Accounting Newsletter - Spring 2015

Message From The Accounting Area Coordinator
Faculty Accolades
Eller Collegiate Ethics Case Competition
Alumni Spotlight
Student Spotlight

Message From The Accounting Area Coordinator

Dear Students, Alumni and Friends,

Exciting things are happening in the Accounting Area!

Our graduate program was ranked No. 2 among the Best Online Graduate Business Programs list that U.S. News & World Report released in January. Our undergraduate programs have continued to grow at a rate of about 8.5 percent each year for the last three years. To accommodate such growth, we welcome Associate Professor Gil Sadka (PhD, Chicago), who joined us from Columbia University; Assistant Professor Jieying Zhang (PhD, MIT), who joined us from the University of Southern California; Clinical Assistant Professor John Gamino (JD, OU and a master of law degree from the University of Miami), who joined us from Texas State University; and Senior Lecturer Anindita Roy Bardhan (MBA, Bentley University), who joined us from Fresenius Medical Care. Mary Guan (MPA, UT) has also joined us as the professional director of the accounting master’s program. Mary is a CPA and formerly worked at Ernst & Young, LLP.

As of fall 2014, students who have been admitted to our undergraduate programs must complete at least one internship to graduate. Because most of our undergraduate students are currently working, many have met the internship requirement. I highly encourage our students to contact the director of the BS in Accounting Program, John Barden, for more information on the internship requirement. And please get in touch with us if you are an employer looking for bright, hardworking, motivated interns.

The Accounting Area has also been very productive in the research arena. An annual ranking of publication proficiency by Brigham Young University ranks the UT Dallas Accounting Area as No. 5 in the world in terms of total numbers of papers published over the past six years. And in Texas, we are second only to UT Austin.

We thank our alumni and friends for the role they have played in these accomplishments, and we welcome your continued support and input.

Bill Cready
Accounting Area Coordinator

Faculty Accolades

Dr. Rebecca Files

Congratulations to Dr. Rebecca Files, recipient of the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award. Files was one of six UT Dallas faculty members presented with the highest award for teaching in the UT System in 2014. “Dr. Files demonstrates an exemplary teaching ability enhanced by an enthusiasm for the subject matter,” UT Dallas President David E. Daniel said at the awards ceremony last May. Files has demonstrated extraordinary classroom performance and dedication to course development and innovation.

Dr. Gil Sadka

Dr. Gil Sadka joined the JSOM Accounting Area in July 2014 after having taught at Columbia University nine years. His research focuses primarily on equity valuation and capital markets. In his research, he examines the role of earnings in generating stock-price volatility and the implications of this effect for asset prices. Sadka has published in top accounting, finance, law and economics journals. He also recently completed a survey paper on aggregate earnings and why they matter in capital markets, a frequent subject of his studies. Sadka continues to explore new research projects, including those surrounding the different legal regimes governing debt contracts across the U.S. He enjoys interacting with his fellow academics as well as meeting the challenges that come from our student body. In his free time, Sadka plays golf, travels and works out.

Tiffany Bortz

Congratulations to Tiffany Bortz, our new associate area coordinator. Bortz worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers before joining the JSOM Accounting Area in 2002. Her professional experience is in auditing and financial accounting. She enjoys teaching Financial Accounting. She also loves getting to know her students and helping them achieve their academic and career goals. When she is not teaching, Bortz enjoys exercising and is a proud soccer mom.

Eller Collegiate Ethics Case Competition

Katherine Huston and Lewis Warne

Our accounting students stay busy. Among other academic pursuits, they often test their skills in in case competitions. Congratulations to Katherine Huston and Lewis Warne, who won first place and earned $2,000 in the Eller Collegiate Ethics Case Competition at the University of Arizona.

Student teams from 28 universities participated. The case centered on whether a U.S.-based company should “invert” — a topic much in the news as American corporations consider becoming a subsidiary of, or merging with, a foreign company, typically to enjoy tax advantages.

Competing teams need to collaborate, analyze, present and respond to questions posed by a panel of judges. The experience challenges students’ moral reasoning and raises their awareness of the importance of corporate social responsibility. We are very proud of the outstanding job Huston and Warne did representing UT Dallas in the competition.

Alumni Spotlight

Emily George

When did you attend UT Dallas, and what was your major?

I attended UTD from fall of 2006 through the fall of 2010. I obtained a BS in accounting and information management and a BS in business administration. I also obtained an MS in accounting. I sat for and passed all four parts of the CPA exam while taking the CPA exam review course at UTD in 2010. After I obtained the required work experience, I obtained my CPA license.

Why did you choose UT Dallas to pursue both your BS and MS degrees?

When I was looking at schools, I had two primary goals: I wanted a school with a strong academic reputation, and I wanted to play college soccer. UTD was the perfect fit for me, and I was a part of the UTD women’s soccer team for all four of my undergraduate years.

What do you like about our program?

UT Dallas and the UTD Accounting Program provided me with the necessary foundation to be successful in my career. It has always been evident that the faculty truly care about the students and their education. I have been greatly impacted by the professors that I had during my time at UTD. Additionally, one of my favorite things about attending UTD was the diversity of the student body. The various cultures, ages, backgrounds and experiences of other students that I encountered while being a student and working on group projects are what make UTD special to me.

Did you get an internship while attending UT Dallas? With whom? Tell about the experience.

Through a Beta Alpha Psi event, I connected and later received an internship opportunity with Lane Gorman Trubitt, PLLC. My internship lasted four months, and at the end I was offered a full-time position beginning in January of 2011. I am still with LGT today!

What do you enjoy most about your job?

I am currently a manager of Assurance Services….Throughout my career, I have not stopped learning, and it feels as though I am still tackling something new every day. I love this aspect of public accounting, but what keeps me here is the great group of people that I work with. At LGT, the leadership group has supported me and helped me reach my career goals.

What are your hobbies?

I still enjoy playing soccer. I also enjoy traveling and plan to combine both interests during the summer of 2015 to attend the Women’s World Cup in Vancouver, Canada. My fiancé and I also recently rescued a Plott Hound puppy, and we are completely obsessed! Our dog’s name is Reito, and you can follow him on Instagram at ReitoBurrito.

Is there anything else you want us to highlight about you?

At LGT, I focus primarily on nonprofit organizations, but I also spend time working on manufacturing and high-tech clients as well as clients in the health care industry. Over the past few years, I have developed an expertise in single audits for nonprofit organizations (the audit of a nonprofit’s expenditures of federal awards). Most recently, this expertise provided me with an opportunity to assist a national nonprofit organization with the development of an infrastructure, policies and procedures to successfully implement a multimillion-dollar federal grants program.

Student Spotlight

Lorena Araujo

What is your major and what do you like about JSOM?

I major in accounting. JSOM has everything that a business student needs. It has great advisors and very knowledgeable professors. I have learned so much from some of these individuals that I consider them my mentors. I also found the JSOM tutoring centers very beneficial. The tutors are friendly and helpful when you have questions about specific subjects.

What is a must-do at JSOM?

A student must participate and be part of at least one of the student organizations within the school. I personally joined ALPFA (Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting) and quickly became a board member of this student chapter. This organization gave me the tools I needed to prepare for the transition from student to professional. It also allowed me to expand my network by meeting professionals from various companies.

Did you get an internship? With whom? Tell about the experience.

Yes, I interned with Goldman Sachs in the summer of 2014. It was a unique experience, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to join the firm’s summer program in the Salt Lake City, Utah, office. Personally as well as professionally, this internship really helped me to become a better version of myself. Thanks to this internship, I was able to put into practice my organizational, time-management and public-speaking skills. Professionally, I gained a lot of great insight on how the firm stands out in the finance world and what makes the firm so competitive in foreign countries. I also achieved hands-on experience working in different projects with employees worldwide. My experience in Goldman Sachs has been very rewarding. If I had to go back to the moment when I received this internship offer, and I had to choose to spend my summer away from everything I know challenging myself to do things I have never done before, I would gladly do it all over again.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

I see myself working for a well-known company somewhere in the United States. I also see myself going to different countries for business, allowing me to learn more about other professionals and their cultures.