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The UWA Business School's Emeritus Professor Philip Brown has been awarded a Doctor of Science, Honoris Causa, from The University of Lancaster.

The honorary degree recognises Professor Brown's outstanding contributions to the field of accounting, which include a seminal research paper and many decades of university involvement.

Professor Brown grew up in Sydney and attended The University of New South Wales, where he was the first accounting student to achieve first class honours and receive a University Medal. He then won a scholarship to study for a PhD at the University of Chicago.

Returning to Australia with his wife, Edith, Professor Brown joined The University of Western Australia in 1968. There, he helped establish the MBA course.

In 1975, he moved to The University of New South Wales, becoming the founding Dean of the Australian Graduate School of Management. In the following years, Professor Brown returned to UWA; served as Deputy Chair of the Mathews Committee, which evaluated accounting education in Australia; and spent more than ten years on the federal government's Corporations and Markets Advisory Committee.

Following his retirement from UWA in 2001, Professor Brown visited The University of Lancaster and was, in 2003, appointed honorary visiting professor in the Department of Accounting & Finance. At Lancaster, he continues to conduct research with Dr Wendy Beekes on the influence of a firm's corporate governance on its policies on disclosures to financial markets, and how corporate governance arrangements affect financial analysts' forecasts and the firm's cost of equity capital.

Professor Brown became a Member of the Order of Australia earlier this year, was inducted into Australia's Accounting Hall of Fame in 2010, and is the American Accounting Association ‘s joint Presidential Scholar for 2012.

He currently holds joint appointments at UWA and UNSW, and an honorary visiting professorship at The University of Lancaster.

Professor Brown was presented with his honorary doctorate at The University of Lancaster on 18 July 2012.

Media references

Catherine Vogel (UWA Business School) +618 6488 7340
Verity Chia (UWA Business School) +618 6488 1346