My goals as teacher of Accounting

As teacher of accounting I strive to make accounting enjoyable so that students are willing to dedicate the long hours needed to master the concepts, techniques, and models that form the backbone of accounting. I also attempt to cut through the veil of mystery that surrounds accounting and show how financial statements can be used to discover how businesses create (or destroy) shareholder value.

What I enjoy most in teaching, and the reason I do it, is the opportunity to participate in the process of discovery. Not once or twice, in a rare “eureka” moment, but every Fall, Winter and Spring. Every time the classroom door opens, the lights are switched on, and the dialogue begins. It is not always easy, but at the end of every Summer I miss my students.

Discovery is the greatest reward in research as well. Many times what came to me as a foggy puzzle, gradually coalesced into a well defined question, and then became the motivation for long hours seeking a way to address the question. In particular two questions have captivated me throughout my academic career. The first was the quest for a rationale for accrual accounting as being better than simply recording cash flows. The second was the search for an explanation for anomalies in the Sharpe-Lintner-Mossin asset pricing model, which grew into an attempt to unite in a single valuation formula the diversification and option-to-abandon characteristics of common equity.

Along with discovery in teaching and research, comes discovery in the midst of my Department, School and University, which I see as the process of figuring out how best to teach, do research, serve our students and the community, evaluate our performance, and establish plans for the future. 

Thus, “discovery,” both as pathway and as destination, is the concept that unites for me the three aspects of the academic career of teaching, doing research, and serving the community. It is also how I comprehend the connection between my actions in each of these three areas and the mission of the University.

Bio

I have had several years of experience in business, first as a financial analyst at Brazil's Bank for Economic Development (BNDES), at Exxon and at BAT, and more recently as CFO of an independent and publicly traded Coca-Cola bottler in Rio de Janeiro (Cia. Fluminense de Refrigerantes). While with the Coca-Cola system I participated in efforts to increase the efficiency of operations by means of mergers and shared service facilities. I have taught at the Pennsylvania State University and at INSEAD (Fontainebleau and Singapore) courses on financial statement analysis and financial accounting. In September of 2002 I joined the accounting faculty at Seattle University, where I teach at the graduate and undergraduate levels. My main research interests are financial statement analysis and corporate valuation.

I hold a B.S. from Pontificia Universidade Catolica (Rio), an M.S. from COPPE (Rio), an MBA from Cornell University, and a PhD in Accounting from Cornell University.