CSU Department of Accounting Newsletter 2023

Hello from Lisa

As we wrap up another academic year, I am pleased to share the many successes of the Department of Accounting’s students, alumni and faculty. At our annual Accounting Awards and Recognition banquet on May 2 (see pages 10-11), we gathered to celebrate our community’s accomplishments and welcome two new alumni into the Accounting Hall of Fame.

The accounting department’s national research reputation has continued to increase, contributing to the College’s strategic goal of national visibility. We were ranked among the top 20% of universities nationally in the 2022 BYU Accounting Research Rankings, jumping from No. 105 to No. 83 in the last year, based on research productivity over the past six years. We placed No. 8 in tax archival research, No. 44 in audit archival research and No. 29 in managerial experimental research.

We’re proud of our outstanding faculty, who are working on policy-oriented research in a collaborative research environment. Assistant professors Liz Cowle and Eric Lohwasser had extraordinary success with recent publications in top journals. Cowle has two papers in The Accounting Review on audit-related issues, and Lohwasser

had a paper in Contemporary Accounting Research on organized labor’s impact on cost behavior. In the fall, Cowle received the College’s Emerging Scholar Award, recognizing her impressive contributions to scholarship.

Our commitment to innovating our curriculum to evolve with the profession led us to our current focus on the CPA Evolution initiative, which rolls out changes to the CPA Exam in 2024. We also piloted a new graduate course on Sustainability Accounting that was well received by MBA students, and we’re looking to expand it in the coming year.

Additionally, by participating in case competitions such as the Deloitte Audit Innovation Challenge and giving back through the CSU VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) program, our students put what they’re learning into practice and engage with the community.

As I look forward to my next three-year term, I am excited to continue building on the Department of Accounting’s strong foundation to increase our national visibility while offering an exceptional education that prepares students for career success.

Lisa Kutcher Professor and Chair

40% 197 Tax Returns TOP

Megan JohnsonLEAD Award

The LEAD Award is given to the outstanding Master of Accountancy student each spring who has excelled in Leadership, Excellence and Academic Distinction. Megan Johnson was nominated by faculty praising her work ethic and dedication to accounting. Johnson knew she wanted to become an accountant in the fifth grade, and her experience at the College of Business proved she made the right decision. She maintained a 4.0 GPA throughout her graduate and undergraduate career. As an undergrad, she majored in accounting and minored in clarinet performance. During her MAcc, she specialized in taxation. Johnson shines brightly in her academic pursuits and her extracurricular interests, guided by genuine curiosity while striving to foster excellence in those around her. She is an active member of Beta Alpha Psi, volunteered with VITA Tax Aide and regularly performed with the CSU Wind Symphony. She served as the lead tutor for the Accounting Tutoring Lab during her undergraduate career and then as a graduate assistant during her MAcc. Johnson used her accounting studies to pass all four parts of the CPA Exam and will be starting full-time with Plante Moran.

Professor Jim Stekelberg presents Megan Johnson with LEAD Award

Abby Higgins Outstanding Graduating Senior, Fall 2022

Abby Higgins has incredible academic performance with a perfect 4.0 GPA. Her leadership and involvement shone through as the vice president and secretary of Beta Alpha Psi, the vice president and secretary of the Dean’s Student Leadership Council, a leading team member of the Deloitte Audit Innovation Campus Challenge and a member of the Sonny Lubick Leadership Program. With tax internships already completed at Plante Moran and Eide Bailly, Higgins has one additional internship lined up with Deloitte this summer. We are thrilled that she plans to join us next year in the Masters of Accountancy program as advances toward an undoubtedly successful future career in accounting.

Jackson Busche Outstanding Graduating Senior, Spring 2023

Jackson Busche is widely recognized by the accounting faculty as an impressive student with a bright future ahead of him. He has a perfect 4.0 GPA while being known as a well rounded student and a great person. Busche leads our Accounting Tutoring Lab, is heavily involved in Beta Alpha Psi, studies both accounting and criminology/criminal justice and is completing Airman Leadership School. Even faculty who have not taught him as a student speak highly of him due to his significant involvement in mentoring more junior students. Upon graduating from the College of Business with 150 credits, Busche plans to attain his CPA license and begin full-time work as an auditor with Plante Moran.

Professor Eric Rapley presents Abby Higgins with award

Jackson Busche receives award from Professor Eric Rapley

Deloitte AICC - Liz Cowle, Drew Heywood, Trevor Schnetzler, Noah Jenkins, Angela Quezada Gonzalez, Kathryn Berntsen, and Katerina Hoopes

Stephen Hughes COCPA Gold Key Award

Each year, the Educational Foundation of the Colorado Society of CPAs presents the Gold Key Award to the graduating senior with the highest cumulative GPA at each Colorado college or university who plans to enter the accounting field. While several of our graduating seniors achieved a 4.0, Hughes stood out as the most deserving of this honor.

As a student of the Collaboration Campus in Castle Rock, Hughes graduated in May with his accounting degree. Despite attending classes in Castle Rock, his presence was felt on the Fort Collins campus through his volunteer efforts in our VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) program and his active engagement in the virtual environment through the Mosaic classroom.

This summer, Hughes has an internship with KPMG in its audit practice. He will continue his studies next year in the Master of Accounting program at the University of Texas at Austin with the goal of earning his CPA license. We look forward to seeing all he will do in the future.

Rocky Mountain Investment Challenge

Accounting and finance students Jackson Busche, Noah Dixon and Chaoyue (Marty) Zhang won the Rocky Mountain Investment Challenge this year.

In the Challenge, teams of undergraduate students prepare and present a stock pitch to a panel of judges from the financial industry. Students choose any publicly traded firm and conduct a thorough valuation of the company in line with best industry practices. This year, more than 60 students on 10 different teams competed for cash prizes. This winning student team pitched West Fraser Timber (WFG) as a severely undervalued stock, with the potential for a 46% upside by the end of 2024. They focused on the commodity price cycle and how WFG would be well positioned to profitably capture a positive shift in commodity price. The team beat Iowa State University and the University of Colorado at the final round in Denver, claiming first place. This was the College’s first win since 2017. In addition to the first-place trophy, the team claimed the $10,000 grand prize.

Sydney Ritschard Honorary Commencement Bell Ringer

The CSU Alumni Association invited Sydney Ritschard to help honor University tradition and kick off Fall 2022 Commencement by ringing the Old Main Bell. Ritschard graduated in Fall 2022 with a degree in accounting and supply chain. She is a fourthgeneration Ram with a long history of involvement at CSU. Ritschard received a Michael Smith Business Scholarship and was an admissions ambassador and Honors Peer Mentor. She also was heavily involved in a campus ministry, Chi Alpha, and was a member of Beta Alpha Psi. Ritschard has accepted a position in audit with Moss Adams in Spokane, Wash.

Professor Eric Rapley presents Stephen Hughes with award

Jackson Busche, Noah Dixon and Chaoyue (Marty) Zhang

The Gamma Tau Chapter of Beta Alpha Psi at CSU was recognized as a distinguished chapter for 20222023, in part by averaging more than 20 hours of professional development and 14 hours of community service per member over the academic year. Additionally, Beta Alpha Psi hosted 21 meetings this year at the College.

Rebuilding Membership Base

One of the objectives set by the officer team in the previous year was to address the deficit in members and prepare for the nine members graduating in Spring 2023, which is higher than average. This goal was successfully achieved, with 52 students actively participating in Beta Alpha Psi and the Professional Accounting Society (a partner organization with BAP), an increase from last year’s 37 members. Beta Alpha Psi is encouraged by this increase and is excited to see how this will further enhance and strengthen our program in the upcoming years.

Meet the Firms

Beta Alpha Psi assisted the accounting department in hosting Meet the Firm events in both semesters this academic year. We were happy to invite over 30 CPA and non-CPA firms to network with students each semester. More than 100 students participated in each event.

Join us at the next Meet the Firms event on Sep 12 at CSU’s Smith Alumni Center!

Front Row: Elizabeth Pickrel, Brian Callejas, Conor Ryan, Maya Gray, Abby Higgins, Yuvi Gonzalez and Alli Measer

Back Row: Jackie Rivera Barron, Caroline Vierod, Jackie Natrasevschi, Jackson Busche, Noah Jenkins, Gabby Carpenter and Laura Rauwerdink

Teaming with Firms for Community Service

Another goal within the officer group was to integrate firms into community service work. Beta Alpha Psi achieved this by teaming up with KPMG to create care packages for single parents who are students at CSU. Beta Alpha Psi and Professional Accounting Society members worked together with KPMG to create 150 care packages. Looking forward to next year, Beta Alpha Psi hopes to implement more community service activities with other firms.

Vice president Alli Measer led community service opportunities with the Food Bank of Larimer County and VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) that allowed our members to give back, and secretary Karalyn Tool put together two events in which students wrote cards for the Cardz for Kidz organization.

Beta Alpha Psi Total Hours

1,406 Total Student Hours

7 Professional Development Hours

Graduating seniors were awarded stoles

686

12 Student Volunteer Hours

New Members 720

Left to Right: Jackie Natrasevschi

Volunteers for KPMG

VITA AND SCHOLARSHIPS

VITA Program

2023-2024 Scholarship Recipients

Accounting Department Scholarship

Alexia Armatas

Elizabeth Pickrel

Barbara Boles Scholarship

Gabrielle Carpenter

Barbara Obester Memorial Scholarship

Amber St. Laurent

Beta Alpha Psi Gamma

Tau Chapter Scholarship

Kermit L. Allard Accounting Scholarship

Micaela Rajecki

KPMG LLP Scholarship

Theodore Kotsioris

Noah Smith

Molly Murray Accounting Scholarship

Audrey De Fries

Micah Floyd

Jacqueline Natrasevschi

Through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, Beta Alpha Psi students and community members provided free tax assistance to people with an annual income of $60,000 or less and clients older than 60, as well as qualifying CSU students and employees. They volunteered 780 hours of their time over the course of eight Saturdays to make this year’s VITA program another success.

197 $131K $1,987 22 6

Zane Haas

Abigail Higgins

Brianna Long

Carter Minter

Betsy Davis Family Accounting Scholarship

Rebecca Essilfie

Deloitte Scholarship

Madelyn Langreck

Dennis W. Wagner Memorial Scholarship

Bryan Lezama Mendoza

Don O. Nelson Memorial Accounting Scholarship

Hagan Reisinger

Dr. Melanie Middlemist Accounting Scholarship

Bryan Lezama Mendoza

Eide Bailly Scholarship

Katerina Hoopes

Forvis Scholarship

Noah Jenkins

Frank/Mary Balog First Generation Scholarship

Dustin Schmidt

Jaylene Perez Vargas

Judith Holmes Bland Scholarship

Matthew Richardson

Ovintiv Accounting Scholarship

William Ramirez

Plante Moran Accounting Scholarship

Emmett Pelissier

Pricewaterhouse Coopers Accounting Scholarship

Zoe Fritts

Sydney Lloyd

Isha Sahasrabudhe

Ronald and Judith Kerschner Family Accounting Scholarship

William Argotsinger

RSM Accounting Scholarship

Olivia Haffey

Spencer/McCosh Accounting Scholarship

Joana Ramirez

Ali Yoshida

Stephen M. Rosenberg, CPA Scholarship

Gabriel Murdock

Timothy Winning

ALUMNI UPDATES

The Accounting Hall of Fame, 2023

Jeffrey Hansen

Finance Director City of Golden, Colorado

Jeffrey Hansen has been the finance director for the city of Golden for more than 20 years, where he oversees the city’s accounting, budgeting and finance operations, as well as the fleet and municipal court functions. After graduating from the College of Business with his bachelor’s degree in 1984, Hansen spent 8 years with the city of Longmont in the positions of accountant, senior accountant and utility billing supervisor. He also worked for 6 years as chief accountant for the city of Lafayette and 4½ years as finance director for the town of Castle Rock.

Hansen is a Certified Public Finance Officer and a member of the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) and the Colorado GFOA (CGFOA). He was president of CGFOA in 2004 and served on the executive board from 2003-2005. In 2007, he was named CGFOA’s Finance Officer of the Year. Jeff currently serves on various committees for the Colorado Municipal League (CML) and CGFOA, and he is also on the GFOA Small Government Forum Advisory Committee and the ACFR Review Committee. He has presented numerous times for CML, GFOA and CGFOA at their annual conferences and educational workshops.

Hansen has served on Foothills Animal Shelter’s board of directors and is currently on the board of the Colorado Surplus Asset Fund Trust local government investment pool. He coached youth basketball for many years and spent six seasons coaching boys’ basketball at Longmont High School. Hansen is a certified high school basketball referee and has officiated three state championship games. He also enjoys golf and bowling (and has three 300 games to his credit). He and his wife Jill have two kids and four grandkids.

Vernon “Butch” Shoup

Principal Owner V2 CPAs LLC

Vernon “Butch” Shoup

graduated from the College of Business with his bachelor’s in accounting in 1980 and earned an MBA in taxation from the University of Houston. He has been in public accounting for more than 30 years, serving at a variety of firms including Hein & Associates (now Moss Adams), CBIZ and CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA). After “retiring” from CLA in 2015, Shoup went back into practice and opened his own company, V.E. Shoup CPA LLC, to provide proactive tax and asset transfer planning in Colorado. In 2020, he partnered with another College of Business alum to form V2 CPAs LLC. Shoup’s career has brought him through multiple industries, including real estate, oil and gas, and petrochemicals. He has been active in the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Colorado Society of CPAs since 1981. This career path has allowed him to help people understand complex tax issues, hear their dreams and then work to fulfill those goals.

Shoup has volunteered for various nonprofit organizations in the Denver area, focusing on serving the community ethically and connecting community leaders in shared service. He has volunteered in the Rotary Club, the Denver Foundation and several charter schools.

A loyal Ram, Shoup served on the CSU Alumni Association Board for eight years, including a term as president. He helped to restart the Accounting Advisory Board in 2015 and served as the first cochair for three years alongside Todd Rubright.

csu.bz/acct-hall-of-fame-2023

ADVISORY BOARDS

The Department of Accounting is grateful for the support of the members of the Advisory Board and the Early Career Advisory Board. These alumni and friends of the department provide advice and invest time and money to support our students, faculty and programs. Thank you! Particular thanks to the three members who are completing their term this year: John Browne, Bill Fowler and Kathy Healey.

Accounting Advisory Board

Thomas Ahrens

Eide Bailly

Jim Brendel

Moss Adams

John Browne

Plante Moran

Bob Clark

TransMontaigne

Toby Clary

Soukup, Bush & Associates

Carl Daugherty Deloitte

Jeff Finnin

Retired- CoreSite

Bill Fowler Daniels Fund

Kathy Healey

RSM US LLP

Karen Krebsbach

EY

Rob MaCoy

FOVIS

Kit Maxwell

Retired – Deloitte

Wendy McCray-Benoit

PwC

Todd Rubright

Retired – PwC

Ryan Sanger

BDO

Theresa Shelton

TMD Advisors LLC

Jeff Worlton

KPMG

Early Career Advisory Board

Dan Brown Plante Moran

Haley Fick (Simpson) Boettcher Foundation

Carley Heath

Ovintiv

Jordan Javech

Deloitte

Carlyn McDonald Heska Corp

Amanuel Mekonnen

Newmont Mining

Sarah Ross

Advanced Energy

Patrick Sandvig RSM

Caleb Thetford

Soukup, Bush & Associates

Georgia Thomas EY

Taylor Wild PureWest Energy

Jackson Wojciechowski

Voyager Space

2023 ACCOUNTING AWARDS BANQUET

Special thanks to all

who joined us this year for our annual Accounting Awards Banquet!

Over 120 alumni, students and friends came to recognize the great successes of our accounting community. We were incredibly grateful to connect and celebrate with you all.

2023 ACCOUNTING AWARDS BANQUET

Thank you, sponsors!

GOLD SPONSORS

GREEN SPONSORS

WHITE SPONSORS

STUDENT SPONSORS

Jeff Finnin

Theresa Shelton

Heather Richardson

Todd Rubright

Michael Vaughn

RESEARCH SUCCESS

Note of Thanks:

We are pleased to highlight the research of three of our four faculty fellows this year. Faculty fellows are grateful to the firms and alumni for the support that allows them to attend conferences to support networking and collaboration, purchase data for projects and acquire resources for use in the classroom.

Eric Rapley

Accounting Faculty Excellence Fellow

Two Projects on the Unintended Consequences of Regulation

Eric Rapley’s most recent research project investigates whether the PCAOB influences the audit reports of European companies. Rapley and his coauthors found that European audit opinions became more similar to U.S. audit reporting after the U.S. required critical audit matters to be included in audit opinions. They think this unintended consequence is interesting because these audits are not subject to the PCAOB’s regulatory authority.

In a different research collaboration, Rapley and his coauthors examined whether the 150-hour CPA license requirement has disproportionately affected underrepresented minority representation in public accounting. Their main finding is that there is a lower representation of Black public accountants after the state-level adoption of a 150-hour requirement. However, educational access plays an important role; the decline in Black public accountants is less severe in states with better access to a college education.

Jim Stekelberg

How do investors perceive “socially responsible” forms of corporate tax avoidance?

In addition to raising governmental revenue, legislators can also use the tax law as a tool to encourage behaviors viewed as desirable from a public policy perspective. Therefore, although corporate tax avoidance may often be viewed as a company not “paying its fair share,” the use of the tax law to promote environmentally friendly business activities results in opportunities for firms to avoid tax in socially responsible ways. In a recent paper published in the Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, CSU’s Jim Stekelberg and Auburn’s Kerry Inger examine how a firm’s shareholders perceive one such form of tax savings: claiming the federal renewable electricity production credit.

The study’s findings suggest that socially responsible tax avoidance generates positive valuation and reputational consequences for firms. This result has implications for practice, as Stekelberg argues that socially responsible tax avoidance strategies are an important component of a firm’s tax planning portfolio because they benefit two groups of a company’s stakeholders: shareholders and the communities affected by environmental issues.

Plante Moran Faculty Fellow

RESEARCH SUCCESS

Emerging Scholar:

Liz Cowle

Cowle, L., Moon, Kleppe, T., Shipman, J. (2022).

Client Consulting Opportunities and the Reemergence of Big 4 Consulting Practices: Implications for the Audit Market.

The Accounting Review

Derek Johnston

KPMG Faculty Fellow

The Exclusion of Stock-Based Compensation Expense from Non-GAAP Earnings Metrics

Public company disclosures of non-GAAP performance metrics have grown exponentially over the last two decades. Although the Securities and Exchange Commission has significantly expanded the rules governing non-GAAP performance metrics over that time, companies still have wide latitude when it comes to deciding which expenses to exclude from their non-GAAP measure of net income.

Johnston’s current research focuses on understanding management’s incentives for omitting stock-based compensation expense from their calculation of non-GAAP income.

“There is ample research suggesting that companies only exclude recurring expenses such as stock compensation to report a higher earnings number to investors, rather than to provide a more useful measure of performance,” Johnston said. “However, we find that excluding certain components of stock compensation actually provides an earnings figure that better predicts future performance.”

In addition to conducting research in the area of nonGAAP metrics, Johnston enjoys discussing this topic in detail in his Master of Accountancy course, which explores current issues in financial reporting.

Farewell to In Loving Memory of

Falene Young, CPA

Falene Young, lecturer and program coordinator at Sturm Collaboration Campus, is leaving the College of Business after five years with the department. As a graduate of our Master of Accountancy program, we were thrilled when she joined us in 2018 as an adjunct instructor and quickly became a full-time lecturer. Falene has been a dedicated member of the department, leading the department’s efforts at the Sturm Collaboration Campus in Castle Rock. Falene worked tirelessly to break down barriers to recruiting and admitting students into this new program. As a teacher, Falene has taught a wide variety of classes and modalities, including introductory financial accounting and fundamentals of accounting to our business minor students in a fully online environment. In addition, she taught the full intermediate sequence to the Castle Rock students. She is known for being an enthusiastic, welcoming and knowledgeable professor. Her dedication to student success has made a lasting impact. Our department will certainly miss the energy and enthusiasm she brings. We wish her the best in the next chapter of her professional career!

Tim Dow

Tim Dow, a longtime business law instructor, passed away in September. Tim had a local law practice that he started in 1978, and he taught for the College of Business for many years. Since Fall 2014, he taught the Master of Accountancy (MAcc) business law course. Tim loved teaching. At the end of each semester, he would always remark how wonderful our students are and how much he enjoyed engaging with them. Students enjoyed his approach to the course, and he was often on the list of favorite MAcc professors. Students found him engaging, funny and knowledgeable. As a longtime resident of Fort Collins, Tim loved all things CSU. He is deeply missed.

Stay Connected

Follow us: https://csu.bz/acct-linkedin

Don’t forget about the accounting alumni group: https://csu.bz/acct-alumni-group

Liz Cowle

Eric Lohwasser

Received Beta Alpha Psi Professor of the Year

Received Most Impactful Master of Accountancy Professor

BAP President Gabby Carpenter presents Professor Eric Lohwasser with BAP Professor of the Year

Professor Jim Stekelberg presenting Professor Liz Cowle with Most Impactful MAcc Professor Award

WHO WE ARE

Lisa Kutcher Professor and Department Chair, Deloitte Foundation Faculty Fellow

Jenny Luchs-Nunez Assistant Professor

Nate Nguyen Assistant Professor

Bill Rankin Professor

Eric Rapley Associate Professor, Dean’s Scholar, ACT Faculty Fellowship for Excellence

Chris Ritsema Clinical Professor, Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Fellow

Mandy Sharpe Lecturer

James Stekelberg Associate Professor, Dean’s Scholar, Plante Moran Faculty Fellow

Thomas Vance Associate Professor

Chris Becker Clinical Professor of Business Ethics

Liz Cowle Assistant Professor, Dean’s Scholar

Michelle Draeger Assistant Professor, Dean’s Scholar

Lauren Paul Lecturer

Eric Lohwasser Assistant Professor, Dean’s Scholar

Derek Johnston Professor, KPMG Faculty Fellow

Department of Accounting

Rockwell Hall

1271 Campus Delivery Fort Collins, Colorado 80523-1271

Nominate someone for the Department of Accounting Hall of Fame csu.bz/acct-hall-of-fame

Accounting Department

Connect linkedin.com/company/csuaccounting

Like facebook.com/AccountingCSU

Follow instagram.com/csuaccounting

(970) 491-5102 • biz.colostate.edu/accounting

College of Business

Connect linkedin.com/school/csu-college-of-business

Like facebook.com/BizatColoradoState

Follow twitter.com/CSUCollegeOfBiz

Follow instagram.com/csucollegeofbusiness

(970) 491-6471 • biz.colostate.edu

Upcoming Events

Meet the Firms:

Date: September 12, 2023 (6:00 pm - 8:00 pm)

Location: Smith Alumni Center

Ethics CPE Event

Date: November 03, 2023 (Morning)

Location: Lory Student Center

Accounting Awards Banquet:

Date: April 2024

Location: TBD