Speaker Bios

Alongside his role as the James R. Williston Professor of Business Administration, Paul is the HBS Senior Associate Dean for Research, providing authoritative analysis on an array of topics including Wall St research, business ethics, corruption, financial analysis and mergers and acquisitions.
His research has garnered many awards and been both prolific and widely published, including in The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Accounting Research, Financial Analysts Journal, Harvard Business Review and Journal of Financial Economics. He has also co-authored many books including Business Analysis and Valuation: Using Financial Statements, a leading textbook in its field.
Paul says his work mainly involves teaching, research and university administration, and what he enjoys most are "interactions with students, great colleagues and research".
His teaching interests include leadership, strategic financial analysis and financial reporting, and he also serves on Victoria Business School’s Advisory Board as a corresponding member.
At Victoria, while he was an accountancy major studying towards a BCA, he had entertained becoming an accountant, choosing a commerce degree because "it seemed like a good career option and I did well in accounting in my last year at school."
Crediting Victoria with giving his skills and learnings some "depth in accounting and finance", Paul has fond memories of lecturers "that took time to get to know me, even those with large classes".
After graduating with a BCA Honours (1st Class) in accounting and finance, he decided to further his studies at the University of Rochester, where he earned an MSc in Economics and a PhD in Business.
Before joining Harvard, he spent 14 years at the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management, where he received awards for teaching excellence in 1991, 1992 and 1997. He was Deputy Dean of the school during 1993-1994.