBA- and undergraduate-level courses in financial
accounting. She recently received numerous research grants
and an excellence in teaching award in 2013.
JOANNA L. HO, CPA,
CMA, PhD
Professor of Accounting,
Director of International
Programs
Joanna received her PhD from the
University of Texas at Austin. She
teaches managerial accounting and
global business classes in all of the MBA and Executive
MBA programs. She has received Outstanding Teaching
Awards at The Paul MerageSchool of Business and UC Irvine
campus. Her research interests are in the areas of auditing,
corporate governance, and managerial accounting. She has
received a KPMG Peat Marwick Research Opportunities
in Auditing Grant and her work has been published in top
accounting, management, and strategy journals. She has
also served on the editorial boards of several international
accounting journals. She was President of the Chinese
Accounting Professor Association, North America and Vice
President of the American Accounting Association.
JULIE FLAIZ-WINDHAM,
CPA, CISA, MBA
Adjunct Lecturer
Julie has a substantial background
working in both the KPMG LLP Audit
and Advisory practices leading and
coordinating financial and information
systems audits. Julie’s financial audit
work included research of technical topics, assistance with
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FACULTY BIOS (continued)
TAO JIAO, PhD
Adjunct Lecturer
KARI MOORE, CPA
Adjunct Lecturer
Tao received her PhD degree in
accounting from Rotterdam School of
Management. Her research interests
include earnings management,
corporate governance and
international accounting. She has
presented her research papers at international accounting
conferences such as the European Accounting Association
Annual Conference. Her research papers are published in
International Review of Financial Analysis and Rethinking
Valuation and Pricing Models.
Tao has been teaching intermediate accounting and
managerial accounting at The Paul Merage School of
Business since 2012. Before that, she was a valuation
consultant at Duff and Phelps, Amsterdam. She has also
passed all three levels of the CFA exams.
Kari holds a BS degree in Business
Administration from the University of
Southern California and is a member of
the American Institute of CPAs and the
California Society of CPAs.
Kari has nearly 30 years of experience
in the accounting profession. For over 20 years, Kari served
PricewaterhouseCoopers as an audit partner focusing on
domestic and multi-national public companies in the Orange
County, California office. Since 2008, Kari has worked for
Applied Medical Corporation, a medical device company based
in Orange County, serving as the Chief Accounting Officer.
Kari has been a lecturer at the University of California,
Irvine since 2006 teaching accounting and auditing courses
in the undergraduate and graduate business programs.
ALEXANDER NEKRASOV,
PhD
Assistant Professor of
Accounting
MICHAEL JUERGENS,
CIA, CISA, CGEIT, CRMA,
CRISC, MBA
Adjunct Lecturer
Alexander earned his PhD from the
University of Minnesota and joined UC
Irvine in 2008. His research focuses
on the use of accounting information
by financial market participants for valuation and investment decisions. His work has been published in top-tier
accounting journals. He received the Review of Accounting Studies 2010 Conference Best Paper Award and the
Excellence in Teaching, Core Course, Full Time MBA 2014
Award. He currently teaches Financial Accounting and
Financial Statement Analysis in the MBA program.
Michael has an MBA and BA in
economics from the University of
California, Irvine. He is a Principal with
Deloitte & Touche LLP, where he is the national leader of the
Information Technology Internal Audit practice. Michael has
more than 20 years of professional experience and has deep
subject matter skills in IT internal audit strategy, as well as in
planning and performing technology audits for regulatory,
Sarbanes-Oxley, and operational risk concerns.
Michael has served on various committees for both the
IIA and ISACA, and currently is a member of the Strategic
Advisory Committee for ISACA international.
MORT PINCUS, CPA, PhD
Dean’s Professor of
Accounting, Faculty
Director of MPAc Program
RADHIKA LUNAWAT, CA,
PhD
Assistant Professor of
Accounting
Mort joined UC Irvine in 2005. Within
The Paul Merage School of Business,
he has served in many capacities,
including as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs, Accounting Area Coordinator, and
Faculty Director-MPAc Program. He teaches primarily core
financial accounting and reporting, and research courses
across all programs. His research interests include: the
relation between accounting information and stock market
variables, legislative/regulatory event studies, market efficiency with respect to accounting information, U.S. GAAP
and international accounting policy choice and change,
earnings management and quality of accounting information, “book-tax” differences, and the impact of information
systems on audit quality. He has a BS, Accounting and MA,
Economics from Temple University, and a PhD, Accounting
from Washington University-St. Louis. He is a CPA with
Radhika earned her PhD from the University of Minnesota in 2009 and joined
UC Irvine in 2013 after having taught
at Chapman University, University of St
Thomas and Carnegie Mellon University. She has published
work in Economic Theory, European Accounting Review
and Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. At UC
Irvine, she teaches Managerial Accounting (undergraduate
and graduate), Ethics (MPAc) and Accounting Theory (PhD).
She received the National Science Foundation Doctoral
Dissertation Research Improvement Grant and the University
of Minnesota Graduate School Fellowship for her doctoral
dissertation. She was the U.S. representative to the European
Accounting Association Doctoral Colloquium and has been
the recipient of a teaching award.
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graduate from the London School of Economics and the
University of Chicago. She is currently an associate editor
at Accounting Horizons, and on the editorial board of several other journals including The Accounting Review and
the Review of Accounting Studies. She has published over
35 articles, many of which are top journals in accounting,
finance, and economics. She was awarded the Moskowitz
Prize for best paper on socially responsible investing, and
her research on earnings management was used in congressional testimonies, nominated for best paper award
in the Journal of Finance, and widely cited by scholars in
accounting and finance. Her current research interests
include limited attention in capital markets, anomalies,
trademark innovation, and private firm investment.
experience at Arthur Carroll & Co. (Philadelphia) and Price
Waterhouse & Co. (Pittsburgh).
DEVIN SHANTHIKUMAR, PhD
Assistant Professor of
Accounting
Devin joined UC Irvine in 2010 where
she teaches MBA and executive-level
courses in Managerial Accounting. Prior
to joining UC Irvine, she served on the
faculty at Harvard Business School. Her
research focuses on the investing decisions of less sophisticated investors and the impact that these investors have on the
market, as well as on the role of financial intermediaries such
as analysts. Her research has been published in top journals,
including The Accounting Review, The Journal of Financial
Economics, and Management Science. She earned her PhD in
Business Administration with a focus in finance from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, where she received the
Jaedicke Merit Award for outstanding academic performance.
In addition, she earned her BS in electrical engineering and
computer science with highest honors from the University of
California, Berkeley, and is a graduate of Harvard Business
School’s executive education General Manager Program.
CRAIG WEAVER, CPA, MBA
Adjunct Lecturer
Craig is the Partner-in-Charge of Tax
and the lead Partner for Corporate Tax
Services at Squar Milner, a regional
CPA firm in Southern California. Prior
to joining Squar Milner in 2003, Craig
worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers
for over 12 years. Craig has over 20 years of experience in
taxation and accounting.
For more than two decades, Craig has been a visiting
lecturer for the University of California, including both the
Irvine and Riverside campuses. He has taught numerous
courses including corporate income taxation, advanced
tax strategy, intermediate financial accounting, accounting
research and management accounting.
TERRY SHEVLIN, PhD
Paul Merage Chair in
Business and Professor of
Accounting, Director of
PhD Program
Terry earned his PhD from Stanford
University in 1986 and joined UC Irvine
in 2012 after 26 years at the University
of Washington. He serves as the Accounting Area Coordinator and PhD Program Faculty Director at UC Irvine and
holds a Paul Merage Chair in Business. He has served as
editor on three academic journals and is on numerous editorial boards. He has published over 30 articles in the very
top accounting and finance journals. He currently teaches
in the MPAc and PhD programs. He has received a number
of awards for his research and mentoring of PhDs the most
recent being named the American Accounting Association
Outstanding Educator for 2012 and the American Taxation
Association 2005 Ray M. Sommerfeld Outstanding Tax
Educator. His research interests are broad and include the
effect of taxes on business decisions, corporate tax avoidance, U.S. multinational taxation, capital markets-based
accounting research, and earnings quality.
PATRICIA WELLMEYER,
CPA, CGMA, MS, PhD
Candidate
Full-Time Faculty, Director
of MPAc Program
Patricia has over 15 years of practice
and academic teaching experience as
an audit manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers, an independent audit and financial reporting
consultant, and lecturer of undergraduate and graduate
courses at several universities, including CSU Fullerton
and UC Riverside. Patricia has been the recipient of many
scholarly and professional awards, including the Deloitte
and Touche Accounting Scholar Award, Federation of
Schools of Accounting Student Achievement Award, and
California Society of CPAs Award of Achievement. Patricia
was also voted a 2014 National Association of Professional
Women, Woman of the Year and CalCPA Women to Watch
finalist. Her research interests include auditor judgments,
audit quality, audit sampling and financial statement and
auditor reporting models.
SIEW HONG TEOH, PhD
Dean’s Professor of
Accounting
Siew Hong joined UC Irvine in 2006.
She previously served on the faculty
at UCLA, University of Michigan, and
The Ohio State University, and was a
5
FACULTY RESEARCH
USPTO trademark registrations by S&P 1500 firms from
1993 to 2011 and find that new product trademarks are
associated with more volatile stock returns, sales, and
earnings, controlling for current firm volatility and other
firm characteristics, consistent with new trademarks
being a useful measure of risky product development
innovation. We find that the percentage of CEO pay in
the form of stock options, and the convexity of CEO pay,
vega, are strongly positively related to new trademarks.
Finally, we document a significantly positive relation
between changes in stock option compensation around
the implementation of SFAS 123(R) and subsequent
changes in trademark creation, suggesting that stock
option compensation is a significant driver of product
development innovation.
CEO Incentive Pay and Product
Development Innovation: Insights from
Trademarks
By: Lucile Faurel, Qin Li, Devin Shanthikumar, and
Siew Hong Teoh, University of California, Irvine
We introduce trademark creation as a measure of product
and marketing development innovation. We examine
the relation between CEO stock option compensation
and product development innovation in a broad set of
industries. The advantages of using trademarks over
patents to measure innovation are the wider industry
coverage and the ability to measure the development
portion of innovation, i.e. the portion that results in goods
and services for sale. We build a sample of over 112,000
Corporate Social Responsibility,
Corporate Strategy, and Firm
Performance
environmental improvement) but also socially irresponsible activities (e.g., substantial gas emissions). Companies
may adopt different business strategies. While prospectors (e.g., Apple) are inclined to emphasize innovation
and enter new markets, defenders (e.g., Walmart) focus
on constantly lowering cost by improving production and
operating processes. Companies thus should align CSR
initiatives with their business strategies.
Using data from the largest 3,000 companies in the
U.S., we provide comprehensive evidence that benefits of
CSR are conditioned on the alignment between type of
CSR activities and a firm’s business strategy. Specifically,
companies with a prospector strategy conducting public
CSR or engaging in socially responsible activities enjoy
positive firm performance and that such benefits are
greater for prospectors than for defenders. Conversely,
when defenders are dedicated to internal CSR, they obtain
positive financial returns and such benefits are greater for
defenders than for prospectors. We demonstrate that CSR
is not a one-size-fits-all category and that to enhance firm
performance, prospectors and defenders should pursue
specific types of CSR initiatives that align with their core
business strategy.
By: Joanna L Ho, University of California, Irvine;
Fu-Hsuan Hsu, National Taiwan University; and
Chia-Ling Lee, National Chong Chen University
While companies invest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) for social good, they are also concerned about
financial returns from such investment. Current research
however reports mixed findings on the relationship between CSR and firm performance. The inconclusive
findings may be due partly to the vast array of activities
that are classified as CSR but may warrant more specific
categorization. We endeavor to do this by classifying CSR
as “public vs. internal” CSR. We refer those CSR activities
that are more easily observed and may have more advertising effects (e.g., community relations, environment) as
public CSR, and those (e.g., employee relations) that involve internal operations and are more difficult for external
stakeholders to assess as internal CSR. Additionally, firms
may undertake not only socially responsible activities (e.g.,
6
FACULTY RESEARCH
(continued)
profitably self-deal while fashioning complex strategies
that include opacity-preserving resource divisions and
misleading direct communication that can build false trust
in partners that can be later exploited. These strategies
also entail profit skimming that has the paradoxical effect
of reducing private gains from self-dealing. Ultimately,
self-dealing occurs frequently in economies that generate
larger social gains from exchange than economies where
hard information provision leads to fully transparent
resource allocation.
A Peek Behind the Curtain that Conceals
Self-Dealing
Radhika Lunawat, University of California, Irvine;
Gregory Waymire,Emory University; and Baohua
Xin, University of Toronto
Because successful self-dealing cannot be observed
in naturally occurring data, we conduct an experiment
where self-dealing emerges endogenously along with
concealment strategies. We show that subjects can
Target Price Forecasts: Fundamentals
and Behavioral Factors
variables for target prices; equally, the following behavioral
factors that are salient but irrelevant to fundamental value
are also shown to explain target price levels and especially
target price biases: the 52-week high price, market
sentiment, and rounding. We also find that analysts place
greater weight on these behavioral factors in settings with
greater task complexity and/or resource constraints, and
when they rely on valuation heuristics as opposed to more
rigorous valuation methodology, and that this greater
weight is associated with increased optimistic bias. Finally,
our results show that analysts’ target prices are useful in
predicting future stock returns beyond earnings forecasts
and commonly used risk proxies. However, in an internally
consistent fashion, the informativeness of target prices for
future returns is significantly reduced when greater weight
is placed on either the 52-week high or recent market
sentiment in the target price formation process.
By: Alexander Nekrasov, University of California,
Irvine, Peter Clarkson, The University of
Queensland and Simon Fraser University, Andreas
Simon, Pepperdine University, and Irene Tutticci,
The University of Queensland
Our study examines one of the key summary measures
disseminated by financial analysts - target price forecasts.
Analysts’ target price forecasts are a prediction of a
stock’s future price, generally over the 12 months following
the release date. We show that both fundamental and
behavioral factors play an important role in target price
formation. Analysts’ forecasts of short-term earnings and
long-term growth are shown to be important explanatory
Do Companies’ Enterprise Systems
Impact Audit Quality and Efficiency?
increased complexity of ES has brought new challenges to
auditors as they adapt to auditing through these systems.
Motivated by the prominence of this issue and the scarcity
of research jointly examining ES and auditors’ work, we
investigate whether and how the presence and extent
of ES implementations affect the quality and efficiency
of auditors’ work. Using proprietary archival data of
ES implementations, we find ES implementations have
beneficial effects on the quality and efficiency of current
and future years’ audit work. Specifically, ES implementations are related to fewer restatements, a greater
likelihood of issuing going concern opinions, higher
accruals-based auditing quality, shorter report delays, and
lower audit fees. We further show that these beneficial
effects are generally stronger with greater ES implementation scope and with ES implementations of accounting and
finance systems.
By: Mort Pincus, University of California, Irvine,
Patricia Wellmeyer, University of California, Irvine,
Feng Tian, University of Hong Kong, and Sean Xin
Xu, Tsinghua University
Enterprise systems (ES) are widely used in contemporary
firms to support business processes along the enterprise
value chain. By integrating business functions and making
available information about firms’ day-to-day activities,
ES have been shown to enhance the transparency of
firm operations and improve a firm’s internal information
environment. While ES-based business infrastructures
can provide many benefits to the financial reporting
process of implementing firms, the prevalence and
7
FACULTY RESEARCH
(continued)
experience a better stock market response to their earnings
news: higher abnormal trading volume, lower bid-ask spreads,
and a stronger price response to earnings news at the time of
earnings announcement, and weaker post-earnings-announcement drift in returns. Firms with increases in search dispersion
experience improvements in market responses. In addition,
we find evidence that both network effects and investor
psychology are significant drivers of these return patterns.
Overall, our results suggest that geographic proximity affects
search, and that firms with more geographically dispersed
search experience better market responses to earnings
announcements. Practitioners with an interest in increasing
firm visibility and improving the information environment of a
firm, such as executives and investor relations professionals,
will benefit from realizing the importance of national firm
recognition. Increasing the number of interested investors
is of course important, however increasing the geographic
breadth of investors interested in the firm also matters.
The Geographic Dispersion of Google
Search and the Market Reaction to
Earnings Announcements
By: Devin M. Shanthikumar, University of California,
Irvine; and Sabrina Chi, University of California,
Irvine and University of Arkansas
Today, an interested investor can quickly, easily, and inexpensively access a large amount of firms’ news and information
online. In this paper, we suggest that while the Internet has
made the world smaller, geography, specifically distance, is
still important in the Internet era. In particular, we suggest that
investors are more likely to search for local firms more often,
and that this in turn affects the way that the market reacts
to information about a firm. We find that investors do in fact
tend to search disproportionately for firms headquartered
near them. Firms with more geographically dispersed search
Client Tax Aggressiveness and Auditor
Resignation
client tax aggressiveness and auditor resignation is more
pronounced when external monitoring is weaker, when the
potential for agency problems between the managers and
shareholders of the client firm is higher, and when client
importance, measured by the magnitude of the audit fees
or tax fees, is lower. The association continues to hold
when we control for above normal audit fees (based on
a model of the relation between fees and firm characteristics reflecting the difficulty, complexity, and risk of the
client firm), which suggests that charging higher audit
fees cannot totally eliminate the risk associated with tax
aggressive clients. Overall, our study identifies client tax
aggressiveness as an important risk that affects auditors’
client retention decision. This result should be of interest
to auditors who actively manage client audit risks and to
tax authorities who have incentives to identify firms with
abusive tax reporting behavior. The paper is available
for download from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.
cfm?abstract_id=2277336.
By: Terry Shevlin, University of California,
Irvine; Beng Wee Goh, Chee Yeow Lim and
Yoonseok Zang, Singapore Management
University
This study examines whether and how client tax aggressiveness affects an auditor’s resignation decision. We predict
that client tax aggressiveness increases the likelihood of
auditor resignation by increasing both financial reporting
risk and auditor litigation risk. Based on a sample of auditor
changes over the period 2000-2010, we find a positive
association between client tax aggressiveness and the
likelihood that an auditor resigns from an audit engagement
and that this association is driven by increased financial
reporting risk for the engagement and litigation risk for
the auditor. Further, we find that the association between
Board Interlocks and Earnings
Management Contagion
shares a common director with a non-manipulator. Earnings
management contagion is stronger when the shared
director has a leadership or accounting-relevant position
(e.g., audit committee chair or member) on its board or the
contagious firm’s board. Irregularity contagion is stronger
than error contagion. The board contagion effect is robust
to controlling for endogenous matching of firms with
directors, fixed firm/director effects, incidence of M&A,
industry, and contagion via a common auditor or geographical proximity. These findings support the view that board
monitoring plays a key role in the contagion and quality of
firms’ financial reports.
By: Siew Hong Teoh and Peng-Chia Chiu,
University of California, Irvine; and Feng Tian,
The University of Hong Kong
This study examines whether earnings management
spreads between firms via shared directors. We find that
a firm is more likely to manage earnings when it shares a
common director with a firm that is currently managing
earnings and is less likely to manage earnings when it
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PhD PROGRAM
I am pleased to introduce you to our PhD Program and our
students. A PhD in accounting educates students interested
in pursuing an academic career. The program involves an
intensive two years of coursework in microeconomics,
econometrics and statistics, finance, some math, and
reading the academic literature. Following the coursework,
there is a major field exam testing the student’s knowledge
of the field and ability to do research. Passing this exam
then leads to the dissertation stage—which is a further two
to three years of work on the thesis. Academic accounting
at UC Irvine can be thought of as applied financial and
information economics with the base discipline being
economics. Some schools also educate students to conduct
analytical math modeling about information issues while
other schools examine judgment and decision making in
the audit, financial and management accounting areas—
students in these areas study psychology and sociology. As
we are a small faculty of eight tenure track-research faculty
our main focus is on applied
financial economics applied
to financial accounting and
List of students
tax issues.
by year
Reflecting the small
5 Chen, Xi (Novia)
size
of our faculty, the
5 Li, Qin
PhD
program is also
4 Hao, Jong-Yu (Paula)
small
with eight students
3 Li, Yifan
spread
across five years.
3 Lee, Yoojin
Entrance
into the program
2 Campbell, Stephen
is
highly
competitive
with
1 Lehmer, Tiana
approximately
70-80
1 Rihawi, Esther
applications a year for our
PhD students at a local restaurant, an event they organize
themselves each quarter. Top L to R: Yifan Li, Paula Hao, Sarah
Lyon, Tim Haight, Stephen Campbell. Bottom L to R: Novia Chen,
Yoojin Lee, Qin Li.
one to two open spots. The program seeks smart, hardworking individuals who “know what they are getting into.”
A PhD is not for everyone and applicants are encouraged
to talk with faculty before applying to the program. It is
far removed from an undergraduate or even master’s in
accounting program – it is akin to driving a race car versus
driving on local city streets. Students are fully funded in the
program via teaching assistantships which provide tuition
coverage and a stipend that helps cover living costs.
As the photo above of our students shows, our program is
collegial with the students learning as much from each other
as from their professors.
Terry Shevlin
Merage School PhD Program Faculty Director
RECENT GRADUATES
Tim Haight, PhD
Sarah Lyon, PhD
Timothy Haight earned his PhD from the University of California, Irvine in 2014 and is currently an assistant professor of accounting
at Loyola Marymount University. His dissertation examines whether firms strategically
classify earnings components when analysts’
earnings expectations are not met. In particular, he examines strategic classifications of segment profit
components and finds evidence consistent with cross-segment
profit transfers that downplay the long-run implications and
within-firm drivers of disappointing earnings performance. Timothy’s research focuses broadly on financial reporting issues in
capital markets and he has presented and discussed research at
numerous academic conferences. In 2012, Timothy was awarded the California Society of CPA’s Accounting Doctoral Scholarship and he was selected to attend the AAA/Deloitte/J. Michael
Cook Doctoral Consortium in Lake Tahoe, California. Prior to
his doctoral program, Timothy earned a BA in economics at the
University of California, San Diego, where he was awarded the
Provost’s Award for Outstanding Scholarship in 2006. Following completion of his undergraduate degree, he worked as a
financial analyst in the commercial banking industry.
Sarah Lyon earned her PhD from the University of California, Irvine, in the spring of
2014 and has recently joined the faculty
at the University of San Diego, where she
will teach corporate and partnership tax.
Prior to earning her PhD, Sarah attended
the University of California, Davis, graduating with an undergraduate degree in managerial economics
in 2004, and the University of San Diego, where she earned
her Masters of Accountancy in 2008. Sarah worked in the tax
department of a regional public accounting firm from 20042009, and received her CPA license in 2008. Her current
research interests include corporate tax avoidance, earnings
quality, and corporate social responsibility. Her dissertation
examines the relationship between aggressive reporting in
firm’s financial statements (aggressive book reporting) and
aggressive reporting in firm’s tax returns (aggressive tax reporting). She finds the relationship between aggressive book
and tax reporting is driven by the proxy for aggressive book
reporting, resolving conflicting results in recent studies. She
also finds that firm characteristics can be used to aid in the
identification of the firm’s reporting strategy.
9
MPAc PROGRAM
On behalf of the accounting faculty and program staff,
it is with great pride that we present to you our Master
of Professional Accountancy (MPAc) program. Currently
in its second year as a fully recognized degree program
in The Paul Merage School of Business at UC Irvine,
the MPAc is a rigorous, full-time, one-year program
that provides an intensive, focused level of training
designed to develop and produce students with both an
advanced level mastery of accounting concepts and the
professional acumen needed to succeed as accounting
professionals. In addition to coursework taught by topnotch researchers and practitioners, our curriculum
emphasizes an integration of theory and practice by
providing students with numerous opportunities to
engage in professional and career development activities,
including networking events with Merage School MBA
students/alumni and the opportunity for a unique
internship elective.
Throughout these next few pages, you will be
introduced to some of the unique aspects of our MPAc
program—and there are many—in more detail. You
will also see some of the major highlights of the highly
successful first year of the program which include the
successful graduation onto greater professional pursuits
of our inaugural class and representations of the lasting
friendships and professional contacts that developed
among our students, staff, and professionals during
this process. As great as our first year of the program
was, we have our sights on continuing to develop and
enhance the program experience for our students. In that
spirit, we have and are continuing to add to our program
offerings through the addition of several new courses and
professional seminars and events.
We are excited, as we hope you are, about the future
of our program and its establishment as one of the top
accounting programs in the nation. We want to thank
our staff—Burt, Lina, Becky, and Jacqueline—for their
continued hard work and dedication; the professionals
that have and continue to highly support our students;
the faculty that encourage and challenge our students;
and last, but not least, our amazing students. You provide
the pillars on which our program stands and we look
forward to continuing to work with you on the many
continued successes to come!
Patricia Wellmeyer
MPAc Program Director and
Full-Time Faculty
Mort Pincus
MPAc Faculty Director and
Dean’s Professor of Accounting
The MPAc team L to R: Mort Pincus, Faculty Director; Jacqueline Rodio, Coordinator, Recruitment and Admissions; Burt Slusher,
Senior Associate Director, Recruitment and Admissions; Becky Medina, Associate Director, Career Services; Lina Tran, Associate
Director, Student Affairs; and Patricia Wellmeyer, Program Director.
10
Recruitment
and Admissions
Information
The MPAc program celebrated its
first graduating class this past June.
A total of 54 newly minted Master
of Professional Accountancy graduates walked the stage at the Bren
Events Center. The graduating class
represented 36 institutions across
the world and students came from a
variety of academic majors including Communications, Economics,
Music, International Studies, and
Business Administration. Faculty
and staff are incredibly excited to
see the program off to a great start
and the quality of students reflects
the competition for entrance into
the program. Sheila Hope, MPAc
Class of 2014 graduate stated, “I
have learned so much here. I now
have a foundation to succeed in the
industry that will enable me to move
forward, bust my career wide open,
and find something very exciting
and dynamic!” For the MPAc Class of
2014, the Merage School of Business received 369 applications. For
the MPAc Class of 2015, the school
received 593 applications.
The incoming MPAc Class of
2015 is a group of 78 students. These
students represent 47 institutions
and the caliber of the entering class
remains incredibly strong. Across
academic metrics of GPA, GMAT,
and TOEFL, the average has gone
up reflecting a competitive applicant
pool. Some interesting facts from the
MPAc Class of 2015 include academic
backgrounds of entrepreneurship,
industrial management, apparel
merchandising, political science, international agricultural development,
studio art, and elementary education.
We welcome two students representing the U.S. Military as a former
senior Marine engineman with the
U.S. Army and an automated supply
specialist with the Army Reserve.
Given the diversity of our group
some foreign language proficiencies
include Mandarin, Spanish, Farsi,
Korean, French, Japanese, Taiwanese,
and Cantonese. We are excited to
welcome the incoming class and are
already in the process of recruiting
our MPAc Class of 2016.
The application for the next
MPAc class is now available online. The application is available on
a rolling admission basis and our
deadlines are as follows: August 15,
November 15, January 10, March 15
(last date to apply for international
students), May 1, and our final late
deadline of June 1. If you would like
more detailed information regarding
our MPAc class profile, upcoming
information sessions, or to access our
MPAc application, please visit us at
merage.uci.edu/go/mpac. We also
welcome students for one-on-one
consultations at 949.824.8153.
MPAc Program Structure
The Master of Professional Accountancy
Program (MPAc) is a one year program.
The MPAc program requires students
to complete no less than 11 courses and
a minimum of 44 units. Students will be
expected to enroll in and successfully
complete at least eight units of
elective coursework in the winter and/
or spring quarters. Further, students
will be encouraged to pursue a formal
paid internship during the winter or
spring quarter and, if successful, will
be enrolled in MPAC 290-Accounting
Internship, a 2-unit course in the winter
or spring quarter as well.
Inaugural MPAc class of 2014 students at The Paul Merage School of Business Commencement ceremony
11
MPAc Class of 2014 Academic Awards and Recognitions
Highest Grade Point Average:
Renae Pryjmak
Recognition: A special thank you to
our Class of 2014 Ambassadors, Ian
Castellana, Evan Creelman, Natalia
Gould, and Sheila Hope, and Student
Representatives Mark Coltrin and
Vivian Le Hoa Lee.
Dean’s Scholar and Beta Gamma
Sigma: Shuangjing (Sandy) Chen,
Sheila Hope, Anh Minh Thien
Le, Vivian Le Hoa Lee, Andrew
Lubinski, Renae Prykmak, Tony
Treece
Beta Gamma Sigma: Zhili Cao,
Yiu-Ni Judy Chen, Xiaoli Kong,
Huiwen Lu, Jeerawan Wattanasin
Excellence in Teaching:
Professor Nate Franke
• Taught MPAc Financial Statement
Analysis and Valuation I and II
courses during the 2013-2014
Inaugural MPAc Class of 2014 students celebrating at the MPAc End of the Year Banquet
academic year
CPA EXAM PASSAGE STATUS
(as of Aug. 31, 2014)
We would like to congratulate the following Class of 2014 students on
passing at least one part of the CPA exam. Keep up the good work—you
are almost done!
PASSED ALL 4 SECTIONS
OF THE EXAM
PASSED AT LEAST ONE
SECTION OF THE EXAM
Zhili Cao
Xiaoli Kong
Anh Le
Arnold R. Magana
Heygene Sung
Tony Treece
Yun Zhou
Judy Chen
Ernest (Sung-Ling) Lai
Vivian Lee
Andrew Lubinski
Danny Park
Renae Pryjmak
Chenchen Wang
Ping Yan
Qi Yao
MPAC PROGRAM
SOCIAL EVENTS CALENDAR—
ACADEMIC YEAR 2014-2015
(Calendar is subject to change)
DATES
EVENT DESCRIPTION
Weeks of September 22 and 29
Orientation and Workshops
November 3
Fall mid-quarter social
December 16
Ugly holiday sweater social
March 31
Spring beginning of quarter social
May 20
End of the year banquet
12
Natalia Gould and Krupa Patel, MPAc Class
of 2014, at the MPAc Ugly Holiday Sweater
Social
MPAc CAREER SERVICES
At The Paul Merage School of Business Master of Professional Accountancy (MPAc) program,
we understand that employment is a fundamental motivator of pursuing an MPAc degree. We
also know that many employers are seeking to hire accounting students with advanced degrees
who meet the new CPA requirements in California. We form strong partnerships with both our
students and employers to help students achieve their career goals and for employers to meet
their hiring needs.
Developing strategies for lifelong career growth and taking action on those strategies is the key
to successfully managing one’s career and to exploring, identifying and landing satisfying roles. To
support students in their efforts, MPAc Career Services offers online and facilitator-led career skill
development workshops, the chance to network with employers who have a relationship with the
Merage School and a partner in navigating the recruiting and job search process.
The Associate Director of Career Services for the MPAc program is Becky Medina. She works
with our students one-on-one to prepare them for the recruitment and job interview process and
to help them identify the best career opportunities to pursue. She also works directly with employers to promote their job opportunities and increase the number of employment options for Merage
School accounting students.
MPAc Career Advising Structure
One of the benefits of attending
the MPAc program is The Merage
School’s individual focus on career
coaching. Some students who
enter the program have focused
career objectives in a specific area
of accounting; many others do not.
Regardless of where you are in the
process, we are ready to partner
with you to help you achieve your
personal career goals through our
four key pillars of Career Advising:
1. Consultations and Workshops
2. Recruitment and Proseminar
3. Winter or Spring Internship
Opportunity
4. Career and CPA Exam Preparation
Professor Patricia Wellmeyer, far left, moderates the Tax Compliance and Consulting
proseminar panel where panelists discussed their career progression and tax issues
affecting the economy today.
13
Becky Medina,
Associate Director,
MPAc Career
Services
MPAc Internship
Opportunity:
During Winter or
Spring Quarter
Students who attend the MPAc
program and are eligible to work
part-time or full-time during winter
quarter may apply and recruit for
a winter internship during the fall
quarter. Alternatively, students may
complete a part-time internship
during spring quarter. If a student
is unable to work during winter
or spring quarter, that student
may apply for a full-time job
opportunity. Any employers who
would like to know about the MPAc
Internship Opportunity can contact
Becky Medina at rebecca.medina@
uci.edu directly to obtain further
information.
MPAc CAREER SERVICES
(continued)
MPAc Career Skills
and Development Workshops
Professional skill development
workshops and events are
offered throughout the year to
help students acquire and hone
skills needed to be successful,
not only in today’s competitive
marketplace, but also throughout
their career. MPAc workshops and
events include:
• Accounting Industry and Practice
Area Career Visioning
• Navigating Social Media and
LinkedIn
• Best Practices—Starting a Career
in Accounting
• How to Write a Cover Letter
• Etiquette Lunch/Dinner Event
• The Art of Small Talk
• Professional Attire Overview and
Shopping Event
• Surviving and Thriving at
Networking
• How to Prepare for a Job
Interview
• Understanding the Public
Accounting Recruiting Process
• Dressing for Success
• Building Your Personal Brand
Hiring from UC
Irvine’s MPAc
Program
If your company would like to
learn more about UC Irvine’s MPAc
program or how to get involved
in on-campus recruiting events,
please contact Becky Medina,
Associate Director of MPAc Career
Services at (949) 824-6659 or
rebecca.medina@uci.edu.
MPAc Ambassador Message
After graduating with a BA in Business Administration
from The Paul Merage School of Business, I realized
there were still many steps necessary in order to reach
my goal of becoming a licensed CPA and starting my
career at a Big Four accounting firm. I knew that I would
need to further my education in order to have a competitive advantage as I enter into the accounting world.
After considering various Masters Programs, I decided
to apply for the new MPAc program at UC Irvine. Not
only would I be able to complete my additional course
requirements for the CPA, but I would also earn a Master
of Professional Accountancy degree within one year. UC
Irvine’s MPAc program has so many unique aspects and
opportunities that I knew I would not find anywhere else.
From taking classes taught by experienced partners from
large accounting firms and Proseminar courses where we
have the opportunity to learn from and network with
professionals from all accounting industry backgrounds,
to one-on-one career services guidance, which has been
one of the best aspects of the program. It is through
Associate Director of Career Services Becky Medina’s insightful instruction, support and wealth of networks that
14
I was able to navigate the public accounting recruitment
process and ultimately land a winter tax internship and
Full-Time Tax Associate position with PwC. The prestige and high reputation that this program has earned
is the perfect indicator that I made the right choice. UC
Irvine’s MPAc program has helped me reach my goals.
NATALIA GOULD
MPAc Class of 2014 Ambassador
PwC Tax Associate
UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM
The Paul Merage School of Business graduated its first class
from the BA in Business Administration program in June
2012. Demand for the major has been extraordinary, with over
9,500 total applications received for 150 seats in fall 2014.
Entering freshmen have a mean GPA of 4.1, and among the
highest SAT scores on campus. Business Administration is the
third most requested major at the freshman level, and is first
at the transfer level. Characteristics of the group include:
Students select a minimum of one of seven
emphases including: Accounting, Finance,
Health Care Management, Information
Systems, Marketing, Operations & Decision
Technologies, and Organization & ManDenise Patrick,
agement. Over one-third of majors specify Merage School
Assistant Dean,
Accounting as their primary emphasis.
In addition, the Merage School offers Undergraduate
Programs
a distinctive BS in Business Information
Management (joint degree with the
Donald Bren School of Information and Computer
Sciences), as well as minor programs in Accounting and
Management designed to complement any of the 85
majors on campus.
For more information about the undergraduate
business program, visit merage.uci.edu/undergrad.
• 58 percent female
• 41 percent first generation in their family to attend college
• 22 percent from underrepresented minority groups
• 45 percent on the UC Irvine Dean’s Honor List (UC GPA of 3.5+)
Our business majors are broadly trained, with nearly half
of their coursework from areas outside the business school.
Highlights of Accounting Focused
Business Administration Majors
Class of 2014 internships included:
• Broadcom: Financial Accounting
Intern, Portfolio Management Intern
• Capital Group: Accountant/Finance
Intern
• Citi Bank: Accounting Intern
• Deloitte: Intern
• Ernst & Young: Assurance Intern
• GE Aviation: Finance/Accounting
Intern
• Grant Thornton LLP: Audit Intern
• Johnson & Johnson Finance Co-op
• Mattson Resources: Accounting
Assistant
• McGladrey: Assurance Intern
• Pathway Capital Management:
Investment Intern
• PricewaterhouseCoopers: Assurance
Intern, Tax Intern
• Protiviti: Process Intern
• UC Irvine: Internal Audit Intern
• YR Advisory LLC: Accountant Clerk
Full-time placement at graduation
among accounting-focused students
included:
• Companies: PwC, Ernst & Young,
Deloitte, GE Aviation, Texas
Instruments
• Positions: Assurance Associate,
Auditing Associate, Analyst, Forensics
Associate, Business Technology
Analyst, FP&A Analyst, Finance,
Accounting, Operations Rotational
Program (ACCESS)
Student Profiles
Summer Ko, BA, ’14
• Activities while at
UC Irvine: Merage
School Business Plan
Competition, ASUCI,
Asian Pacific Student
Association, Accounting Association
• Summer Internships:
McGladrey Assurance Intern, PwC Assurance Intern,
Allergan Global Market Research Intern
• Post graduation job: PwC Assurance
Associate
Jin Puertollano,
BA, ’12
From L-R: Tiffany Khau, BA ’14; Raymond
Delacruz, BA ’14; Eileen Rico, BA ’14.
Tiffany, Raymond and Eileen are 2014
graduates of the Merage School’s Business
Administration major with a focus on
accounting. All three served as Peer
Advisors for the UG Programs office.
Raymond accepted a Business Technology
Analyst position at Deloitte, Eileen began
her role as a Forensics Associate at Deloitte
this fall, and Tiffany entered Merage
School’s MPAc program this fall.
15
• Activities while at UC
Irvine: Merage Undergraduate Student
Association, Campus
Representative Tour
Guide, First Tenor in
the all-male cappella
group Circle of Fifths, studied abroad in
Bordeaux, France.
• Summer Internships: StreetBee Online
Marketing Intern, Warner Music Group
Shared Services Accounting Intern, State
Street Collateral Analyst Finance Intern.
• Post graduation job: Jin joined Experian’s Finance Associate Development
Program where he rotated through
roles including Pricing Analyst, Business Analytics, and Corporate Accounting. Jin now works in Decision
Analytics at Experian.
STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS
The Accounting Association
at UC Irvine
The Accounting
Association is dedicated to providing
opportunities for students to learn more
about the accounting
profession through
facilitating the recruiting process by inviting Big Four, mid-tier, local, and industry
firms to attend, present, and network
at club-sponsored events. By providing
speaker presentations, firm tours, socials,
and other interactive events, the Accounting Association seeks to add to the
development of our members’ interest
and knowledge in accounting services.
Benefits of Membership
For every student, the first two AA
events attended are free; if you would
like to attend additional events, you
must become a member. However, the
following are some of the exclusive resources that we offer our members:
• Official Nametag (provided at every
speaking engagement)
• AA Crewneck
• Informational Handbook
• Office Tour Invitations
• Member-Only Events
• AA Resume Drop
• AA Mock Interviews
Our Events:
Speaking Engagements: Throughout
the school year, the Accounting Association invites a variety of firms to speak
with students about their experiences
in different practices such as advisory, audit, and tax. Students have the
chance to network and expand their
knowledge about the accounting profession, CPA requirements, interview
tips, attire advice, and more.
Leadership Development Program: The
Accounting Association Leadership
Development Program (AALDP) is a
peer mentorship program dedicated to
engage students pursuing a career in
accounting. The program’s launch in fall
2013 was a success with the execution
of student-led professional workshops.
Mentees receive the opportunity to
work closely with experienced mentors
to prepare for summer leadership program recruiting, as well as develop leadership skills throughout the program.
Meet the Firms: Co-hosted with the Master of Professional Accountancy (MPAc)
faculty, Meet the Firms is the biggest
event that takes place during fall quarter.
Each year, multiple firms come out to
network and provide information about
full-time/internship opportunities to students interested in the accounting field.
In 2013, 20 firms (up from 14 the previous
year) and approximately 250 students
attended the event.
Recruitment for Summer Experiences (RISE): RISE is a small-scale Meet
the Firms event during winter quarter
specifically catered to students who
are interested in recruiting for summer
leadership programs. It also gives students who are interested in applying for
full-time offers another opportunity to
network with some of our sponsors.
Spring Banquet: The Spring Banquet is
the last event of the school year held to
thank our sponsors and celebrate the
hard work and achievements of the students. Both professionals and students
have a chance to sit down and enjoy the
night’s festivities, which normally include
themed networking activities. This event
marks the end to the quarter as we prepare for more exciting events to come in
the new school year. In 2014, 15 firms and
approximately 80 students attended.
Fall 2014 Events
KPMG Speaking Engagement
Wednesday, Oct. 1
Social Ecology I 112
PwC Speaking Engagement
Thursday, Oct. 2, SB 223
Grant Thornton
Speaking Engagement
Monday, Oct. 6, Moss Cove A
McGladrey Speaking Engagement
Tuesday, Oct. 7, Emerald Bay C
Deloitte Speaking Engagement
Wednesday, Oct. 8, Moss Cove A
Meet the Firms Monday, Oct. 13
Moss Adams
Speaking Engagement
Tuesday, Oct. 14, Emerald Bay C
EY Speaking Engagement
Wednesday, Oct. 15, Emerald Bay B
Protiviti Speaking Engagement
Tuesday, Oct. 21, Emerald Bay C
HCVT Speaking Engagement
Tuesday, Oct. 28, Emerald Bay C
To schedule a speaking
engagement or if you are interested
in becoming a sponsor, please
contact aaucirvine@gmail.com.
If you are a student and have
questions, please contact aafaq01@
gmail.com. Please visit aaucirvine.
com for more information.
Spring Banquet, May 15th, 2014 at the Avenue of the Arts, Wyndham Hotel
16
2013—2014
At A Glance
2014—2015
At A Glance
Officer Board
Officer Board
Taryn Yee, President, Business Administration, ’14
Stacey Li, President, Business
Economics, ’15
Summer Ko, Senior Advisor, Business
Administration, ’14
Nicholas Loo, Senior Advisor, Business
Administration, ’15
Dwane Truong, External Vice President,
Business Economics, ’14
Brian Wang, External Vice President,
Business Administration, ’15
Nicholas Loo, External Vice President,
Business Administration, ’15
Carmen Le, External Vice President,
Business Administration, ’16
Peggy Li, Internal Vice President,
Business Administration, ’15
Jenny Gih, Internal Vice President,
Business Economics, ’15
Lauren Cochran, Secretary, Business
Administration, ’15
Sophia Tsai, Secretary, Economics, ’15
Connie Chen, Treasurer, Business
Administration, ’14
Brian Wang, Committee Member,
Business Administration, ’15
Claire Chu, Committee Member,
Business Economics, ’14
Jenny Gih, Committee Member, Business
Economics, ’15
Newman Lee, Committee Member,
Business Economics, ’15
Stacey Li, Committee Member, Business
Economics, ’15
Kristen Chin, Treasurer, Business
Administration, ’16
Michael Ho, Beta Alpha Psi Liaison,
Business Administration, ’17
Alex Lim, Committee Member, Business
Economics, ’16
Meera Patel, Committee Member,
Economics, ’16
Ryan Teo, Committee Member, Business
Administration, ’16
Sydney Ha, Committee Member,
Business Economics, ’16
Sponsors
Gold
• Deloitte*
• EY*
• Grant Thornton*
• KPMG*
• McGladrey*
• Moss Adams*
• Protiviti*
• PwC*
Silver
• BDO*
• CBIZ MHM
• HCVT*
• KS&Co*
• Squar Milner
Additional Firms
• Becker Professional Education*
• CalCPA
• Singer Lewak
• VITA
• White Nelson Diehl Evans
*Indicates Spring Banquet Scholarship Donor
Accounting Association 2014-2015 officer board
17
Beta Alpha Psi
UC Irvine is currently
petitioning to induct a new
chapter of Beta Alpha Psi
on campus. Beta Alpha Psi
is a nonprofit
international
honorary
and service
organization
for accounting,
finance, and
information
systems
students at AACSBor EQUIS-accredited
universities. Beta Alpha Psi
provides opportunities for
development of technical
and professional skills to
complement university
education; participation
in community service; and
interaction among students,
faculty, and professionals.
For more information,
please contact Michael Ho
(ucibap@gmail.com), Lina
Tran (tranlv@uci.edu), or
Patricia Wellmeyer (patricia.
wellmeyer@uci.edu).
ALUMNI
Networking.
As graduates of a business school, we hear that word
quite often. But not everyone really understands how
important it is to not only build your network early, but
carefully nurture it. As you proceed in your career, your
network will become crucial in not only managing your
career, but uncovering that next opportunity, big client or
great mentor.
As alumni of the Merage School, I encourage you to stay
in touch, communicate and grow with us: the community
of your fellow alumni from all our great programs. Whether you are a new entrepreneur building your company, a
young professional seeking to accelerate your career path,
or an older grad mentoring others in appreciation for past
guidance received, the Merage School Alumni Network is a
valuable place for building contacts and friendships.
Building basic networking skills and using them effectively
is key to success in this area. Here are a few things to think
about before your next networking event:
• Follow up: Your connection may
start at a networking event, but
the relationship is built over time.
It’s important to follow up the first
meeting in an appropriate fashion
to keep the momentum and stay
top of mind. You can achieve this
by email or personal note via social
media like LinkedIn. Another way
to stay in touch is by periodically
Barbra Marangell,
sending important information,
Merage School
Director of Alumni
articles or details on a relevant, upRelations, FEMBA ’08
coming event. This demonstrates
your understanding of a person’s
needs and your willingness to be of service.
• Craft a compelling elevator pitch: Be prepared to introduce yourself and make an impression in 30 seconds. The
key is being able to succinctly describe what makes you
unique and memorable.
• Be genuine: Networking is about being genuine and
authentic, building trust and relationships, and seeing
how you can help others. If you wait to build your network
when you need it, your desperation will show. The key is
to build your network when you don’t need, because you
never know when you will. It could also be said that you
always need your network to be on the cutting-edge of
your industry.
• Stay involved: Networking is not transactional. It’s about
building relationships. You’ll often see the same people
time and again at alumni or industry events. Exceptional
business leaders have one single talent that sets them
apart from all others—their ability to develop business
friendships. By connecting other people, these leaders
are not asking for anything in return.
Events at the Merage School are wonderful opportunities
to meet other professionals who have a shared interest and
to build genuine business contacts. We hope to see you
soon at one of our many upcoming events!
To learn more about becoming a member of the
Alumni Association and to see a calendar of events, visit
merage.uci.edu/calendar.aspx.
Fall Alumni Events
Arianna Huffington Headlines CIWM Lunch
Join your fellow alumni for one of our Orange County
networking lunches! These intimate gatherings are a great
way to meet new people and catch up with old friends.
We’ve seen jobs offered, jobs enhanced and jobs changed
through connections made at these gatherings. Join us
and be sure to bring business cards. Cost is $18 (cash only);
please RSVP to meragealum@merage.uci.edu.
Thursday, Nov. 6, 11:30 am-1:30 pm, Hilton, Costa Mesa
OC Alumni: Join Us for a Networking
Lunch - and Some Fun
Friday, Nov. 7 and Friday, Dec. 5, 11:45 am-1 pm
Z’Tejas, South Coast Plaza
Friday, Jan. 23, 11:45 am-1 pm, BJ’s Restaurant, Laguna Hills
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Spotlight on Recent Alumni
Name: Renae Pryjmak
Grad year/Program: Master of
Professional Accountancy (MPAc) ’14
Undergrad degree/major/school:
BA in English, Gannon University; BA in
Dance and Accounting Minor, UC Irvine.
1. What are some of your fondest
memories as an MPAc student?
What stands out most in my mind is
the transition that occurred. I remember sitting in our orientation and wondering, what will our first assignment
be like? How am I going to leverage
all of these resources? How should I
prepare for tests? I did not know any
other students yet, but I think many of
us were anticipating what was ahead.
When graduation day came, I thought
back to all the group project meetings,
class time and coffee runs and realized
I no longer had trepidation toward tests
and presentations, and instead I felt like
I had a strategy for problem solving,
finding answers and supporting my
ideas. Though I did not know anyone
in that first orientation, I soon became
acquainted with many of my classmates, and by the end of the program
we were gathered around a bonfire in
Huntington Beach sharing post-graduation plans. I really value my MPAc
experience and the people I met along
the way.
2. How did you choose your career
path?
I began working with nonprofits as a
grant writer. After sitting in on board
meetings and preparing budget notes
for grant applications, I realized the
best way I could impact any business
was through accounting.
3. How has earning your degree at
the Merage School helped you in
your career?
I am now continuing my career in
public accounting with BDO USA,
LLP, in the assurance practice. Each
assignment takes me to a new business, and I am constantly working to
gain in-depth knowledge about the
next client and its industry. The skills
I have learned at the Merage School
allow me to quickly assess the inner
workings and financial condition of a
business, and having this fluency allows
me to effectively apply audit procedures
and provide value to my firm.
4. What particular skills do you think
are critical for succeeding in the business world?
Credibility is key in public accounting,
and I think it is an important quality
throughout the business world. Building a credible reputation encompasses
many attributes including technical
proficiency and a dedication to ethical
principles, and then it is necessary to
have solid communication skills to be
able to represent yourself as a highly
trained, credible professional to the
business community.
5. What are some of the hobbies and
extracurricular activities that you
enjoy?
PAST ALUMNI EVENTS:
Class of 2014 Alumni Reception: The newest
graduates of the Merage School, from all
programs in the class of 2014, enjoyed an
evening on campus reconnecting with each
other and meeting new friends.
Alumni from class years ending in 4 and 9
returned to campus for the “Merageville”
reunion and enjoyed an afternoon of
memories, margaritas and good food. More
than 200 alumni and guests enjoyed the
tropical atmosphere, donning leis and their
finest island resort ware. The blue tables
patio at the back of the Merage School
building was transformed while guests
enjoyed live Calypso music.
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I really enjoy
going to all the
museums and
independent
galleries we
have in Southern California to see the latest contemporary art exhibits. I have also studied
several dance disciplines including
ballet and Spanish dance, so I try to
take some type of dance class whenever I am visiting a major city for the
first time. It is a great way to engage
with the local community. So far, my
favorite drop-in classes have been in
London and New York City.
6. Is philanthropy important to you?
If so, why?
Yes, I think it is important to support
institutions in our community that
provide intangible value. I am still
attached to my nonprofit roots, and I
contribute through membership dues,
volunteering or simply attending a
great program or lecture made possible through philanthropy.
7. How do you stay involved with
the Merage School and your local
community?
After I graduated in June, I was able to
stay involved with the MPAc program
by co-teaching two summer intensive
courses. I plan to keep in touch with
the MPAc faculty and our founding
class of 2014 through alumni events,
recruiting and I hope, more reunions at
the beach.
GET CONNECTED
PhD
Accounting Association
Phone: 949.824.8318
Email: phd@merage.uci.edu
Website: merage.uci.edu/PhD
Students: aafaq01@gmail.com
Firms: aaucirvine@gmail.com
Website: aaucirvine.com
MPAc
Alumni Relations
Phone: 949.824.8153
Email: mpac@merage.uci.edu
Website: merage.uci.edu/mpac
Phone: 949.824.7167
Email: meragealum@merage.uci.edu
Website: merage.uci.edu/alumni
Undergraduate
Phone: 949.824.9426
Email: ugprograms@merage.uci.edu
Website: merage.uci.edu/undergrad
UC Irvine, The Paul Merage School of Business
Irvine, CA 92697-3125