McCoy Professor Grace Johnson

Johnson and Halabi met five years ago at the Asian-Pacific Conference for International Accounting Issues in Seoul, Korea. Since that time they’ve worked together on several versions of this article, one of which was accepted for presentation at the American Accounting Association annual meeting in 2008.
 
Johnson currently is on sabbatical at Chonnam National University in Gwangju, Korea. She is teaching accounting courses in the university’s MBA Program. She also is writing the first draft of a textbook in accounting information systems.
 
Halabi is a member of the accounting faculty at Monash University, Churchill, Australia. He presently is on leave teaching accounting at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

• Chris Hughes: Merrill Lynch (New York City)—Finance
• Rachel Parks: Joseph Prieto CPA (Beverly, Ohio)—Accounting
• Yuman Peng: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Beijing, China)—Finance
• Missy Williams: Tenney, Bailey and Associates (Marietta, Ohio)—Accounting
• Tian Yang: Lowenstein Sandler LP (Boston, Mass.)—Finance

• Sisi Liu: Deloitte (Beijing, China)—Accounting
• Martin Mueller: PNC Bank (Pittsburgh, Pa.)—Management
• Kristina Reed: Disney (Orlando, Fla.)—Management
• Yi Ren: General Electric (Beijing, China)—Management
• Meredith Storey: Lake Erie Crushers (Avon, Ohio)—Management
• Zhaoyang Xu: Long Tree Capital (Beijing, China)—Finance

The B&E Department's Advisory Council met for its annual meeting on September 18, 2009. The Council met with various department members to talk about programs and issues of interest. The B&E Advisory Council was established in the 1980s to guide the Department in matters related to curriculum, internships, and related issues. Its members come from academe, government, and industry. The Advisory Council generally gathers with the Department once each year, in late September, for a day of meetings and discussion. Members are invited to sit on the Council for a three-year term.

Dr. James Falter, CFA

Falter decided to earn the charter in order to elevate the College’s current Finance program.
 
“I am seeking the CFA Charter to better develop a Finance major that will better allow our students to compete in the global investment and finance marketplace,” said Falter, who teaches most of the finance courses at Marietta. I am seeking to include CFA Institute outcomes for the Level 1 curriculum in our finance program to prepare students to sit for the first exam in the series; Thus, allowing our graduating students to differentiate themselves in seeking positions at financial institutions in global financial markets such as New York, London and Hong Kong.”
 
CFA Institute announced that 45 percent of 104,111 current and aspiring investment professionals worldwide passed the June 2009 CFA exams.
 
“We are encouraged by the number of investment professionals who have committed themselves to this rigorous program,” said John Rogers, CFA, president and CEO of CFA Institute. “We believe that financial education and professional ethics training, which are at the heart of the CFA Program, are cornerstones of future financial market stability. It is gratifying to see this strong level of demand for the CFA charter.”
 
The CFA curriculum includes ethical and professional standards; financial reporting and analysis; corporate finance; economics; quantitative methods; equity, fixed income, and alternative investments; derivatives; portfolio management and wealth planning. In a post-exam survey, CFA candidates replied that financial statement reporting and analysis, derivatives, ethical and professional standards, and fixed income were the most difficult topic areas for the 2009 exam. A strong majority (74 percent) of candidates who responded to the survey said they would re-take the CFA exam the next time it is offered if they do not pass.
 
In the above-mentioned post-exam survey, candidates reported they spent an average of 315 hours of study. CFA Institute recommends candidates spend at least 300 hours preparing for each of the three exams. CFA candidates typically take four years to pass the three required exams. The Level I exam is offered twice per year, while the Level II and Level III exams are offered once each year. The Level I exam consists of multiple-choice questions. Level II is composed of item sets (i.e., mini cases with detailed vignettes) and the questions at Level III are 50 percent item set and 50 percent short answer and essay.
 
Regulators around the world also recognize the value of the CFA charter. Nearly all U.S. state securities commissions grant CFA charterholders an exemption to their licensing exams for investment advisers. The NYSE and FINRA provide an exemption from the analytical portion (Series 86) of the Research Analyst Qualification Exam (Series 86/87) for certain applicants who have passed Level II of the CFA exam. Additionally, regulators in Australia, Canada, Greece, Hong Kong, Singapore, Turkey, and Vietnam accept the CFA designation as meeting their licensing or qualification requirements. In Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Thailand, passing a certain level of the CFA exam is required to practice in the jurisdiction.
 
“In a tight job market, having the CFA charter is a significant distinguishing factor, and we saw much lower no-show rates for Level I of the exam, which indicates how serious candidates are about their careers,” said Tom Robinson, CFA, managing director of education at CFA Institute. “The exam pass rates vary from year to year based on candidate preparedness and seriousness. There is no pre-set passing grade. Each year, a minimum passing score is determined through a rigorous standard-setting process that takes into account the difficulty of each exam and candidate performance.”
 
TOM PERRY