SOAR Leadership

Patricia (Patty) M. Dechow

Robert R. Dockson Professor of Business Administration Professor of Accounting, Finance and Business Economics
University of Southern California

Patricia Dechow is the Robert R. Dockson Professor of Business Administration and Professor of Accounting, Finance, and Business Economics at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. She is widely recognized as one of the nation's most influential accounting scholars. Her research focuses on accounting accruals, the quality and reliability of earnings, the use of earnings information in predicting stock returns, and the effect of analysts' forecasts on investors’ perceptions of firm value. Her work has been published in leading journals such as The Accounting Review, Review of Accounting Studies, Contemporary Accounting Research, and Journal of Accounting and Economics. She recently wrote a book with Richard Sloan titled “Business Sustainability Reporting & Analysis,” which has been adopted for undergraduate and master’s classes at universities throughout the US and in Europe.

Professor Dechow has received numerous awards for her contributions to accounting, including the American Accounting Association’s Seminal Contribution to Accounting Literature Award in 2019 and the AAA Distinguished Contribution to Accounting Literature Award in 2015. In 2022, she was inducted into the Australian Accounting Hall of Fame, recognizing her significant impact on accounting research and education.

Professor Dechow earned her bachelor's degree with First Class Honors in Commerce from the University of Western Australia and a Ph.D. in Accounting and Finance from the University of Rochester. She has held faculty positions at the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Michigan; and the University of Pennsylvania.

Lakshmanan (Shiva) Shivakumar

Lord David Sainsbury of Turville Professor; Professor of Accounting
London Business School

Lakshmanan (Shiva) Shivakumar is the Lord David Sainsbury of Turville Professor, Professor of Accounting at London Business School. He has Ph.D. (Finance) and MBA (Finance) degrees from Vanderbilt University and Bachelors in Commerce degree from the University of Madras. He has a certification in cost accounting from India. He was formerly the Subject Area Chair for the accounting group at London Business School and has held visiting positions at the University of Chicago, Singapore National University, the Indian School of Business, the Australian National University, the University of Hong Kong and the University of New South Wales (Australia).

A prolific and influential academic researcher, he has been invited to talk at universities and conferences in over 25 countries. He has published articles in several top-tier accounting and finance journals. Shivakumar is the Managing Editor of the Review of Accounting Studies and is a former editor of The Accounting Review. He also serves or has served on the Editorial Board of The Accounting Review, the Journal of Accounting Research and the Journal of Business Finance and Accounting and has been a member of the American Accounting Association council. He has been a member of the UK’s Financial Reporting Advisory Board. Shivakumar also consults for several bankers and consulting firms on valuation, financial analysis, and investment strategies. His research has been presented to several regulators and development agencies, including the African Development Bank, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Singapore Stock Exchange. An award-winning teacher, Shivakumar teaches Financial Statement Analysis and Securities Analysis and Financial Modelling.

Shivaram Rajgopal

Roy Bernard Kester and T.W. Byrnes Professor of Accounting and Auditing; Chair of the Accounting Division
Columbia Business School

Shiva Rajgopal is the Roy Bernard Kester and T.W. Byrnes Professor of Accounting and Auditing at Columbia Business School. He has also been a faculty member at the Duke University, Emory University and the University of Washington. Professor Rajgopal’s research interests span financial reporting, earnings quality, fraud, executive compensation and corporate culture.  His research is frequently cited in the popular press, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg, Fortune, Forbes, Financial Times, Business Week, and the Economist. He teaches fundamental analysis of financial statements for investors, managers and entrepreneurs and a PhD seminar on accounting regulation.

Key awards include 2006 and 2016 American Accounting Association (AAA) Notable Contribution to the Literature award, 2006 and 2016 Graham and Dodd Scroll Prize given by the Financial Analysts Journal, and the 2008, 2012 and 2015 Glen McLaughlin Award for Research in Accounting Ethics.

He is the Departmental Editor of the Accounting track of Management Science.  He is also an Associate Editor at the Journal of Accounting and Economics and an ex-editor at Contemporary Accounting Research.  He was on the editorial board of The Accounting Review from 2003-2011.