“This endowment by the Fayard family really gives UA a unique opportunity to compete for another top-tier researcher,” said Rich Houston, director of the Culverhouse School of Accountancy.
Culverhouse recently posted about the new chair position online, and Houston and his colleagues have begun a search for the best candidate.
“While we could fill the position internally, this endowment allows us to maybe bring in a behavioral accounting researcher with lots of published work elsewhere, and that’s incredibly exciting,” Houston said.
Fayard retired earlier this year after 20 years with Coca-Cola, most recently serving as the company’s chief financial officer. Fayard and his wife, Nancy, are both alumni of the Capstone, graduating from Culverhouse and the College of Education, respectively, in 1975.
“We are forever thankful to the Fayards for their generous gift and support of the College,” said Michael Hardin, dean of the Culverhouse College of Commerce, in the school’s release of the news. “This type of donation is necessary to help the school of accountancy and the college move forward as a top-notch program.”
In addition to the Fayard family’s donation, Hugh Culverhouse, Jr. has agreed to match the $1.5 million donation for his scholarship program in the college.
These additional funds, Houston said, will help continue to provide students necessary support to graduate with less debt and will help students in all areas of the business school, not just accounting.
“This chair position means a number of exciting things for our school going forward,” Houston said. “We already attract very strong research and Ph.D. students and this new position will only work to increase our reputation as a world-class research institution in Accounting.”
