Business scholar Professor Paul Healy awarded honorary doctorate

“Professor Healy is one of the world’s most respected academics in the field of accounting and finance,” says the University’s Chancellor John Allen.

“His research on Wall St looks at how analysts perform their role as information intermediaries, how they are managed and rewarded and how they really perform. In this way, he has helped us better understand how Wall Street’s research function works.”

Professor Healy holds the position of James R. Williston Professor of Business Administration at Harvard University in the United States and is also senior associate dean for faculty development at Harvard Business School.

Professor Healy completed a Bachelor of Commerce with First Class Honours in Accounting and Finance at Victoria University of Wellington in 1978. He then moved to the United States where he completed a Master’s degree in Economics and a PhD in Business at the University of Rochester. He subsequently taught at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he served as deputy dean, before joining the Harvard Business School in 1997.

Professor Healy’s research on corruption shows how it affects multinational companies, the differences between companies’ commitments to fighting corruption, and the implications this has on their performance.

The World Bank estimates more than US$1 trillion is paid in bribes globally each year.

“Professor Healy’s work on this problem is not only of academic interest but also has major implications for policy development and international cooperation between countries to assist global economic development,” says the Chancellor.

Professor Healy has won numerous awards for his research and publications, including two of his field’s most prestigious honours: The American Accounting Association’s Wildman Medal and its Notable Contribution to Accounting Literature Award. He has also received an honorary doctorate from the University of Turku in Finland and a fellowship of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants.

He maintains strong links to Victoria University of Wellington. His work on corruption, and his experience in this field was instrumental in the establishment of the Brian Picot Chair in Ethical Leadership, and he was formerly a long-serving member of the Victoria Business School Advisory Board.