Mary E. Barth

Mary E. Barth is the Joan E. Horngren Professor of Accounting, Emerita at the Stanford University, Graduate School of Business (GSB).  Prior to joining the faculty at Stanford in 1995, she was an Associate Professor at Harvard Business School and an audit partner in Arthur Andersen & Co.  Professor Barth’s research is published in a variety of journals and has won several awards, including the American Accounting Association’s (AAA) Notable Contributions to Accounting Literature Award, the AAA’s Competitive Manuscript Award, and, on three occasions each, the AAA/Deloitte Wildman Medal Award and the Best Paper Award of the Financial Accounting and Reporting Section of the AAA.

She is Senior Editor of The Accounting Review and has previously served as an Editor.  She has been the Accounting Department Editor of Management Science and Co-editor of the Journal of Financial Reporting, and served on the Editorial Boards of several other academic journals.  Professor Barth is a recipient of the GSB’s MBA Distinguished Teaching Award, MSx Teaching Excellence Award, PhD Faculty Distinguished Service Award, and Robert J. Davis Award for a lifetime of service as a GSB faculty member.  She served as a Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the GSB from 2002 until 2009. 

Professor Barth was a member of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) from its inception in 2001 until 2009.  She served as the Academic Advisor to the IASB from 2009 until 2011.  Prior to joining the IASB, Professor Barth’s accounting standard setting activities included serving as a member of the Accounting Standards Executive Committee of the American Institute of CPAs and the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council of the Financial Accounting Standards Board.

Professor Barth was President of the AAA in 2013-2014 and has served as its Vice President and as Chair of several AAA committees.  She also has served as Vice President of the International Association for Accounting Education and Research.  Professor Barth is a recipient of the AAA’s Outstanding Educators Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the AAA’s Financial Accounting and Reporting Section, the Outstanding International Accounting Educator Award of the AAA’s International Section, and is an Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Australia and was an Extraordinary Professor at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.  She served on the External Audit Committee of the International Monetary Fund, including as its chair.  Professor Barth holds an AB from Cornell University, an MBA from Boston University, a PhD from Stanford University, and DSc(HC)s from Lancaster University and London Business School.