The President of the University of Southern California has awarded the designation of Professor Emeritus of the Practice of Accounting to Professor Tom Ryan based upon the recommendation of the dean and faculty of the USC Marshall School of Business and the dean and faculty of the USC Leventhal School of Accounting.
Tom Ryan was awarded the designation of Professor Emeritus of the Practice of Accounting to Professor Tom Ryan based upon the recommendation of the dean and faculty of the USC Marshall School of Business and the dean and faculty of the USC Leventhal School of Accounting. He was a professor of accounting at USC Marshall and USC Leventhal between 2011 and 2021 after retiring from the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) partnership. During retirement, he hopes to focus in on his interests including research on investments reflecting “bubble type” market behavior such as meme stocks and cryptocurrencies.
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.
In retirement, he hopes to expand his interest in research of factors driving the increase in the price of investments that seemingly occur without driving economic “fundamental” qualities often reflecting “bubble type” market behavior. General examples of investments of interest include Meme stocks, GameStop, Meme coins in the cryptocurrency space as well as developments associated with stablecoins. Artificial intelligence and the application of its capabilities in both business and day-to-day personal activities are additional areas of interest.
Professor Ryan’s retirement became effective on December 31st, 2021. 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 simple “pursuit of fun” with his wife and family.
Professor Ryan has 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 for keeping in shape. 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.
Professor Ryan and his wife enjoy traveling, often 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 also keeping connected with their condominium in downtown LA. When traveling outside California, favorites include Europe and Hawaii.
Professor Ryan expects to continue his lifelong interest personal educational journey. What does Ryan expect to learn in retirement? “The more I learn, the more I am fascinated by, humbled by, and thrilled by identifying what I don’t know and setting plans to move forward to learning more!”