Warren Buffett might be quoted as saying that “accounting is the language of business”, but it’s perhaps more accurate to describe it as the lifeblood instead.

Finance and accounting shape the way organisations operate, grow, and make strategic decisions, no matter how small. If we’re talking about business health, often we’re not talking about size or service, we’re talking about where the money is going. Solid financial performance is vital for business success. Even the best business ideas can’t survive without a good grasp on the purse strings.

So, for any business professional, having a rigorous financial grounding is a non-negotiable. As such, accounting and finance has been a keystone of business education from the very beginning.

Business schools and universities are instrumental in teaching the basics of financial management as well as driving research into the latest sector developments.

Dissecting and predicting economic trends, responding to shifting requirements in practice, policy and auditing, exploring  innovations in fintech, and analysing economic impact… the list goes on. Their research and expertise are helping businesses and professionals make smarter financial decisions every day. And there’s always more to learn once you leave the classroom.

If you’re looking to understand the latest in finance and accounting, the professors on our list are at the forefront of the field. Not only are they readily sharing their expertise in academic journals and classrooms, but with their online communities too, all with the aim of helping to redefine and improve how businesses and societies handle money.

Burcu Esmer – Professor of Finance at The Wharton School and Academic Director of the Wharton-AltFinance Institute

Dr. Esmer is Academic Co-Director of the Wharton Harris Family Alternative Investments Program and the Wharton-AltFinance Institute.

Her research focuses on empirical corporate finance, private equity, banking, and agency conflicts – for example examining how agency conflicts shape corporate policies. She teaches courses such as “Finance of Buyouts & Acquisitions” and “Advanced Topics in Private Equity” across undergrad, MBA, and Executive programs.

Recognized repeatedly with Wharton’s Teaching Excellence Award (including 2023-2025) and named one of Poets & Quants’ Best Undergraduate Business Professors of 2024.

Dr. Esmer offers deep insight into private equity, alternative investments and real-world corporate finance, bridging academic research and hands-on investment practice – especially useful if you’re interested in private equity, buyouts, or alternative asset classes.

Find and follow Professor Esmer on LinkedIn here

Alex Edmans – Professor of Finance at London Business School, non-executive director, author & TED/TEDx speaker

Former Wharton professor and ex-investment banker at Morgan Stanley, Professor Edmans shares insights on responsible investing, corporate purpose, and how businesses can deliver both profit and social impact.

He draws upon his research, books (such as; Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit , May Contain Lies: How Stories, Statistics and Studies Exploit Our Biases – And What We Can Do About It), TED talks, and policy work.

Keeping a foot firmly in industry and another in the academic world has enabled Professor Edmans to speak to the World Economic Forum and to the World Bank Board of Directors as part of the Distinguished Speaker Series, and to host a TED talk “What to Trust in a Post-Truth World” as well as TEDx talks on “The Pie-Growing Mindset and The Social Responsibility of Business”, earning a combined 3 million views.

Find and follow Professor Edmans on LinkedIn here

Aswath Damodaran – Professor of Finance, NYU Stern School of Business

Damodaran holds the Kerschner Family Chair in Finance Education at NYU Stern. He is widely regarded as the authority on corporate valuation and finance – authoring seminal books such as Investment Valuation, Applied Corporate Finance, and The Dark Side of Valuation.

He teaches courses on corporate finance and valuation, and offers his valuation data and resources publicly – making him especially accessible to students, practitioners, and self-learners worldwide.

Damodaran is ideal if you want to deepen your understanding of valuation, corporate finance theory, investing, and how to think rigorously about value – whether you’re doing academic work, investing, or analyzing firms professionally.

Find and follow Professor Damodaran on LinkedIn here

Aly Salama – Professor of Accounting and Corporate Governance, School Director of Accreditation at Northumbria University

Professor Salama’s research focuses on environmental disclosure, corporate reputation, and financial performance, the results of which have been published  in a number of leading accounting and finance journals.

He’s also responsible for influencing future financial minds in other ways, having developed a number of accounting and finance degree programmes, supervised hundreds of Master’s dissertations, and mentored PhD students pursuing research relevant to accountants, managers, investors, and regulators.

He is active in consultancy, collaborative research, and external examining.

Find and follow Professor Salama on LinkedIn here

Shivaram Rajgopal – Kester & Byrnes Professor of Accounting and Auditing, Columbia Business School

Professor Rajgopal is a leading voice in accounting research – his work spans financial reporting, earnings quality, fraud, executive compensation, and corporate culture.

His papers appear in top academic journals such as The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Financial Economics, and more. At Columbia, he also serves as Faculty Director of the Corporate Governance Program and teaches MBA and doctoral courses on financial statement analysis, business sustainability, and governance. Wikipedia

Rajgopal’s research is central to understanding accounting integrity, financial disclosure, and governance – essential if you care about how accounting practices influence firm value, transparency, and investor trust.

Find and follow Professor Rajgopal on LinkedIn here

Carol Alexander – Professor of Finance at University of Sussex Business School

Professor Alexander’s influence reaches far. In addition to her work at Sussex she is also a Visiting Professor at Peking University Business School and serves as editor of the Journal of Banking and Finance.

Her  expertise lies in FinTech, derivatives, crypto assets, market risk, and portfolio management, topics which have also been the subject of several textbooks she has authored, such as; Market Models and Market Risk Analysis.

Outside of academia she has held a selection of senior-level industry roles and has designed mathematical models for major financial institutions.

Find and follow Professor Alexander on LinkedIn here

Andreas Hoepner – Professor of Operational Risk, Banking, and Finance at UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School

Professor Hoepner He leads GreenWatch – a group of sustainable finance experts leveraging artificial intelligence for societal good. Together they have created a machine learning, language processing system which sift through SDG related disclosures to identify instances of greenwashing

He is also involved in the leadership of  other major EU sustainable finance initiatives including co-inventing EU Paris-Aligned and Climate Transition Benchmarks, and serves as Head of the Data Science Hub for the EU’s Platform on Sustainable Finance.

His research covers responsible investment, operational risk, and sustainable finance.

Find and follow Professor Hoepner on LinkedIn here

Mihir A. Desai – Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance, Harvard Business School

Professor Desai is a renowned economist specializing in corporate tax, international finance, and public economics.

He holds the Mizuho Financial Group professorship at HBS and also has a joint appointment at Harvard Law School – reflecting the interdisciplinary relevance of his work (finance, law, policy).

Desai has contributed significantly to debates on corporate taxation, globalization of capital, and how tax and regulation shape corporate behavior and investment – making his perspective essential in today’s increasingly global and regulated business context.

If you’re interested in the intersection of finance, tax policy, international business, and regulation – especially how taxes and global flows influence corporate strategy – Desai offers a top-tier academic and policy-oriented lens.

Find and follow Professor Desai on LinkedIn here

Fabiola Schneider – Assistant Professor in Accounting at UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School

Professor Schneider’s research focuses on climate finance, fossil fuel funding, ESG reporting, and impact investing. Her PhD, which she also earned at UCD explored climate transition accounting and finance. Her expertise has led her to co-lead GreenWatch alongside fellow UCD faculty colleague Professor Hoepner.

She contributes to EU sustainable finance policy through the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (which establishes standardised frameworks to measure and manage emissions from private and public sector operations) , and the European Commission’s Platform on Sustainable Finance, including the EU Green Taxonomy.

Find anf follow Professor Schneider on LinkedIn here

Gilles Chemla – Professor of Finance and Director of Centre for Financial Technology at Imperial Business School

Gilles is a Professor of Finance, specialising in areas including fintech, AI, big data, and digital assets, bridging cutting-edge technology with practical financial insights. His research covers corporate finance, governance, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and venture capital. He also focuses on executive compensation, corporate investment strategy, financial regulation, and pension funds.

He is also Co-Director of Imperial’s Centre for Financial Technology – established as a hub to develop innovations, reveal insights and answer questions; bringing together the activities of academics, start-up companies, established industry and governmental organisations.

He has also worked in corporate finance at BNP Paribas, as an independent consultant for a variety of corporate, financial, and governmental institutions and professional and international organisations, and he has served on a wide range of boards.

Find and follow Professor Chemla on LinkedIn here

Marcel Olbert – Assistant Professor at London Business School

Named as one of the 2024 Poets&Quants’ Best 40-Under-40 MBA Professors, Marcel Olbert has made an impact during his time at LBS. His teaching of financial accounting, taxation, and data analytics, draws from his experience in the corporate world.

Prior to his academic career he held roles in investment banking within the M&A advisory group of JP Morgan London, strategy consulting with Roland Berger and international tax and private equity with PwC and Flick Gocke Schaumburg

Aside of teaching on the MBA he researches corporate taxation, disclosure regulation, and sustainability in business. His work explores issues such as carbon leakage, tax avoidance, and ESG disclosures, particularly in private equity.

Find and follow Marcel Olbert on LinkedIn here

Annamaria Lusardi – Professor of Finance (by courtesy) at Stanford Graduate School of Business

Lusardi, is one of the most cited scholars in financial literacy, an accolade earned by teaching and researching finance at many of the world’s best known business schools. Her experience has made her well-placed to advise governments and the U.S. Treasury on financial education, and have her expertise featured in global media.

At Stanford GSB she is Director of the Initiative for Financial Decision-Making, a collaboration between the Graduate School of Business (GSB), the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), and the Economics Department.

She is also founder of the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Centre and inaugural editor of the Journal of Financial Literacy and Wellbeing.  

Find and follow Professor Lusardi on LinkedIn here

By, Megan-Rose Vince

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