Ross Leslie Watts
Ross Leslie Watts is the Erwin H. Schnell Professor of Management Emeritus and Professor of Accounting Emeritus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 1971-2005, he was assistant professor, associate professor, and chaired professor at the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Rochester. He had visiting appointments at the University of Otago, Northwestern University, the University of New South Wales, and Monash University. His PhD is from the University of Chicago.
Soon after becoming faculty members at the University of Rochester, Watts and his frequent co-author, Jerry Zimmerman, began changing the way accounting academics thought about the role of accounting, the research questions they posed, and the way they addressed those questions. The role of academic research changed from developing normative prescriptions to empirically testing predictions based on contracting theory. Papers published by Watts and Zimmerman in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s provided researchers the framework to address fundamental questions about why managers manage earnings, make voluntary disclosures, lobby against proposals that would constrain their accounting choices, and value external audits.
Early in their academic careers (1979), Watts and Zimmerman founded the Journal of Accounting & Economics (JAE). The journal met the needs of an expanding number of methodologically skilled PhDs entering an academic market in which The Accounting Review and Journal of Accounting Research were the primary outlets for publishing high-quality research. JAE expanded new academics opportunities to publish their empirical and analytical work in a journal that soon became one of the top three journals in accounting. The 1986 publication of Positive Accounting Theory (with Zimmerman) introduced contracting theory to a broader audience of educators and their students.
In 1994, Watts co-founded the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), and since then has served as Director of the Accounting Research Network (ARN). SSRN, which has grown to include sixty distinct discipline-specific networks (including ARN), has improved the quality and quantity of research by making unpublished working papers readily available to researchers worldwide.
One of his most enduring and far-reaching contributions to accounting scholarship and education is his former students. During his career, Watts chaired twenty five PhD dissertations and was a dissertation committee member for eighteen other students. Many of his academic progeny are chaired professors at elite universities, prolific authors, members of editorial boards, frequent workshop presenters, and, likely most importantly to Watts, now mentors to their own PhD students.
Ross Leslie Watts is the 120th inductee to 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.