After completing an MA by Thesis at the University of Manchester I trained as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen in Birmingham. After qualification in 1975 I took up an appointment as Lecturer in Accounting in the Department of Accounting and Finance, University of Manchester.
In 1979-80 I was Visiting Associate Professor of Accounting, Tulane Business School, New Orleans
In 1984 I moved to the University of Essex as Senior Lecturer in Accounting in the Department of Economics and was subsequently promoted to Reader in 1987.
In 1988 I was the founding Head of the Department of Accounting and Financial Management, University of Essex, and was appointed the first Professor in the Department in 1989. Subsequently, I served as Dean of the School Social Sciences (1995-97), Dean of the Graduate School (1997-99), Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Academic Standards (1999-2002), and Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Academic Development (2002-06).
In 2001 I was an Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand and since 2006 I have been a Visiting Professor of Management at CASS Business School.
In August 2008 I was appointed the Director of the newly established Essex Business School, a merger of the School of Accounting, Finance and Management in Colchester, and the School of Entrepreneurship & Business in Southend.
