At the end of the 30-day period, a unanimous ballot was cast, so Paul will become the new Chair-Elect on July 1, 2019. As Chair-Elect, he will be a member of the Governance Committee and will chair IMA’s Planning and Development Committee.
“I had been working toward this role for many years and was thrilled when [current Chair-Elect] Christian Cuzick called me to tell me I had been selected,” Paul said. “IMA has a tremendous staff and senior leadership team and I could not wait to start working more closely with them as well as with [current Chair] Ginger White and Christian as a member of the group of the three chairs. This is a group of individuals for whom I have much respect and I know I can learn a great deal from them that will help me continue to grow personally and professionally.”
FAST FACTS
Current Position: Vander Wolk Professor of Management Accounting and Operational Performance at Babson College
Resides in: Cornelius, N.C.
First Job: Cashier in a grocery store. “I easily became proficient at running my fingers over the cash register keys. I guess it was a sign that I would end up being a part of the accounting and finance world.”
Hobbies: Golf, scuba diving, yoga, Pilates, reading fiction
Fun Fact: Coauthored six of the cases that have been used in IMA’s Student Case Competition
Paul is the Vander Wolk Professor of Management Accounting and Operational Performance at Babson College, where he teaches management accounting and strategic cost management courses in the MBA and undergraduate programs. He previously taught at Wake Forest University. He earned his Ph.D. from Syracuse University and both his BBA and MBA from Pace University.
“I have spent most of my professional career as an academic,” Paul said. “As an educator, I am constantly interacting with students, both graduate and undergraduate, and a central point of focus for me and many of my colleagues in the academic community is to help the students become career-ready. This work is aligned with one of the key areas of strategic focus of IMA, raising awareness in the student/academic market to expand the membership pipeline and reach the young CMA-certified professional of tomorrow. As such, I am committed to enhancing the visibility and recognition of our various IMA student- and academic-focused benefits, including the student scholarships, IMA school endorsement, and student leadership conferences.”
An IMA member since 1983, Paul has been a member of the Global Board of Directors since 2012, chair of the ICMA Board of Regents since 2017, and has served as chair of the IMA Research Foundation, the Performance Oversight and Audit Board Committee, and the Committee on Academic Relations. He spent 10 years as associate editor of IECJ® (IMA Educational Case Journal). He served as president of IMA’s Winston-Salem Chapter in 1995-1996.
Paul’s area of expertise is strategic management accounting. He has published articles in numerous journals, including the Journal of Corporate Accounting and Finance, Issues in Accounting Education, The CPA Journal, and Strategic Finance, and his current research interests focus on contemporary cost management systems. Paul also has coauthored a cost management textbook as well as numerous case studies with a cost management perspective.
“An academic career path is an interesting one,” Paul said. “When you first become a faculty member you teach, do research, and provide service to your profession. You work your way up to become a tenured full professor, or, as in my case, earn a chaired professorship, and you are still teaching, doing research, and providing service to the profession. That does not change. What changes is how you teach, what you research, and how you provide service to your profession. IMA had the biggest influence on that change for me. The network I built exposed me to new ideas and insights into the so-called real-world issues my students would be facing. I was able to incorporate these insights into the classroom and my writing. Some of my involvement led to the development of several cases I have published in Strategic Finance and the IMA Educational Case Journal. However, my involvement had the most impact on the service component. Through my numerous roles within the IMA I believe I have been able to make a positive impact on both the academic and nonacademic sides of the profession.”
In 2015, Paul received IMA’s R. Lee Brummet Award for Distinguished Accounting Educators.
June 2019
