Three accounting titans have been inducted into the Australian Accounting Hall of Fame for their significant achievements and contributions to the field.
The 2021 celebrations were presented virtually to the event’s largest audience yet. More than 120 guests from academia, government, and industry tuned in to honour the new inductees at the 12th Annual Awards Ceremony of the Australian Accounting Hall of Fame.
The Hall of Fame Director Phill Cobbin was joined by the Directors of the Centre for Accounting and Industry Partnerships Brad Potter, Stewart Leech, and Kevin Stevenson.
Mr David Boymal AM, Mr Bill Edge, and Professor Stewart Leech were inducted into the Australian Accounting Hall of Fame on Wednesday 3 March.
This year’s Colin Ferguson Oration was delivered by Professor Sharon Lewin. Professor Lewin is a leading infectious diseases expert and the inaugural Director of The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, a joint University of Melbourne – Royal Melbourne Hospital initiative. She is also a Professor of Medicine at The University of Melbourne and a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Practitioner Fellow.
Professor Lewin’s address was timely and thought-provoking as she outlined her experiences in the last 12 months dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Her engaging expert perspective allowed an insight into Australia’s and particularly Melbourne’s response to the pandemic, and what we might expect in the future.
Meet the inductees
Mr David Boymal AM was involved in national and international standard setting for almost three decades, commencing in 1982 with the Accounting Standards Board of the Australian Accounting Research Foundation, and, finally, with the statutory Australian Accounting Standards Board which he chaired during 2003–08, a period which saw Australia adopting International Financial Reporting Standards. He also represented Australia on the International Federation of Accountants on whose Board he served.
For the Australian accounting profession, he was President of the Victorian Division of CPA Australia in 1992–93 and the body’s National President during 1998–99. As practitioner with Ernst & Young and its predecessors, David was responsible for major audit clients and held senior roles in the firm's national and international operational and policy committees. Further evidence of his reputation is appointments to key audit and regulatory roles with the Australian National Audit Office and the Australian Securities Investment Commission.
Mr William (Bill) Edge is one of Australia’s most distinguished audit and assurance practitioners, standard-setters and financial-reporting regulators. After an early career divided between chartered accounting and academia, he gave long service to PricewaterhouseCoopers, ultimately assuming leading roles in the firm’s professional standards, risk and quality-management groups. Entering standard-setting in 2001 via the Australian Auditing Standards Board of the Australian Accounting Research Foundation, he chaired the Board during 2002–04, paving the way for auditing standards becoming legislated instruments. A move to regulatory oversight came in 2014 with his appointment to the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), the body responsible for overseeing accounting, auditing and assurance standard-setting arrangement in Australia. He has chaired the FRC since 2016. Among his other important contributions has been service as office bearer for both CPA Australia and Chartered Accountants New Zealand and Australia and his work on advisory bodies for Melbourne, Deakin and La Trobe universities.
Professor Emeritus Stewart Leech enjoys a major international reputation for his contributions over 40 years to the field of Accounting Information Systems (AIS). This reputation is based on over 60 articles and chapters in prestigious journals and edited books together with roles as editor-in-chief of the top-tier International Journal of Accounting Information Systems and chairmanship of the AIS and Artificial Intelligence/Emerging Technologies special-interest groups of the American Accounting Association (AAA). He was the recipient of the AAS’s outstanding educator and outstanding researcher awards in 2006 and 2011 respectively. As academic administrator he was Professor of Accounting at the University of Tasmania during 1992 –2000 and, subsequently inaugural Professor of Accounting and Business Information System at his alma mater, the University of Melbourne. His professional contributions encompass membership of the Tasmanian and Victorian State Councils of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, including eleven years as chair of the latter’s National Education Board.
The Australian Accounting Hall of Fame acknowledges and thanks our valued sponsors, CPA Australia and Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand, whose generous support makes this prestigious event possible.
Nominations for the 2022 Australian Accounting Hall of Fame awards will be open on 1 August 2021.