Mowchan Named Emerson O. Henke Chair in Accounting

Mike Mowchan, PhD, was named the Emerson O. Henke Chair of Accounting in 2024 in recognition of his impactful research, outstanding teaching and meaningful service to the Department of Accounting and Business Law. His work has been published in top academic journals and focuses on how audit firm leadership and regulatory enforcement shape audit quality. Notably, his research has been cited by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) in several recent rulemaking releases, underscoring its relevance to real-world policy decisions. He is currently working on a number of active projects, including a project currently under review, which examines how an audit firm’s decision to retain or remove an individual auditor that the PCAOB has sanctioned influences the audit quality of his or her non-sanctioned colleagues. Initial findings suggest that the audit quality that local colleagues provide improves when the sanctioned auditor is removed but deteriorates when the sanctioned auditor remains employed by the audit firm. These findings suggest that an audit firm’s retention of sanctioned individuals may undermine the PCAOB’s intended goal of broadly deterring poor audit quality with its enforcement efforts. In addition to his research, Mowchan is a generous mentor and collaborator, and he brings thoughtfulness and enthusiasm to the classroom.