Slam Dunk for the CPA Profession: Foundation’s First Accounting Ph.D. Grant Recipient Preps for the Classroom

Not long ago, Ryan Leece was developing software to provide CBS with live NCAA basketball statistics. He also led software development projects for both the summer and winter X Games. So what is he now doing pursuing his Ph.D. in accounting at Virginia Tech?

He’s finally achieving what he initially set out to do, with a few twists and tweaks to the original objective.

Leece has always aspired to teach — but he originally envisioned himself teaching math.

“Along the way, I got a little sidetracked,” he laughs.

After earning his undergraduate degree in mathematics from the University of Minnesota, Leece was offered a sweet little job as a software engineer with SportsMEDIA Technology Corporation in Durham, N.C., where he worked for more than five years. Despite his exciting job, Leece felt it was a good time to further his education.

“After I started getting closer to 30 years old, I began to reevaluate where I really wanted to take my career,” Leece said, and he began applying to graduate schools.

At that point, he had a new set of skills under his belt. Not only was he math-minded, but he was also proficient in C / C++, Visual Basic, Embedded Visual Basic and XML. But what professions combine business sense, numbers, personal interaction and programming?

“The more I got into researching business, the more accounting came into the forefront as a really good match for me,” Leece said.

Next stop? A master’s in accountancy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, after which Leece spent some time at KPMG in Charlotte, N.C. He worked for a year and a half as an audit associate, concentrating on Sarbanes-Oxley-related audit material.

While he enjoyed his stint with the Big Four firm, Leece had an inkling he might be headed out of the corporate office and back into the classroom.

“I always knew in the back of my mind it would be a great opportunity to pursue a Ph.D. down the road,” he said.

Ever since he was young, teaching was an attractive option to Leece. “I loved the gratification of helping someone and seeing someone improve their knowledge as a direct result of — you,” he says. “You actually help them, and you can see that change happening.”

At the same time Leece began researching doctoral programs in accounting, Virginia Tech took a mutual interest in him. Dr. John Maher, the John F. Carroll, Jr. Professor in the Department of Accounting & Information Systems, took notice of Leece, calling him a “very strong mixture of software engineer and accountant.”

Interested in recruiting Leece to his program, Maher allocated the first-ever $3,000 Virginia Society of CPAs (VSCPA) Educational Foundation Accounting Ph.D. Grant to entice Leece to join Tech.

The VSCPA Educational Foundation established the grant in 2008 for this very purpose — to help Virginia Tech and Virginia Commonwealth University, the only Virginia schools that offer Ph.D.s in accounting, attract CPAs into their programs. The grant is one of the many initiatives the VSCPA and the Foundation support to help secure the future of the CPA profession in Virginia.

Leece ultimately chose Virginia Tech’s Ph.D. program and moved to Blacksburg with his wife in August 2008. He received the Foundation Accounting Ph.D. Grant for study during the fall semester of 2008.

Leece is currently concentrating his studies on developing the fundamentals necessary to teach accounting at the university level as well as research in capital markets and accounting.

He is taking courses in statistics and econometrics, along with seminars that pair faculty and Ph.D. students to “dig through all the research in accounting.”

When Leece isn’t studying or teaching, he enjoys reading (mostly science fiction), hiking, taking his motorcycle out for a spin with his wife, running, working out, playing with his new puppy and cheering on the Green Bay Packers and Tar Heels. He also recently passed all four sections of the CPA Exam, which occupied a bit of his free time.

A long way from his ultra-cool first job creating software to populate live basketball stats, Leece is finally pursuing his original goal — teaching. And the CPA profession has scored another great mind to help shape and support the future of the profession.

E-mail Ryan Leece at rdleece@vt.edu. To learn more about the VSCPA Educational Foundation Accounting Ph.D. Grant, call (800) 733-8272 or e-mail info@vscpafoundation.com.