Wayne Thomas is the Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research Innovation and the David C. Steed Chair of Accounting at the University of Oklahoma, where he teaches Introductory Financial Accounting, Intermediate Accounting, and MBAs. He received his bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Southwestern Oklahoma State University, and his master’s and PhD in Accounting from Oklahoma State University.
Wayne has won teaching awards at the university, college, and departmental levels, and he has received the Outstanding Educator Award from the Oklahoma Society of CPAs. In addition to Financial Accounting for Managers, he also co-authors McGraw Hill’s best-selling Intermediate Accounting, with David Spiceland, Mark Nelson, and Jennifer Winchel, and Financial Accounting with David Spiceland and Don Herrmann.
His primary research interests include accounting information in capital markets, techniques used by managers to manipulate earnings, the importance of financial disclosures, and financial statement analysis. He previously served as an editor of The Accounting Review and has published articles in a variety of journals, including The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Accounting Research, Review of Accounting Studies, and Contemporary Accounting Research. He has won several research awards, including the American Accounting Association’s Competitive Manuscript Award and the University of Oklahoma’s highest research award, being named a George Lynn Cross Research Professor.
Wayne is married to Julee, and they have four kids: Olivia, Jake, Eli, and Luke. He enjoys sports (basketball, tennis, golf, biking, and ping pong), crossword puzzles, the outdoors, and spending time with his family.
Michael Drake is the K. Fred Skousen Professor of Accounting in the BYU Marriott School of Business at Brigham Young University. Before joining BYU, he was on faculty in the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University and a doctoral student in the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University, where he was a Deloitte Foundation Doctoral Fellow. Prior to his graduate work, he worked in public accounting at Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young.
Michael teaches Financial Accounting and Financial Statement Analysis at the undergraduate, graduate, and executive levels and has won several teaching awards, including the MBA Core Professor of the Year award in several consecutive years and the BYU Marriott School Teaching Excellence Award.
Michael’s primary research interest is in capital markets with a specific focus on the intermediaries and technologies that facilitate price formation. His research has been published in top academic journals, including the Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review, Contemporary Accounting Research, Review of Accounting Studies, and Management Science. He has won several awards at the academy, university, and college level for his research, including multiple best paper awards and the BYU Young Scholar award. Michael currently serves on the editorial boards of The Accounting Review and Contemporary Accounting Research.
Michael is married to McKenzie, and they have five children, Gavin, Abbie, Quentin, Maxwell, and Hannah. He enjoys playing, coaching, and watching all sports.
Jake Thornock is a professor of accounting in the BYU Marriott School of Business at Brigham Young University and holds the John and Nancy Hardy Chaired Professorship. He joined BYU from the University of Washington, where he was a tenured associate professor of accounting and the PwC Faculty Fellow. Jake completed his doctoral studies at Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina, where he was awarded the William Delozier Fellowship for Outstanding Doctoral Student. He earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees in accounting at BYU.
Jake has diverse research interests, including interest in taxation, tax havens, earnings information content, and information technologies. His research has been accepted for publication at the Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review, Contemporary Accounting Research, Review of Accounting Studies, Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Management Science. Jake’s research has been cited or featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, Fox News, and NPR, and has been presented at the IRS, the SEC, and a congressional subcommittee. Jake currently serves as an editor at Contemporary Accounting Research.
Jake has taught Accounting at undergraduate and graduate levels. He was won several awards for teaching, mentoring, research, and innovation in the classroom. He also co-founded Accounting Coding Camp with Mike Drake and Josh Lee, which provides coding education to graduate students in Accounting and Finance.
Jake is married to Kerrie, and they have four children, Allie, Luke, Mia, and Josie. He enjoys audiobooks, enjoys college sports, and is an ardent fly fisherman.