Last updated 12/21/2021
Tom Ryan began teaching at USC following his retirement from the PricewaterhouseCoopers partnership in 2010. Initially, he taught in the Leventhal School of Accounting as well as the Finance and Communications departments of the Marshall School of Business.
Soon thereafter, he was asked to create Fair Value curriculum courses that were added to the core curriculum at both the Graduate and Undergraduate levels in the Leventhal School of Accounting. His courses at USC Leventhal have typically focused on accounting standards relevant to Financial Accounting, primarily based on historic performance, whose foundation premise is to provide “decision useful” information to investors.
He hopes to expand his interest in research of factors driving the increase in value of investments that seemingly occur without driving economic “fundamental” qualities and reflecting “bubble type” market behavior. General examples of investments of interest include Meme stocks; GameStop; Some Cryptocurrencies such as Dogecoin and some SPACs such as Canoo and Romeo Power.
Ryan’s retirement goes into effect on December 31st, 2021 and in addition to his interest in the research areas listed above, he predicts that the key focuses of activities in his retirement will be health related and the pursuit of fun with his wife and family.
Ryan’s found that to maintain his physical and mental health, he needs to focus on exercise and working out. His target is working out two hours a day: daily stretching and weight work are the foundation to keeping in shape, he says. Hiking, jogging, tennis, and skiing are among the activities that he continues to enjoy.
He anticipates that he will continue to enjoy paragliding, which in the past has included launch sites in Santa Barbara, San Bernardino and Ventura, as well as the French Alps and Colombia, South America.
Ryan and his wife enjoy traveling, sometimes with some of their family, or with friends. Within California, they typically spend time in the mountains in Mammoth Lakes, near the ocean in Ventura while keeping connected with their place in downtown LA. They’ll likely travel to Europe and Hawaii when allowed, given the influence of Covid.
He expects to continue his education and to keep learning. Currently, Ryan is working on coding classes in the iOS Swift and Xcode languages fundamental to creating iPhone apps that may serve as a foundation of knowledge to purchase and monetize apps.
What does Ryan expect to learn in retirement? “That there is a lot I do not know!”