Ken Trotman

Professor of Accounting, Scientia Professor

School of Accounting - BCom, UNSW | MCom, UNSW | PhD, UNSW | FCA | FCPA | FASSA

Ken Trotman is a Scientia Professor and was Head of the School of Accounting from 1991 to February 2000. He has held visiting appointments at a range of overseas institutions including Cornell University, the University of Michigan and the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. His main current research interests are concerned with judgment and decision making in accounting. He has a particular interest in the judgments made by auditors. He is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and a Fellow of CPA Australia.

Ken has published in leading international research journals including The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Contemporary Accounting Research, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory and Journal of Management Accounting Research.

Ken was the 1993/94 President of the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand (AFAANZ). In 1998 he received the AFAANZ 'Outstanding Contribution to the Accounting Literature' award and later awarded life membership of AFAANZ. In 1998 he was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. He received the 2000/2001 'Outstanding Auditing Educator Award' from the Audit Section of the American Accounting Association; the 2008 Notable Contribution to the Auditing Literature Award from the Auditing Section of the American Accounting Association; the 2009 Notable (Lifetime) Contribution Award in Behavioral Accounting Literature from the American Accounting Association; and 2014 Behavioral Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Supervisor Award.

Ken was inducted into the Australian Accounting Hall of Fame in 2011 and was an ARC Professorial Fellow 2011–2015. In 2018 he received the UNSW Business School Outstanding Research (Inaugural Professorial) Award. In the Australia Day 2020 Honours he was appointed Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to education, particularly to accounting.

Ken has extensive experience over 30 plus years in both Australia and the US teaching MBAs and providing executive training courses. At present, he leads the Essentials of Finance for Non-Finance Managers executive training program for the AGSM as well as courses to senior executives across a range of industries. He has made submission to recent Government inquiries and appeared before the Parliamentary Inquiry into Regulation of Auditing in Australia. His recent research has considered audit quality and has included audit partners and other audit professionals, Audit Committee Chairs and audit standard setters.