Michael B. Clement

Michael Clement received his BBA from Baruch College, his MBA from the University of Chicago, and his PhD from Stanford University. His research and teaching interests include financial accounting and capital markets. 

Clement mentors African American student-athletes, purposely seeking out those less likely to land high-paying professional careers. He was a faculty athletics representative to the NCAA from 2013 to 2021 and was recognized by the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame in 2020.

A longtime champion of diversity and inclusion, Clement was instrumental in the founding of The PhD Project, which aims to increase diversity among business school faculty by encouraging underrepresented students to complete doctorates in business.

Clement has been a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ National Commission on Diversity and Inclusion since 2019. From 2004 to 2021, he served as departmental minority liaison officer, and from 2015 to 2020 he was a member of the Council for Racial and Ethnic Equity and Diversity at the University of Texas. He is a past recipient of the Ernst & Young Inclusive Excellence Award for his extraordinary efforts to create a more diverse learning environment. 

Clement launched his academic career at McCombs School of Business—one of the top 20 business schools nationwide in US News & World Report’s ranking—and rose rapidly from assistant professor to full professor, achieving the rare feat of receiving tenure from the first institution to hire him. Endowed as the KPMG Centennial Professor, he has been chair of the Department of Accounting since 2018, and McCombs’ accounting program has been ranked No. 1 nationwide by US News ever since.

Clement’s research has relevance beyond academia; it examines the activities of the analysts who make earnings and stock predictions that drive much of the buying and selling on Wall Street. He has co-authored various papers in leading academic journals and participated in presentations at prominent universities, including Harvard Business School, the University of Chicago, Georgetown University, Penn State University, Duke University, and more. In 2021, he won the Distinguished Contributions to Accounting Literature Award from the American Accounting Association.

Clement is known for his quiet modesty as a leader. He has turned down many job offers from private universities, believing he can create more impact on people’s lives by staying at McCombs. Past students remember him for his uniquely human touch and fatherly manner—fitting for a man whose own father, also a professor of business at a public university, is his greatest role model.