{"id":245059,"date":"2026-04-30T10:11:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T14:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=245059"},"modified":"2026-04-30T10:24:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T14:24:55","slug":"uconn-establishes-endowed-accounting-professorship-with-kpmg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2026\/04\/uconn-establishes-endowed-accounting-professorship-with-kpmg\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Establishes Endowed Accounting Professorship with KPMG"},"content":{"rendered":"

The School of Business has announced the creation of a new endowed accounting professorship, supported through a collaboration with KPMG LLP, the U.S. audit, tax, and advisory firm, to help attract and retain high-performing educators in UConn\u2019s Accounting Department.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur accounting faculty are among the most influential teachers and scholars in the profession, and their work shapes how the next generation of accountants and financial leaders are trained,\u2019\u2019 said Interim Business Dean Greg Reilly. \u201cThe working collaboration between UConn and KPMG has a long and deep history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Alumna
Kristen Ortuso \u201907, \u201908 MSA, a partner at KPMG, addressed the audience about the long-standing partnership between KPMG and UConn. (Nathan Oldham\/UConn School of Business)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cSupport from firms like KPMG allows us to recognize exceptional faculty with the distinction of a professorship. Investments like this help ensure that UConn continues to attract and retain outstanding faculty and provide our students with an education that reflects the highest standards of the accounting field,\u2019\u2019 Reilly said. \u201cWe are grateful for KPMG\u2019s support.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

UConn leadership and executives from KPMG gathered at the School of Business\u2019 Graduate Business Learning Center in Hartford to mark the announcement Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UConn School of Business has built a national reputation for academic rigor and real-world relevance,\u201d said Susan Jackson, Hartford Managing Partner, KPMG. \u201cThis collaboration reflects a shared commitment to strengthening faculty leadership and supporting the educators whose teaching, research, and mentorship help shape the future of the accounting profession.\u201d<\/p>\n

The KPMG Professorship is an honor that will be bestowed on some of the most highly regarded accounting faculty and is intended to strengthen UConn\u2019s ability to attract and retain leading educators in the field.<\/p>\n

\"Accounting
Professor George Plesko, head of the Accounting Department, shares a few remarks at Wednesday\u2019s ceremony in which KPMG endowed a professorship in accounting at UConn. (Nathan Oldham\/UConn School of Business)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Professor George Plesko, head of the Accounting Department, will be the first recipient of the KPMG Professorship. Plesko\u2019s expertise focuses on corporate tax policy, business taxation, and the relationship between financial and tax reporting. He joined UConn 21 years ago after teaching at MIT and serving in the U.S. Treasury. His work has been published in top accounting and economic journals, and he has testified before Congress and served as an advisor to the IRS and Congressional Budget Office.<\/p>\n

An award-winning educator, Plesko has received the American Accounting Association\u2019s Wildman Medal (2005), one of the profession\u2019s highest honors, as well as the 2022 Ray M. Sommerfeld Outstanding Tax Educator Award and the 2025 UConn Distinguished Faculty Research Award.<\/p>\n

The creation of a professorship requires a minimum endowment of $750,000, a threshold that was exceeded through KPMG\u2019s contribution. This marks KPMG\u2019s first endowed professorship at UConn.<\/p>\n

The Accounting Department currently serves 455 accounting majors, up nearly 40% from 2024. This growth, supported by the new endowed professorship, underscores a shared commitment to education as a vital catalyst for strengthening Connecticut\u2019s workforce and regional economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cEstablishing the KPMG Endowed Professorship reflects our belief that great accounting programs begin with great faculty,\u201d said Mark Caplan, retired partner at KPMG, now an adjunct professor at UConn. \u201cBy investing in UConn\u2019s educators, we are supporting the research, teaching, and mentorship that prepare students to lead with integrity in an increasingly complex business environment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professorship strengthens faculty leadership and academic excellence in accounting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":245062,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1862,2235],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2105],"class_list":["post-245059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-busn","category-today-homepage"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 16:05:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245059"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245073,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245059\/revisions\/245073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/245062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245059"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=245059"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=245059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}