An environmental accountant has become the third female Professor in the University of Aberdeen’s Department of Accountancy.
Dr Jan Bebbington took up a Chair in Accountancy at the University on January 1, 2000
Professor Clare Roberts, Head of Department of Accountancy said: “This is excellent news for the University. Jan’s appointment means that Aberdeen is the only University in the UK to have three female professors in its Department of Accountancy.
The third Professor is Pat Fraser, Aberdeen Asset Management Professor of Finance and Investment Management. She is currently on sabbatical in Australia.
Born in New Zealand, Dr Bebbington studied accountancy at the University of Canterbury graduating in 1987. She began her professional training with KPMG Peat Marwick in Christchurch, New Zealand, and was made a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in 1990. A year later, she moved to Scotland and has worked a lecturer and senior lecturer in the University of Dundee’s Department of Accountancy and Business Finance since.
Dr Bebbington was awarded the accounting association education special interest group manuscript prize in 1994, and was Winner of the University of Dundee Honorary Graduates Award for Innovative Teaching in 1997. She was awarded her PhD earlier last year from the University of Dundee.
An expert in the area of full cost accounting, which examines how an individual firm may go about measuring the environmental externalities which arise from their operations, Dr Bebbington will be the lead author of a major ACCA report to be published this year in this area.
Her research interests include examining how corporations impact upon society’s pursuit of sustainable development. She also researches the process by which these firms create social and environmental reports and the impact of these reports on the firms themselves. For several years, she has worked with corporations as they seek to develop new forms of reporting.
Dr Bebbington is also a short-listing judge for the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants who annually give, among other things, an award for the best UK environmental report.
PHOTO OPPORTUNITY: Professors Bebbington, Roberts and Fraser will be available for interview and photographs at 11am on Tuesday, January 11, 1999. Please make your way to Reception in the University Office, Regent Walk, Old Aberdeen at 10.55am from where you will be guided to Professor Robert’s office.