Robert Ernest Verrecchia
Robert Ernest Verrecchia is the Elizabeth F. Putzel Professor, Professor Emeritus of Accounting, Wharton School, The University of Pennsylvania. Born in Rosemont, Pennsylvania in 1949, “Ro” Verrecchia achieved a position of eminence from the world class qualities of his contributions to academic literature and the impact of his work upon standard setting. He holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, an M.S. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an Sc.B. from Brown University.
Prior to his 1983 Wharton School appointment, he was a faculty member at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Chicago. He served as department chair (1985-1997) at Wharton, providing leadership and addressing issues with sagacity and empathy.
Verrecchia has published world-renowned theoretical accounting research related to discretionary disclosure, financial accounting, and information economics. A key feature of Verrecchia’s work that sets it apart from most theoretical research in accounting is that the insights he develops are clearly relevant to financial reporting practice and regulation. Even though his work employs rigorous mathematical models, he writes his papers in a way that makes them accessible to non-theorists. More importantly, the papers address issues that financial accountants of all types care about. It is rare to find someone with this combination of skills. Yet, this is exactly the type of scholar on which learned professions such as accounting depend.
The breadth of Verrecchia’s contributions to topics of his National Bureau of Economic Research coauthored working papers is evidenced in the subject matter, including defining an intertemporal tax discontinuity (ITD) as a circumstance in which different tax rates are applied to gains and losses realized at one point in time versus some other point in time, as well as studying the effects of ITDs on market behaviors at the time of disclosures of firm performance. His papers also addressed fundamental issues such as the debate over the consequences of information asymmetry, or information differences across investors in capital markets.
Perhaps most importantly over the forty years of his contributions, given that disclosure, including voluntary disclosure, is central to financial reporting, the insights from his work in this area have not only given rise to an extensive academic literature on the subject, but the record also supports that this literature has affected regulators’ views on disclosure. His intuition regarding the incentives and the consequences of those incentives, for voluntary disclosures, are paradigmatic, dominant explanations, considered fundamental. These foundational views are observed not just in U.S. capital markets, but around the globe.
In addition, peers and former student testaments establish he is well recognized for sharing his time and knowledge with doctoral students, not only at his own institution but also through mini-course offerings and presentations in the United States and Europe.
Robert Ernest Verrecchia is the One Hundred and Thirteenth member of The Accounting Hall of Fame.
Charles Howard Noski
Charles Howard Noski, born August 23, 1952, in Eureka, California, was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of Wells Fargo & Company in March 2020. He is a retired vice chairman and chief financial officer of Bank of America Corporation. He was chief financial officer of Northrop Grumman Corporation from 2003 until 2005 and a member of Northrop Grumman’s board of directors. Noski was chief financial officer of AT&T Corporation from 1999 until 2002 and vice chairman of the board of directors during 2002. From 1990 until 1999, he served in senior leadership positions with Hughes Electronics Corporation, including chief financial officer, president and chief operating officer, and a member of the board of directors.
Noski began his accounting career as a staff accountant at Haskins & Sells (now Deloitte) in 1973 and rose to partner with Deloitte & Touche, where he served some of the firm’s largest and most complex clients. Noski is lead independent director of Booking Holdings Inc., and a director and member of the finance and investment committee of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company. He previously served as a director and chairman of the audit committee of Microsoft Corporation, Morgan Stanley, Avon Products, Inc., Booking Holdings Inc., and Wells Fargo, and as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Financial Accounting Foundation (2016-2019), chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council, and a member of the Standing Advisory Group of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.
Noski is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), Financial Executives International (FEI), and the Audit Committee Leadership Network-North America, and served as an inaugural member of the Ernst & Young Independent Audit Quality Committee (2019-2020). He was inducted into the inaugural class of the FEI Hall of Fame in 2006. Noski earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Master of Science in Accountancy from California State University, Northridge. A long-time supporter of accounting education, he received the school’s distinguished alumnus award in 2002, and an honorary doctorate in 2007. He and his wife Lisa have endowed the Noski Family scholarships for accounting students at Northridge. Noski’s impact includes his public service at the Financial Accounting Foundation and his deep and far-reaching experience across multiple facets of the accounting profession.
From his role as Chairman of the Board of Wells Fargo, to serving as chief financial officer for some of the world’s preeminent organizations, to his early days as an auditor, he has led from the front on numerous accounting issues for nearly 50 years and served as a model and mentor to many.
Charles Howard Noski is the One Hundred and Tenth member of The Accounting Hall of Fame.