News

News

On this page:

• 4 FMCG Conference held in Wellington
• SACL student wins Summer Gold Poster competition
• A conversation with Professor Warren McGregor about the IASB
• Top students awarded for Excellence in Accounting, Commercial Law & Taxation

4 FMCG Conference held in Wellington

7 May 2013

The 4th annual Financial Markets and Corporate Governance Conference, and associated PhD Symposium, was held recently at Victoria University of Wellington (Symposium) and the Rydges Hotel Wellington (Conference).

Established by Associate Professor Balasingham Balachandran (La Trobe Business School), this conference was being hosted overseas for the first time after being held in Melbourne, Australia, for its first three years.

In opening the conference Professor Bob Buckle, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of the Victoria Business School, commented that: "Research, sharing ideas, and improving financial practice and public policy through conferences like this are a crucial part of the process of advancing understanding and practice", and thus in future avoiding the severe social costs from events of the past such as the Global Financial Crisis and the earlier Asian Financial Crisis.

This year's conference was particularly fortunate in having six world renowned academics as keynote speakers: Professor Peter Clarkson, Professor Jonathan Karpoff, Professor Ron Masulis, Professor Stephen Taylor, Professor Tom Smith and Professor Ross Watts.

In addition, papers were presented by academics and PhD students working in Australia, China, Czech Republic, Germany, India, Indonesia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and United States.

External sponsors of the event included Curtin University, Macquarie University, Queensland University of Technology, La Trobe University, and the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand. Victoria University was represented by the School of Accounting and Commercial Law, the School of Economics and Finance, and the Centre for Accounting, Governance and Taxation Research.

The conference was also the occasion for the Accounting Research Journal to donate an award for the best paper presented at the conference by a PhD student. The winner of the award, announced at the Conference Dinner, was Mark Humphrey-Jenner from the Australian School of Business at UNSW.

Next year's conference will be held in Queensland, Australia.

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SACL student wins Summer Gold Poster competition

18 April 2013

Congratulations to School of Accounting and Commercial Law student Nataly Noguer Blue, who won the award for the Best Poster in the Faculty of Commerce Summer Gold Posters Competition with "Measuring Impact in the Voluntary Sector".

From November 2012 to February 2013, a number of Summer Scholars were hosted within SACL and surrounding businesses, working on projects as diverse as 'valuing volunteers to the tax implications of imported goods' to 'companies’ carbon policies'.

These scholars continued the tradition of the past three years where over 1100 students have held Victoria University scholarships as part of the Summer Scholars Scheme. As well as writing reports, scholars are invited to submit a poster describing their work and its results.

SACL Summer Scholars included:

• Nataly Noguer Blue: "Measuring Impact in the Voluntary Sector" (supervisors Drs Carolyn Cordery – SACL and Karen Smith – School of Management), co-sponsored by Volunteering New Zealand. To view the report please visit the Volunteering New Zealand website. To view Nataly's poster click here.
• Krishant Goya: "User Needs of Small Capital Market Entities" (supervisor Dr Rodney Dormer), co-sponsored by the External Reporting Board.
• Michelle Porter: "Who Benefits from Productivity Gains" (supervisor Professor John Creedy), co-sponsored by the Productivity Commission.
• Andrew Milne: "What’s the Cost of the Game? Discretionary and Variable Costs in Grassroots Sports Clubs (Rugby)" (supervisors Dr Carolyn Cordery – SACL and Professor John Davies – School of Management), co-sponsored by Sport New Zealand. To view Andrew's poster click here.
• James Reece Berkett: "Carbon Management and Carbon Accounting Practices among NZ" (supervisor Dr Binh Bui). To view James' poster click here.
• Samuel Easton: "Does Mandatory IFRS Adoption Improve Information Quality" (supervisor Dr Noor Hoque).

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A conversation with Professor Warren McGregor about the IASB

25 March 2013

"My time at the IASB and challenges for the future – a conversation with Warren McGregor" was the title of a recent Business Links Seminar hosted by the Centre for Accounting, Governance and Taxation Research (CAGTR), in association with the External Reporting Board (XRB).

The seminar was presented by Professor Warren McGregor, an inaugural member of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). Warren traversed his 10-year term on the IASB, in particular highlighting some of the major events of the decade offering a behind the scenes look at these critical events.

He then drew from his experiences to make some observations about the challenges for the future, such as bringing the United States into the IFRS family and the oversight, structural and funding issues relating to public sector accounting standards.

Kimberley Crook, Deputy Chair of the New Zealand Accounting Standards Board and partner and national leader of Financial Accounting Advisory Services for Ernst & Young, provided the commentary.

Kimberley drew on her own experiences while involved in international standard-setting to provide another perspective on some of the critical events of Warren’s term on the IASB, and then drew on Warren’s experiences and observations about the future to highlight issues for us in New Zealand.

Around 75 people, from a wide range of corporate and public sector organisations, attended the seminar.

In his closing comments Kevin Simpkins, Chair of the XRB and Adjunct Professor in the School of Accounting and Commercial Law, paid tribute to Professor McGregor for his outstanding service to the international accounting community and also for his close friendship with the New Zealand standard-setting community for the last 30 years.

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Top students awarded for Excellence in Accounting, Commercial Law & Taxation

25 March 2013

Top students in the School of Accounting and Commercial Law were recently honoured at the School’s annual Awards for Excellence ceremony in the Hunter Building’s Council Chamber.

The prestigious Awards for Excellence were presented by Local Government Online CEO Cassandra Crowley, who gave an engaging address about the variety of interesting opportunities that a qualification in Accounting, Commercial Law or Taxation offers.

Professor Ian Eggleton, Head of the School of Accounting and Commercial Law, said that the Excellence Awards ceremony was one of the highlights of the year and provided a wonderful opportunity for students, their families, prospective employers and Faculty to mingle and network together in an informal gathering.

The winning students were encouraged to enrol for Honours upon graduation, although it is already evident that many will be accepting attractive offers from employers both locally and overseas.

The Award winners were the best academic performers in their second year of Accounting, Commercial Law and Taxation courses:

Certificates in Accounting
Benjamin Allen, Thomas Annear, Nicholas Barry, Evinder Bhandal, Aidan Copps, Lauren Gibbs, Krishant Goyal, Ho My Phuong, Caleb McConnell, Andrew Milne, Brendan Ng, Nguyen Duy Linh, Nguyen Quang Nghi, Anita-Bina Parsot, Arushi Sharma, Christopher Stempa, Matthew Stephen, Tania van Loon and Joel Walden.

Certificates in Commercial Law
Tessa Barnett, Lani Buchanan, Taegan Hale, Danielle Hurst-Kiely, Jennifer Kaye-Blake, Kirsten McCutcheon, Diana Phillips, Nigel Salmons and Blair Tomblin.

Certificates in Taxation
Stuart Berry, Olivia Fountain, Josie-Rose Goddard and Jolene Schwamm.

There were also five students who achieved Excellence in two disciplines: Praneeth Dantanarayana, Abby Franklin, Monique McDermott and Aaron Van Der Heyden who received Certificates of Excellence in Accounting and Commercial Law; and Claire Hughes who achieved Excellence in Accounting and Taxation.

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