The Accountant, December 2024

Outgoing Accounting Chair Niranjan "Chips" Chipalkatti

Nine years ago, I took over as the Accounting Department Chair and the Director of graduate accounting programs. It has been an exciting journey over these years. We have had to adjust to multiple retirements, welcome new colleagues, deal with enrollment challenges, reinvent ourselves for the CPA Evolution and STEM requirements, negotiate new collaborations with partners like the ACCA and Miles, maintain our Center of Excellence status with the IIA and, last but not least, deal with the pandemic.

I am especially proud of the fact that my colleagues and I were able to negotiate all these by working collaboratively to make vital programmatic changes while keeping the best interests of our students in mind. Great job, Team Accounting, and thank you for your support!

I am rejoining the faculty, and I am happy to state that the department leadership is in very competent hands.

Incoming Accounting Chair Gabriel Saucedo

Ten years ago, the soon-to-be Chair (Chips) took a wrong turn off I-5 during my recruiting visit and ended up giving me a brief visual glimpse of Bellevue before crossing back across Lake Washington. Perhaps it was adventure that bonded us as back-to-back Department Chairs. Otherwise, that adventure led to the start of my amazing career here at Seattle University, including the opportunity to work alongside Accounting Department greats (and now professor emeriti) such as Dr. Vidya Awasthi, Professor Sarah Bee, Dr. Carlos De Mello e Souza, Dr. Bruce Koch, Dr. Dave Tinius, and Dr. Susan Weihrich.

As Dr. Zamora and I look to take the reigns of the Accounting Department in our respective roles of Department Chair and Graduate Program Director, we have aligned with our amazing faculty with the overarching goal of providing all our students a strong start in an accounting profession of their choosing, equipped with career-ready skills, in a learning community that fosters growth, collaboration, and knowledge.

This vision has been central to our decision-making so much already and will continue to be on the front of our minds as we lean in to both the opportunities and obstacles that are yet to come. Regardless of any ups and downs, our collective desire is to have the Accounting Department at SU a “home” for all students, faculty, and alumni where they can “pull up their chair".

We hope you enjoy this issue of The Accountant!