The AUASB congratulates its Chair, Professor Roger Simnett on his induction into the Australian Accounting Hall of Fame

Monday, June 1, 2020

Over the last three decades Roger Simnett has made an outstanding contribution to the accounting discipline as a leading international audit researcher, accounting educator, and audit and assurance standard setter. Throughout this period Roger has consistently published in the leading international research journals including The Accounting Review, Contemporary Accounting Research, Accounting, Organizations and Society and Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory as well as supporting Australian journals. In 2015 the American Accounting Association invited him to co-edit a special issue of Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory on sustainability assurance, a topic of which he is a leading academic researcher.

Roger Simnett is also a committed educator who has inspired numerous students to enter the auditing profession and, as a supervisor, he has developed a new generation of academic leaders. He has been involved in audit standard setting for twenty-five years holding numerous important roles culminating in his recent appointment as Chair and Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Auditing and Assurance Standards Board and reappointment to the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board.

Other appointments include two terms on both the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board of Australia and International Auditing and Assurance Standard Board, Chair of the Sustainability Expert Advisory Panel of the International Federation of Accountants, Member of the New Zealand Auditing and Assurance Standards Board, Member of United Nations World Business Council for Sustainable Development Assurance Task Force, and Member of the International Integrated Reporting Committee working group, assurance taskforce and review panel. He has led many research and standard setting initiatives in the areas of sustainability assurance and integrated reporting including major roles in the development and producing of ISAE 3000 Assurance Engagements Other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information and ISAE 3410 Assurance Engagements on Greenhouse Gas Statements.

Roger Simnett’s contributions have been acknowledged by awards including the Outstanding Auditing Educator Award from the American Accounting Association, Outstanding Contribution to the Accounting and Finance Research Literature Award and Outstanding Contribution to Accounting and Finance Practice Award from the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand. In 2010 Roger Simnett was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and in 2017 was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to the accountancy profession, to business education, to the development of national and international auditing and assurance standards, to accounting organisations, and to research. The Australian Accounting Hall of Fame honours Roger Simnett as an audit researcher, educator, and audit and assurance standard setter of the highest order.