Two Poole College accounting professors awarded IMA Gold Lybrand Medal

Two professors in the NC State Poole College of Management’s Department of Accounting were awarded the Institute of Management Accountants’ 2015 Lybrand Gold Medal for their article on enterprise risk management and sustainability.

Recognized were Mark Beasley, Deloitte Professor of Enterprise Risk Management and director of the ERM Initiative at Poole College, and Scott Showalter, professor of practice and chair of the college’s Sustainability Initiative leadership team.

Their article, “ERM and sustainability: Together on the road ahead,” was published in the March 3, 2015 issue of IMA’s Strategic Finance magazine. It was the highest-ranking manuscript in the Lybrand Competition which included all manuscripts published during 2015 in the IMA’s Strategic Finance and Management Accounting Quarterly journals, both of which are rated within the top five practitioner journals.

The two journals publish only original material that contributes to the accounting and financial management profession. The IMA awards gold, silver, and bronze medals, respectively, to IMA-member authors of the top three articles published in the prior year, and certificates of merit to non-member authors.

In their article, Beasley and Showalter discuss the benefits of integrating an organization’s sustainability and ERM efforts into a single, coordinated process linked directly to the company’s core strategies. They also provide a strategic process for doing so, along with examples of companies that have taken this approach.

Both draw from their depth of experience in ERM and sustainability. Beasley established the Enterprise Risk Management Initiative at Poole College more than a decade ago to provide leadership in the proactive management of entity-wide risks through outreach to business professionals, research advancing knowledge about ERM, and curriculum development for the graduate education of the next generation of executives. The ERM Initiative has since hosted scores of roundtables and workshops providing thousands of practitioners opportunities to learn how to integrate ERM into their organizations.

The initiative also led to creation of an ERM concentration in Poole College’s Master of Accounting program as well as faculty research topics.

In 2012, Beasley was named by the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) as one of the “100 People to Watch.” He served on the board for the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (widely known at COSO) for seven years and has participated in a number of other national level risk management initiatives. He is now serving on the 2015 COSO Advisory Council that is working on an update revision to that framework. Beasley received his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Auburn University and doctorate in accounting from Michigan State University.

Showalter, who joined Poole College in 2008 after retiring as partner from KPMG, has served as chair of the college’s task force on sustainability. The college has since established the Sustainability Initiative which supports faculty research and curriculum development and presents workshops and other resources for students exploring sustainability related career opportunities.  

Showalter was recently named chair of the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board, after serving as a board member the since 2009. He also is a member of the Pathways Commission that serves to improve higher education for students entering the accounting profession. He has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Richmond Robins School of Business.