The conference will feature invited presentations and a roundtable delivered by established experts in the field.

Keynote speaker:

Professor Stephen Penman, Columbia Business School (USA). Professor Penman is a Professor in the Graduate School of Business, Columbia University where 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. He is a founding editor of the Review of Accounting Studies and served as managing editor from 2002-2006. He is on the advisory boards of Phoenician Capital and Boston Harbor Investment Management and has served as an advisor to fundamental asset managers in the U.S., Europe, and China. He also serves on the Board of Directors of UBS Financial Services Inc. Hedge Fund Solutions and is chair of its audit committee. In 2019 he was elected to the Accounting Hall of Fame and in 2020 to the Australian Accounting Hall of Fame.

 

The roundtable discussion will be facilitated by Professor Agnes Cheng, The University of Oklahoma (USA). Professor Cheng is the Dale Looper Chair in Accounting in the Price College of Business. She was the Chair Professor and Head at the School of Accounting and Finance, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University before joining the University of Oklahoma. She has served on numerous editorial boards including The Accounting Review and the Contemporary Accounting Research. She is currently serving as Editor for Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance (conference), Journal of International Accounting Research, Associate Editor for Journal of Financial Stability; and as Senior Track Editor for China Accounting and Finance Review. Prof. Cheng has also provided key services for several accounting organizations including President for CAPANA and Vice President – International for American Accounting Association.

 

The roundtable discussion will also feature Professor Maureen McNichols who serves as The Marriner S. Eccles Professor of Accounting and Public and Private Management at Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB). Her leading research on earnings management and its implications for investors, and on analysts’ incentives, forecasts, and investment recommendations has received considerable attention from academics, investors, and regulators. Her recent work examines governance over financial reporting, the accounting profession and environmental and social reporting issues. Her papers appear in the leading journals in accounting and finance and have garnered several Best Paper awards, including for her work on estimation and valuation of environmental liabilities. She served as an editor of Review of Accounting Studies, and has served on the editorial boards of Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review and Contemporary Accounting Research. Professor McNichols served as a member of the Public Companies Accounting Oversight Board Standing Advisory Group from 2014-19. From 2003-2006, she served as a director and member of the audit and compensation committees of Net IQ Corporation. She is certified as a CPA by the State of Illinois, and is a member of the American Accounting Association.

 

Moreover, the roundtable discussion will also include  Kerstin Lopatta who is a Chair Professor of Financial Accounting, Auditing and Sustainability at the University of Hamburg. Besides, she is affiliated with City University of Hong Kong as a visiting professor. She received her doctoral degree from Goethe University Frankfurt. Kerstin has extensive experience in sustainability reporting and financial accounting in practice and research. Before starting her scientific career she worked as an audit assistant for Deloitte. She is involved in developing, improving and implementing a variety of disclosure standards in different areas of sustainability reporting, e. g. she is a member of the Sustainability Reporting Technical Committee at the Accounting Standards Committee of Germany (ASCG) and she is the vice chair of the EFRAG Sustainability Reporting Board. In her research, she investigates empirically the effects of environmental, social, and governance factors on business and society. She also covers corporate governance topics such as board structure and diversity. Kerstin Lopatta is a member of the supervisory board and of the audit committee at Freenet AG, Eurokai GmbH & Co. KGaA and HSBC Continental Europe.

To facilitate wider dialogue between the academic community and practice, the Vaasa conference will also feature representatives from several leading companies to share their opinions and insights about the key challenges in relation to accounting and accountability for climate change.