2010 Australian Accounting Hall of Fame

Elizabeth Alexander
Brown Phil
Ray Chambers
Fitzgerald Alex
Gynther Reg

Australia’s first ever accounting hall of fame, created to celebrate the contributions of significant accounting practitioners past and present, was launched at the University of Melbourne on Friday 8th October 2010.

The inaugural list of five inductees included Ray Chambers AO, the first non-American to be included in the Ohio Accounting Hall of Fame, the founder of Fitzgerald & Tompson (now Ernst & Young) and first Professor of Accounting at the University of Melbourne, Sir Alex Fitzgerald OBE, together with Elizabeth Alexander AM, a former National and State President of CPA Australia.

Emeritus Professor Philip Brown of the University of Western Australia, and Professor at the University of New South Wales as well as Emeritus Professor Reg Gynther of the University of Queensland, each highly respected international scholars, round out the top five.

The final five were selected from a list of 16 nominations by a panel of 24 in a preferential ballot.

Hall of Fame Director and Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Business and Economics Mr Phill Cobbin says the Hall will honour some true giants of the accounting profession.

"Accounting in Australia has a long and distinguished heritage, dating back to the late 19th Century, and we thought it was high time we honored the individuals whose achievements have been immense and whose impact on the development of the discipline over that time have been profound" he said.

"The achievements of the first five really speak for themselves. Elizabeth Alexander has contributed over 40 years of experience to the accounting profession, becoming the first female partner in a ‘Big 8’ accounting firm and also the first female State and National President of CPA Australia.

"Ray Chambers was a prodigious researcher, writing more than 230 articles and 11 major books, and is widely considered to be one of the earliest proponents of ‘fair value’ accounting. His discourses against historical costs are legendary. As a key leader in the accounting profession in the middle years of the 20th Century, Sir Alex Fitzgerald did much to legitimize accounting as an academic pursuit.

"Philip Brown wrote a seminal paper that transformed accounting research, and established one of the first MBAs in Australia at the Australian Graduate School of Management. Reg Gynther, as a contemporary of Chambers was also keenly interested in the effects of price level changes on accounting, and helped change the accounting discipline by extending research training.

"Our inaugural recipients exemplify the wealth of accounting expertise that exists in Australia, and we look forward to adding other exemplary accountants to the Hall in coming years."

The recipients of the award and family of inductees no longer living were presented with a leather bound citation and testamur at a dinner held at University House.

2010 Photo Album (PDF 2.4MB)

2010 Commemorative booklet (PDF 1MB)