Accounting champions inducted into the Australian Accounting Hall of Fame

Three accounting pioneers have been inducted into the Australian Accounting Hall of Fame for their significant achievements and contributions to the field.

Almost 100 guests from government, academia and the accounting industry came together to celebrate and honour the new inductees at the ninth Annual Dinner and Awards Ceremony of the Australian Accounting Hall of Fame.

The Head of the University of Melbourne's Department of Accounting, Matt Pinnuck, was joined by the Directors of the Centre for Accounting and Industry Partnerships - Brad Potter, Stewart Leech and Kevin Stevenson - and the Hall of Fame Director Phill Cobbin.

Professor Margaret Abernethy, Mr Ron Weber and Professor Ray Ball (not pictured) were inducted into the Australian Accounting Hall of Fame on Wednesday 14 March.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE THREE NEW INDUCTEES INTO THE AUSTRALIAN ACCOUNTING HALL OF FAME

Professor Margaret Abernethy

Professor Margaret Anne Abernethy holds the Sir Douglas Copland Chair of Commerce at the University of Melbourne. She graduated with a Bachelor of Economics with first class honours from La Trobe University in 1983 and has also held academic appointments at LaTrobe University and Monash University. Her doctoral dissertation laid the groundwork for seminal contributions to the accounting literature on the management of professional workers and the structure and professionalisation of hospital administration and throughout her career has published in the highest ranked journals. Maggie Abernethy is one of three Australians in the top 100 across all fields of accounting. She ranks eighth in the world in managerial accounting based on citations to her research. Maggie has attracted considerable research funding including the recent successful bid to establish the Melbourne Centre for Corporate Governance and Regulation. She contributes significantly to the academy in her role as editor of prestigious journals and also as an editorial board member on leading international and Australian journals. Her contributions to the accounting academy occurred while she held many leadership roles both within and outside the University.  Most notably, she held the Sidney Myer Chair of Commerce in her role as Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics from 2004 to 2012. Critical through Maggie’s years in senior management and academic positions has been her focus on creating endowed scholarships for both the best students, and those suffering disadvantage. Since returning to the Department she has been instrumental in developing an internationally competitive doctoral program.

Ron Weber

Mr Ron Weber’s career started with the University Medal and a first-class honours degree in Commerce from the University of Queensland. Masters and doctoral studies at Minnesota preceded academic appointments at ANU, Queensland and Monash and visiting professorships at Minnesota, New York, British Columbia, Otago, Alberta and NTU Singapore. Ron Weber has had an outstanding career that has extended beyond accounting into information systems.Ron has published 50 academic research papers, many in top tier journals in both disciplines, nine books and monographs and twelve book chapters. This contribution and impact in the academy is reflected with over 10,000 citations culminating in an outstanding H-index of 43. Twenty-six doctoral students, several of who are now world-renowned scholars in the information systems field, have benefited from his supervision, as have 33 course-work masters and honours students.

Ray Ball

Mr Ray Ball is the Sidney Davidson Distinguished Service Professor of Accounting in the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. Ray Ball has worked in Australia at UNSW and Queensland, Rochester and Chicago in the USA and the London Business School. The seminal 1968 paper, “An Empirical Evaluation of Accounting Income Numbers”, co-authored with Philip Brown (AAHoF 2010) and published in the Journal of Accounting Research, is the most highly cited accounting research paper (with 7847 citations - Google Scholar). This paper marked the beginning of Ray’s considerable influence on the literature and the accounting research community. For personal reasons, Ray Ball was not able to make the trip to Melbourne this year. However, we look forward to welcoming him to the 2019 awards night when Ray will be presented with his Australian Accounting Hall of Fame membership citation and testamur, as a 2018 member.

The Australian Accounting Hall of Fame acknowledges and thanks our valued sponsor, CPA Australia, whose generous support makes this prestigious event possible.

Nominations for the 2019 Australian Accounting Hall of Fame awards will be open on 1 May 2018.