{"id":17,"date":"2025-01-27T14:17:47","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T12:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.uwasa.fi\/uvac2025\/?page_id=17"},"modified":"2025-09-05T16:52:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T13:52:14","slug":"speakers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.uwasa.fi\/uvac2025\/speakers\/","title":{"rendered":"Speakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The conference will feature invited presentations and a roundtable delivered by established experts in the field.<\/p>\n

Keynote speaker:<\/p>\n

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Professor Stephen Penman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Professor Stephen Penman<\/strong>, Columbia Business School (USA). Professor Penman is\u00a0a 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.\u00a0He is a founding editor of the\u202fReview of Accounting Studies<\/em>\u202fand 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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
Timothy King<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Timothy King<\/span><\/b>\u00a0is a Professor in Finance at the University of Vaasa, Finland. He is a highly experienced academic with an international background and profile. He publishes regularly in world leading journals (e.g.,\u00a0Journal of Corporate Finance<\/i>\u00a0and the\u00a0British Journal of Management<\/i>\u00a0(JUFO 3 \/ AJG 4)). Amongst several notable roles, he has been a research center director at the University of Kent, UK, where he led the\u00a0Centre for Quantitative Finance\u00a0<\/i>(one of only three research centres in a large UK business school). Professor King also serves as an editor-in-chief for\u00a0Multinational Finance Journal<\/i>\u00a0and associate editor at several notable journals including the\u00a0Business Research Quarterly\u00a0<\/i>and on the scientific committee of others (e.g.,\u00a0Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance<\/i>). Aside from contributions to international academia he also works closely with practice.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Professor\u00a0Agnes Cheng<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The roundtable discussion will be facilitated by Professor<\/strong>\u00a0Agnes Cheng<\/strong>, The University of Oklahoma (USA). Professor Cheng\u00a0is 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.\u202fShe has served on numerous editorial boards including\u00a0The Accounting Review<\/i>\u00a0and the\u00a0Contemporary Accounting Research<\/i>. She is currently serving as Editor for\u00a0Journal of Business Finance and Accounting<\/i>,\u00a0Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance<\/i>\u00a0(conference),\u00a0Journal of International Accounting Research<\/i>, Associate Editor for\u00a0Journal of Financial Stability<\/i>; and as Senior Track Editor for\u00a0China Accounting and Finance Review<\/i>. Prof. Cheng has also provided key services for several accounting organizations including President for CAPANA and Vice President \u2013 International for American Accounting Association.<\/p>\n

Participants of the roundtable discussion:<\/p>\n

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Professor Maureen McNichols<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Professor Maureen McNichols<\/strong>, 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\u2019 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\u00a0Studies<\/i>, and has served on the editorial boards of\u00a0Journal of Accounting Research<\/i>,\u00a0The Accounting\u00a0Review<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0Contemporary Accounting Research<\/i>. <\/span>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.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Professor Kerstin Lopatta<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kerstin Lopatta,<\/strong> a Chair Professor of Financial Accounting, Auditing and Sustainability at the University of Hamburg. Professor Lopatta is also affiliate with City University of Hong Kong as a visiting professor. She received her doctoral degree from Goethe University Frankfurt. <\/span>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. <\/span>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.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Professor
Professor Jim Ohlson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Professor Jim Ohlson<\/strong>, Stockholm School of Economics, an Affiliated Researcher.<\/span>\u00a0He received his PhD degree at the University of California in 1972. His faculty career started out as an Assistant Professor at Stanford University, and has since held Chaired Professorships at UC Berkeley, Columbia, Arizona State, University, New York University, and The Polytechnic University in Hong Kong. Visiting Professorships at major institutions have been held in USA, Europe, and Asia. <\/span>Jim\u2019s research has focused on Equity Valuation, FSA, Financial Forecasting ,and Data Analysis. He has received many academic awards, including those from AAA due to seminal contributions to literature. His most famous paper is \u201cEarnings, Book Values, and Equity Valuation\u201d, published in CAR, 1985.\u00a0 Citations for single-authored papers exceed 20,000.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Vesa Syrj\u00e4l\u00e4inen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vesa Syrj\u00e4l\u00e4inen<\/strong>, CFA, the Development Manager for Responsible Investment at Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company, where he leads strategic ESG integration with a particular emphasis on climate and biodiversity reporting. He has played a key role in advancing Varma\u2019s climate roadmap and disclosures, contributing to transparent reporting on financed emissions, biodiversity risks, and nature-related financial impacts. Under his leadership, climate-friendly investments exceeded 39% of Varma\u2019s portfolio in 2024. A CFA charterholder and finance graduate from the University of Vaasa, Syrj\u00e4l\u00e4inen actively participates in Nordic sustainability forums and drives Varma\u2019s alignment with global frameworks like TCFD and TNFD.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u00a0a 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":157,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-17","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.uwasa.fi\/uvac2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.uwasa.fi\/uvac2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.uwasa.fi\/uvac2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.uwasa.fi\/uvac2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/157"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.uwasa.fi\/uvac2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":37,"href":"https:\/\/sites.uwasa.fi\/uvac2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":193,"href":"https:\/\/sites.uwasa.fi\/uvac2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17\/revisions\/193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.uwasa.fi\/uvac2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}