Kenneth A. Merchant

Ken Merchant holds the Deloitte & Touche LLP Chair of Accountancy at the University of Southern California. He is currently teaching in USC's MBA and undergraduate accounting programs. Previously he served as Senior Associate Dean-Corporate Programs in USC’s Marshall School of Business (2003-04) and as Dean of USC’s Leventhal School of Accounting (1994-2001). Professor Merchant is also a research professor (part-time) at the University of Maastricht (the Netherlands). Before joining USC in 1990, he taught at Harvard University (1978-1990) and the University of California (Berkeley) (1976-77).

Professor Merchant started his professional career at Texas Instruments, Inc. and Ernst & Ernst (now Ernst & Young). He has also worked as a freelance consultant/teacher for many organizations, including Amgen, Arco, AT&T, British Airways, Campbell Soup, Digital Equipment, East-West Bank, IBM, McGraw-Hill, Novellus Systems, Philip Morris International, Tektronix, Toyota U.S.A., and World Bank. He has served or is currently serving as a director of Diagnostic Products Corporation (DP), Universal Guardian Holdings, Inc. (UGHO), Entropic Communications, Inc. (ENTR), and WL Homes LLC (d/b/a John Laing Homes).

Professor Merchant’s current research projects are focused on various issues related to the design and effects of performance measurement/evaluation/incentive systems and corporate control/governance systems. He has published eight books, including Accounting: Text and Cases (2007), Management Control Systems: Performance Measurement, Evaluation and Incentives (2007), Rewarding Results: Motivating Profit Center Managers (1989), and Fraudulent and Questionable Financial Reporting: A Corporate Perspective (1987), as well as numerous journal articles and teaching cases. Professor Merchant won the American Accounting Association's (AAA’s) awards for Notable Contributions to both the Behavioral Accounting (2004) and Management Accounting literatures (twice—1992 and 2007), the AAA Outstanding Service Award (2003), and the Institute of Management Accountants’ Lybrand Gold Medal Award (best paper of the year published in Management Accounting) (1989-90). He is currently a member of the editorial boards of eleven academic research journals.

Professor Merchant has served as president of three AAA sections: Accounting Program Leadership Group; Management Accounting; and Accounting, Behavior and Organizations. He is currently serving on the Business and Industry Executive Committee of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Research Committee of Financial Executives International (FEI), and he served as president of FEI’s Los Angeles Chapter (2007-08).

Professor Merchant is a graduate of Union College (BA), Columbia University (MBA), and the University of California, Berkeley (PhD) and is a Certified Public Accountant (Texas).