Byrnes Research Seminar

The Vision

The Byrnes Accounting and Finance Research Seminar Series is a component of the first funded professorship at the University of Montana College of Business. It was established by Carol Jean Byrnes in 2003 as part of the Donald and Carol Jean Byrnes Professorship in Finance, an endowment created by Carol in honor of her late husband. Donald Byrnes was a 1949 UM alumnus and CEO of Spalding and Evenflo companies. Don played an active role at UM and was a frequent guest lecturer in the College of Business (COB). He always felt his background and UM education shaped him into the man he became.

The lecture series showcases internationally renowned experts in accounting and finance.  Don and Carol Jean believed that the key to a strong institution is its people and the investment in people is fundamental to the future success of UM.

The Byrnes Professorship and Seminar Series gives COB a competitive advantage to recruit and retain professors and leading scholars. It was important to Don and Carol to create opportunities for students to learn and develop skills that rival other national College of Business degree programs.

Carol Jean and Donald Byrnes

Donald and Carol Jean Byrnes Professor of Finance

The program is coordinated by Keith Jakob, Donald and Carol Jean Byrnes Professor of Finance.  Prof. Jakob is a tenured full professor of finance at the University Montana. He studied at the University of Utah from 1987 to 2000. He received a B.S. in chemistry, a master's in Civil and Environmental Engineering, and a Ph.D. in finance. He started teaching at the University of Montana in 2000, and he has instructed courses in the areas of corporate finance, investments, real estate and financial statement analysis.

During his tenure at the College at the University of Montana, Prof. Jakob has also maintained an active research agenda. His research interests are in dividends, market-microstructure, corporate finance, IPOs, international finance and mutual fund performance. Prof. Jakob has published papers in prestigious journals, including the Journal of Financial Economics, Financial Management, the Journal of Financial Research, the Journal of Empirical Finance, The Financial Review, the Journal of Applied Finance, Journal of Multinational Financial Management, the Journal of Investing, the Global Finance Journal, the Journal of Performance Measurement, Financial Services Review, The Journal of Index Investing and the Case Research Journal.

Prof. Jakob has also consulted and helped run various businesses and has acted as an expert witness regarding financial fraud. At the University of Montana, Prof. Jakob has been awarded prestigious teaching awards and various research grants and fellowships.  In 2004, Prof. Jakob visited the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile for a short-term faculty exchange, and for the academic 2007-2008 year he was on a faculty exchange at the University of Granada, Spain. During the 2011-2012 academic year Prof. Jakob was a visiting scholar on sabbatical at Tel Aviv University.

Past Presenters of the Byrnes Research Seminar

Semester  Name Title Institution/Organization  Paper
Spring 2016 Lisa (Zongfei) Yang Assistant Professor of Finance Montana State University Underbracing of Corporate Bond Offerings:  Evidence and Determinants
Spring 2015 John Sweeney Director of Accounting, Professor University of Kansas Are Workpaper Reviews Preparer-Specific?
Spring 2014 Jason Smith Assistant Professor of Finance Utah State University Debt and Taxes at Multinational Corporations
Spring 2013 Alon Kalay   Columbia Business School  The Bond Discount Puzzle
Fall 2012 Ryan Whitby   Utah State University Speculative Trading in REITs
Spring 2012 Lee J. Yao, PhD   Loyola University Accounting Ethics Education
Fall 2011 Jeremy Griffin, PhD   University of Notre Dame Concurrent Processing of Accounting Issues and Auditors Evidence Evaluation Decisions
Fall 2011 Robert Ballsrud, CPA, CFA   Busey Wealth Management Wealth Management: Implementing Best Ideas
Spring 2011 Dr. Dan Stone   University of Kentucky Tracing the Birth and Evolution of Mundane Online Crime: Routine Activity Theory (RAT) and the Sustainable Online Auction Con
Spring 2011 Dr. Michael Cooper   University of Utah Fee dispersion and persistence in the mutual fund industry
Fall 2010 Keejae P. Hong   Department of Accounting, College of Business, University of Illinois at Chicago Where does the investment value of target prices come from?
Fall 2010 Marlene Plumlee Associate Professor of Accounting, David Eccles Faculty Fellow University of Utah Voluntary Environmental Disclosure Quality and Firm Value: Further Evidence
Spring 2010 Dobrina Georgieva Assistant Professor of Finance University of St.Thomas Alternative Paths of Convergence toward U.S. Market and Legal Regulations: Cross-listing vs. Merging with U.S. Bidders
Spring 2010 Dr. Greg Durham Assistant Professor of Finance Montana State University Do Investors Categorize?  Evidence from the College Football Betting Market
Fall 2009 Julia Higgs Associate Professor of Accounting School of Accounting, Florida Atlantic University Audit Partner Rotation: An Analysis of Benefits and Costs 
Fall 2009 Brian Allen Partner KPMG Mr. Allen will be discussing IFRS accounting standards.
Fall 2009 Jim Schallheim Jake Garn Professor of Finance The David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah A Test of the Substitution between Debt and Leases Using Sale-and-Leaseback Transactions 
Spring 2009 Jacqueline S. Hammersley   Tull School of Accounting, Terry College of Business, University of Georgia How Do Audit Seniors Respond to Increased Perceptions of Fraud Risk?
Spring 2009 Orly Sade   Stern School of Business, NYU, Jerusalem School of Business, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Debt auctions: Uniform or discriminatory?
all 2008 Jim Hunton Darald and Juliet Libby Professor of Accounting, Bentley College Research Professor Bentley College, Accounting and Information Management, Universiteit Maastricht, The Netherlands Comparing Nominal Group, Round Robin and Open Discussion Techniques: A Field Experiment in Fraud Brainstorming
Fall 2008 Gary Caton Assistant Professor of Finance Montana State University Earnings Management Surrounding Seasoned Bond Offerings: Do Managers Seek to Mislead Rating Agencies and the Bond Market?
Spring 2008 Joe Vinso President Financial Resources Management, Inc  Valuing Closely Held Business Interests
Spring 2008 Cliff Sheets Chief Investment Officer Montana Board of Investments Institutional Investing
Spring 2008 Carolyn Callahan Doris M. Cook Chair in Accounting University of Arkansas Firm Partnerships and Alliances: The Impact of Partnering Relationships on Operating Risk and Financial Performance 
Fall 2007 Barbara Chaney   University of Montana The Association of Accounting Indicators with Municipal Bond Interest Costs
Fall 2007 Scott Linn   University of Oklahoma Operating Performance Changes Associated with Corporate Mergers and the Role of Corporate Governance
Fall 2007 Sean Peffer   University of Kentucky The Effects of Budget Levels, Participation, and Repeated-Interaction on Employee Effort 
Spring 2007 Anthony Aaron ASA  Ernst & Young  FASB 157
Spring 2007 Paul Bahnson    Boise State University The Top Ten Reasons to Change the Conceptual Framework
Spring 2007 Jim Leisenring    International Accounting Standards Board Convergence of Accounting Standards
 Spring 2007 Marjorie Shelley    Texas A & M The Effects of Group Identification and Decision Disclosure on Individuals Decisions to Incur Personal Cost to Reduce Group Risk
 Fall 2006 Daniel A. Rogers    Portland State Repurchases, Employee Stock Option Grants, and Hedging
Fall 2006 Jesse Dillard    Portland State Beyond Competition: Institutional Isomorphism in U.S. Accounting Research
Fall 2006 Harry Turtle    Washington State University Measuring Performance in a Dynamic World: Conditional Mean-Variance Fundamentals
Spring 2006 Garry Hecht    Emory University Dividing the pie: Do managers fully incorporate non-contracted information into full and partial discretionary bonus allocations?
Spring 2006 Susan D. Krische    University of Illinois  Employees Perceived Value of Their Stock Option Holdings: Factors Affecting the Cost-Value Gap
Spring 2006 Harry Turtle    Washington State University  
 Spring 2006 Marjorie Shelley   Texas A & M An Experimental Investigation of Ambiguity Effects on Analysts' Revision Decisions and Managers' Guidance Choices.
 Spring 2006 Pervin Shroff   University of Minnesota    Fundamentals-Based Risk Measurement in Valuation
 Spring 2006 Patricia M. Dechow   University of Michigan  
Fall 2005 Russell Lundholm    University of Michigan The Extreme Future Stock Returns following Extreme Earnings Surprises
Fall 2005  Donna Paul    Washington State University Corrective Action: Evidence from Corporate Restructuring following Bad Acquisition Bids
Fall 2005  Charles Bame-Aldred    Washington State University  Signaling in the Accountant Labor Market
Fall 2005  Scott C. Linn    University of Oklahoma Complexity and the Character of Stock Returns: Empirical Evidence and a Model of Asset Prices Based Upon Complex Investor Learning
Fall 2005  Kevin Stocks    Brigham Young University  Pre PhD Program
Spring 2005  Gordon J. Alexander    University of Minnesota  Does Motivation Matter When Assessing Trade Performance? An Analysis of Mutual Funds
Spring 2005  Catherine Shakespeare    University of Michigan  Differential Properties in the Ratings of Certified vs. Non-Certified Bond Rating Agencies
Spring 2005  Richard Sias    Washington State University  Why has Firm-Specific Risk Increased over Time?
Spring 2005 Kathryn Kadous    Emory University  Using Counter-Explanation to Limit Analysts' Forecast Optimism
 Fall 2004  Theodore J. Mock    University of Southern California The Framing and Evaluation of Multiple Hypotheses
Fall 2004  William L. Felix, Jr.    University of Arizona  The Demand for Auditing: Evidence on the Effect of Venture Capitalist Presence in Initial Public Offerings
Fall 2004  W. Steven Albrecht    Brigham Young University Strategic Fraud Detection: A technology-based model
 Fall 2004  W. Steve Albrecht    Bringham Young University Research in Fraud Detection
Spring 2004  Keith Vorkink    Bringham Young University  Investor Overconfidence and Trading Volume
Spring 2004  Aris Protopapadakis    University of Southern California Budget Deficits, Current Account Deficits and Interest Rates:  The Systematic Evidence on Ricardian Equivalence
Spring 2004  E. Han Kim    University of Michigan To Steal or Not to Steal: Firm Attributes, Legal Environment, and Valuation
Fall 2003  Steven Thorley    Brigham Young University Portfolio Constraints and the Fundamental Law of Active Management PowerPoint Slides
Fall 2003  Mary Beth Armstrong    Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Professionalism and Ethics In Accounting Education PowerPoint Slides
Fall 2003  Tongshu Ma    University of Utah  Prospect theory and the long run performance of IPO stocks
Fall 2003  Michael Lemmon    University of Utah  Exercise Behavior and the Valuation and Incentives Associated with Employee Stock Options