Speakers

Bruce K. Behn
President of the American Accounting Association

Bruce K. Behn, Ph.D., CPA is the President of the American Accounting Association (2015-16), Associate Dean for Graduate and Executive Education and Deloitte LLP Professor at The University of Tennessee (UT). He joined the Department of Accounting and Information Management in 1994 after completing his doctorate at Arizona State University and served in a number of capacities over the years within the department (including Department Head) and the college. Dr. Behn has a MBA from Arizona State University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to obtaining his Ph.D., he worked for Rockwell International in Uithoorn, The Netherlands as the international financial coordinator for Allen-Bradley Europa B.V., Allen-Bradley Company as controller and financial analyst, and KPMG Peat Marwick as senior auditor. He has published articles in The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Contemporary Accounting Research, Accounting Horizons, Journal of Accounting, Auditing, and Finance and a number of other journals and has served as the co-editor for the Journal of International Accounting Research and the associate editor of Issues in Accounting Education. Dr. Behn recently chaired the Pathways Commission and is a past Vice-President of the American Accounting Association (AAA), past President of the International Accounting Section (AAA) and the Federation of Schools of Accountancy (FSA) and past chair of the AICPA’s Pre-certification Education Executive Committee. He has also been the recipient of a number of teaching awards including the AAA's Innovation in Accounting Education award, UT’s Alumni Outstanding Teaching award, and the Tennessee Society of CPAs Outstanding Educator of the Year.

E. Gordon Gee
President, West Virginia University

Currently serving for a second time as president of West Virginia University, Dr. E. Gordon Gee has been a leader in higher education for more than three decades. In 2009 Time magazine named him one of the Top 10 university presidents in the United States. In addition to his service at West Virginia University, Gee served as president of The Ohio State University (twice), Vanderbilt University, Brown University, and the University of Colorado.

Born in Vernal, Utah, Gee graduated from the University of Utah with an honors degree in history and earned his J.D. and Ed.D. degrees from Columbia University. Before starting his career in higher education, he clerked under Chief Justice David T. Lewis of the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals and was a judicial fellow and staff assistant to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he worked for Chief Justice Warren Burger.

Gee’s service to education-governance organizations and commissions is extensive including the American Association of Universities and the American Council on Education’s Commission on Higher Education Attainment. He also has written extensively on law and education, and is the co-author of 11 books, including Law, Policy and Higher Education published in 2012.