FACULTY SPOTLIGHTS

Dr. Pankaj Jain

Chair and Professor, Department of Finance, Insurance and Real Estate

What year did you join FCBE faculty?

2002

Tell us a little about your journey in choosing the UofM as your academic home.

I chose the University of Memphis because of its leadership in market microstructure. Memphis housed NSF-funded ISSM which was the first source of intra-day microstructure data and continues to be listed on WRDS for historical viewpoint. Memphis faculty members Dr. Tom McInish and Dr. Robert Wood started the field of empirical market microstructure with the first paper on the topic in the Journal of Finance in the 1980s. Memphis also housed the U.S. Department of Education-sponsored Center of International Business Education and Research (CIBER), in which I had the opportunity to serve as the iMBA academic program director. With the latest Carnegie R1 and immense student successes, there cannot be a better academic home for finance faculty.

Upon reflection of any point in your UofM career to now, what do you consider the most significant way in which your research has impacted your industry?

My financial regulation research was recognized by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Washington, D.C. This status appointed me as a visiting academic scholar under the Intergovernmental Personnel Act from 2012-14 in the SEC’s Division of Risk, Strategy and Financial Innovation—Office of Markets—to conduct special studies mandated by the U.S. Congress. The economic cost benefit assignments at the SEC ensured that the financial industry could promote capital formation while protecting investors at the same time. The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Financial Research appointed me as a fellow research principal from 2017-19 to work on inter-agency projects. I volunteered alongside my students to provide research advice in the Commodity Futures Trading Commissions’ Office of Chief Economist.

Has there been a moment in working with a student that either inspired you, elicited in you a sense of pride or where you greatly transformed a student’s life?

I love coaching students inside and well beyond the classroom as I travel with is a vital resource necessary to keep up with all of the exciting new discoveries happening in the world of finance, insurance and real estate.

them to leading global events and inter-university student investment research competitions. I challenge and inspire students to find their passion and excel in their pursuits. FIR undergraduate and master’s students have placed well in national and regional championships and experienced first-hand lunch meetings with legendary investors such as Mr. Warren Buffett. That meeting completely transformed the lives of all students on the team.

What motivates you to continue teaching year after year?

When Memphis students keep learning the depths of finance and winning worldwide interuniversity competitions with their talent and perseverance, they bring home the “Driven by Doing” motto. For example, in spring 2022, UofM finance teams did quite well in these competitions winning the best speaker award in the TVA case competition; beating S&P 500 in the TVA portfolio money management competition; and winning the silver medal in the hedge fund competition, which featured leading top-ranked global business schools ($5,000 award for the students). Additionally, the finance student club won the Financial Executives International bronze medal ($1,500 award). I cannot wait to help the next generation of students joining Memphis in fall 2022.

If you only had one book to read for the rest of your life, what book would it be and why?

I have a long list of books that have helped shaped my principles in life, work and academics. Variety is the spice of life, but the first book has to be the Journal of Finance. It

Dr. Kristen Jones

Associate Professor, Department of Management

What year did you join FCBE faculty?

2016

Tell us a little about your journey in choosing the UofM as your academic home.

After two years in my first faculty job out of graduate school, I was contacted by the interim dean about an open search in FCBE for an assistant professor of management. I was intrigued by this potential opportunity and flew out for the interview. I had the greatest interview experience, and everyone was so welcoming. Not only that, but I immediately felt like there was a great deal of interest in, and support for, the type of research that I was doing and that really drew me in. It was the best decision I ever made aside from marrying my husband (Dr. Alex Lindsey, also FCBE management faculty).

Faculty Spotlights

Upon reflection of any point in your UofM career to now, what do you consider the most significant way in which your research has impacted your industry?

I think the pieces I have published in the Harvard Business Review are probably the best examples. These are short, digestible online summaries of peer-reviewed journal articles. The HBR pieces appeal to a wider audience and reach more folks in the industry, relative to the journal articles on which they are based. I have done a few HBR pieces on topics like the damaging nature of subtle discrimination in the workplace, the harms of protecting women from challenging work assignments, and strategies for supporting pregnant women at work.

Has there been a moment in working with a student that they either inspired you, elicited in you a sense of pride or where you greatly transformed a student’s life?

I am constantly inspired by working with doctoral students. I cannot pin it down to any specific moment, but it has been such a joy to see the transformation and growth in my students from their first semester of graduate school until the time they graduate. I graduated my first doctoral student, Dr. Dave Arena, in 2020 (now an assistant professor at UT Arlington), and my second doctoral student, Dr. Devalina Nag, in 2022 (starting as an assistant professor at University of San Diego in fall 2022). Watching them move on to their next chapters is so rewarding, and I could not be prouder of them.

What motivates you to continue teaching year after year?

That feeling of making a difference in someone’s life is so rewarding and gives you a sense of purpose.

If you only had one book to read for the rest of your life, what book would it be and why?

Sadly, I don’t do a ton of pleasure reading, but one book that I did read while on vacation a few years ago that really stuck with me was Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. It’s crazy and has an amazing twist at the end. It was also made into a limited series on HBO a couple of years ago, which was also very well done.

Dr. Zabihollah Rezaee

Professor and Thompson-Hill Chair of Excellence, Crews School of Accountancy

What year did you join FCBE faculty?

2001 regulators, investors, businesses and scholars. Business sustainability is a process of achieving financial economic performance to obtain a desired rate of return for investors (owners) while also achieving nonfinancial environmental, social and governance performance to protect the interests of other stakeholders. These stakeholders include employees, customers, suppliers, communities, society and the environment. The idea is that companies that conduct their business ethically create a good working environment for employees, have higher customer satisfaction and effective governance measures. By complying with rules and regulations and giving back to their communities, these companies leave a better environment for future generations. Ultimately, they will be more sustainable and add to their bottom-line earnings in the long term. As such, my research and books provide policy, educational, practice and research implications for regulators in establishing sustainability reporting and assurance standards; for investors to receive both financial and nonfinancial ESG factors of performance, risk and disclosure in making sound investment decisions; and for companies to tell their success stories in achieving desired outcomes and returns on investments and having social and environmental impacts. My worldview has helped many global institutions and business organizations more effectively balance the profit-

Tell us a little about your journey in choosing the UofM as your academic home.

I received my PhD in accounting from the University of Mississippi in 1985. I taught at the University of Alabama in Huntsville as an assistant professor from 1984-88; then as an associate professor at the University of Detroit from 1988-90; and, finally, as a full professor at Middle Tennessee State University from 1990-2001. I have been the ThompsonHill Chair of Excellence and a professor of accounting at the University of Memphis since 2001. I have served a two-year term on the Standing Advisory Group of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. I am currently the editor of the Journal of Forensic Accounting Research, one of the journals of the American Accounting Association. And, I was appointed to the Honorary Advisory Panel of the Financial Reporting Council in Hong Kong (December 2019-September 2023).

Upon reflection of any point in your UofM career to now, what do you consider the most significant way in which your research has impacted your industry?

I have published more than 250 papers and 14 books. The focus of my recent books and papers are on “Business Sustainability, Corporate Governance and Organizational Ethics.” Business sustainability, corporate social responsibility and corporate governance have recently gained the attention of policymakers,