Stephen Penman

Citation

Stephen Penman was educated in Brisbane where he earned a first-class honours degree in Commerce from the University of Queensland. He subsequently pursued graduate studies in the US, completing MBA and PhD degrees at the University of Chicago. A term paper written during his honors degree, published in The Accounting Review in 1970, was the pre-cursor to an extensive career in academia. Stephen’s research deals with the valuation of equity and the role of accounting information in security analysis; a number of his papers deal with accounting policy issues. He has published widely in the leading finance and accounting journals and has conducted seminars on accounting and analysis for academic and professional audiences. In excess of 60 papers have been published during his extensive career with an impressive number in premier journals including the Journal of Accounting Research, Review of Accounting Studies, The Accounting Review and Contemporary Accounting Research. He is presently Co-Editor of the Review of Accounting Studies and served as Managing Editor from 2002-2006. Stephen Penman has continued to support research within Australia, publishing in Abacus on several occasions and attending various research conferences. Presently George O. May Professor in the Graduate School of Business, Columbia University, he is also Co-Director of the Center for Excellence in Accounting and Security Analysis and Director of the Masters program in Accounting and Fundamental Analysis. Prior to his appointment at Columbia he was the L.H. Penney Professor in the Walter A. Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley, where he served as Chair of the Professional Accounting Program and Chairman of the Accounting Faculty 1990-1995. Stephen Penman has also contributed significantly through the supervision and examination of more than 50 PhD students.  In 1991 Stephen Penman was awarded the Notable Contribution to Accounting Literature Award by the American Accounting Association and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and in 2002 was awarded the American Accounting Association and Deloitte & Touche Wildman Medal for his book, Financial Statement Analysis and Security Valuation, published by McGraw-Hill/Irwin. In 1997 he was awarded the Institute for Quantitative Investment Research Prize and in 2005 he was awarded the Geewax Terker & Co Prize in Investment Research. In 2011 he was a place-winner in the Roger F. Murray prize from The Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance. His acclaimed book, Accounting for Value, was published by Columbia University Press in January 2011. He is currently on the advisory boards of Phoenician Capital and Boston Harbor Investment Management and the Board of Directors and Chair of the Audit Committee of UBS Financial Services Inc. Hedge Fund Solutions. Stephen Penman has also served two terms – 1994-1997 and 2008-2011 – as a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Committee of the American Accounting Association. In 2009 Stephen Penman received a doctoral degree honoris causa from the Stockholm School of Economics and in 2019 the American accounting profession accorded him their highest honour with membership of the Accounting Hall of Fame hosted by the American Accounting Association.

The Australian Accounting Hall of Fame honours Stephen Penman as an eminent accounting researcher and thinker.