PricewaterhouseCoopers Partner Pamela Fornero, B’85, passed the CPA exam soon after graduating “because Joe prepared me so well,” she says.
The Hoyle Effect It would be difficult to find a Robins School graduate from the past three decades who does not know Joe Hoyle, an associate professor of accounting who is recognized nationally and internationally as one of the best professors in the country. He has taught two generations of Richmond students, switching to the Socratic method of teaching in
for life,” says Pamela Fornero, B’85, a partner in banking capital markets at PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York. Fornero stays in touch with Hoyle, who occasionally calls her to get the latest business perspective. “Joe is a kind person,” she adds. “He knows how to get the best out of you.” Fornero passed the CPA exam soon after graduating—“because Joe prepared me so thoroughly”—and
“He sets the bar high. That helps us as well to set the bar high for ourselves, individually and as his colleagues, to become better professors and better teachers.” 1991. He asks tough questions, and he expects students to respond with informed and reasoned answers—a reflection of the many hours they spend preparing for his intermediate accounting classes. “He made me work really hard to achieve at the highest distinctive level, and boy, does that prepare you
earned an M.B.A. from Columbia. Students named Hoyle their “favorite professor” in a 2006 survey by BusinessWeek Online. Over the years, his tough-love approach to teaching also has earned him double-edged accolades from students such as “most feared professor,” “professor least likely to retire,” and “professor
most likely to ruin your grade point average.” Hoyle has won the University’s Distinguished Educator Award five times, and is co-author of the bestselling advanced accounting textbook in the country, soon coming out in its 10th printing. In October 2009, Accounting Today named him to its list of the “top 100 most influential people in accounting. “He sets the bar high,” Walden says. “That helps us as well to set the bar high for ourselves, individually and as his colleagues, to become better professors and better teachers.”
Team CPA Better teachers make better students, and accounting majors have distinguished themselves in five of the past eight years by winning the Norman Award, which goes to the most outstanding graduating senior in the Robins School. Twenty-two percent of Richmond’s business students major in accounting, a two-year average of 55 accounting majors in an average business class of 250, making accounting the third largest major on campus. The department has 13 professors, instructors, and adjuncts. It is a
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