PWC Pledges $1 Million to UA to Support School of Accountancy

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The international partnership of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the largest accounting firm in the world, has made a $1 million pledge to The University of Alabama to support accounting in the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration.

The contribution will be used to support three permanent funds, each named in honor of PricewaterhouseCoopers and its chief executive officer, Mr. Samuel A. DiPiazza Jr., who received a dual degree in accounting and economics from The University of Alabama.

One of the three funds, the PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP/Samuel A. DiPiazza Jr. Accounting Endowed Faculty Support Fund, will be used to attract and hire nationally ranked faculty to the Culverhouse School of Accountancy. Another of the funds will be used to support full-time doctoral students in the school of accountancy, and the third will be used primarily to fund doctoral research and publication.

“The shortage of doctoral students and faculty in accounting is one of the greatest challenges facing accounting education and the accounting profession,” said UA President Robert E. Witt. “This generous contribution will greatly enhance our efforts to attract qualified doctoral candidates and faculty.”

Dr. Mary Stone, director of the Culverhouse School of Accountancy, said the contribution also will be particularly useful in furthering the research in accounting now being conducted by doctoral students and faculty members.

“This will give our doctoral students an even greater opportunity to develop their research skills, to present their results at academic conferences and submit their papers for review for publication in leading academic journals, while at the same time raising the profile of the school of accountancy,” Stone said.

The support comes at a crucial time for accounting education and the Culverhouse School of Accountancy, Stone said, noting that the combination of increasing accounting enrollments, aging professors, and the increasing cost of doctoral education has created a situation in which the nationwide supply of new accounting faculty for 2005-2008 will be less than half of the demand.

Stone said the shortage is most acute in the specialty areas of auditing and tax, adding that of the 187 students nationwide expected to receive doctoral degrees in accounting this year, only 22 expressed interest in teaching in those two areas.

The contribution was announced by David M. Pickett, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP managing partner, on behalf of the company.

Mr. DiPiazza has served as CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited since 2002. Previously, he led the PricewaterhouseCoopers U.S. firm as chairman and senior partner, and he was a member of the Global Leadership Team.

Mr. DiPiazza joined PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1973 and became a partner in 1979. He was elected to the Firm Council in 1986, and he headed the Birmingham and Chicago offices before being named Midwest regional managing partner in 1992. Two years later he became the regional managing partner of the New York Metro Region, with a dual role as client service vice-chairman. In 1998, he was named the Americas Leader for Tax and Legal Services, and in 2000 he was elected chairman and senior partner of the U.S. firm.

Mr. DiPiazza serves as a trustee of the International Accounting Standards Committee Foundation as well as being chairman of the World Business Council on Sustainable Development and an executive committee member of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum. He is also the chairman of IBLAC, or International Business Leaders Advisory Council to the mayor of Shanghai, and has served as a trustee for the Financial Accounting Foundation. In addition, he is a member of the executive committee and the immediate past chairman, board of trustees of The Conference Board Inc.

Mr. DiPiazza has served on the UA President’s Cabinet, the UA National Advisory Board, and the Culverhouse College of Commerce Board of Visitors.