UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Steven Huddart has assumed the role of senior associate dean for research and faculty in the Penn State Smeal College of Business, effective July 1.
He succeeds Russell Barton, who held the position for more than five years.
Smeal’s more than 150 full-time faculty make up the college’s six academic departments. They consistently rank in the top 10 among public universities for research published in business journals. Smeal also has factored highly in discipline-specific research productivity rankings in areas such as marketing and management.
“I look forward to supporting and growing Smeal’s excellent faculty,” Huddart said. “Smeal achieves its mission through the faculty’s research, teaching and service. I am eager to help make the most of the opportunities ahead of us.”
Huddart joined the Smeal faculty in 1999. He was named KPMG Professor of Accounting in 2006 and then chair of the accounting department and Smeal Chaired Professor of Accounting in 2011.
Huddart’s research examines how decisions are affected by information, incentives, social norms and behavioral biases. He has examined the relationships between disclosure and insider trading; the financial reporting, taxation, compensation and valuation aspects of employee stock options; the effects of ownership structure on corporate value; and the determinants of investors' decisions to trade.
Huddart has taught financial accounting, managerial accounting and tax planning. He has published cases on indirect cost allocation and the taxation of a corporate acquisition. He has taught at Duke, Michigan and Stanford.
A native of Canada, he received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, and a doctorate from Yale University.
He is a chartered professional accountant and chartered accountant (Canada). He has served as an editor of a number of leading accounting journals and on the editorial boards of several others.