Best 40-Under-40 Professor Bill Mayew

Bill Mayew

Associate Professor of Accounting

Age:  39

Institution: Duke University, Fuqua School of Business

Since: 2006

Before current institution:  

Nortel Networks (Senior Financial Analyst)

Ernst & Young, LLP (Staff and Senior Auditor)

Hometown:   Kenosha, Wisconsin

Marital status:  Married

Children: 2

Education:

PhD, Accounting, University of Texas at Austin

Master of Science in Accountancy, University of North Carolina at Wilmington

Bachelor of Science in Accountancy, University of North Carolina at Wilmington

Courses currently teaching: 

Financial Accounting

Corporate Financial Reporting

Fun fact: I played varsity basketball at UNC –Wilmington and my jersey was retired in 1997.

Professor you most admire:  Joanne Rockness from UNC-Wilmington, who suggested I might be well suited to be a professor one day. Dr. Rockness took such interest in her students and genuinely cared about developing their potential. (Plus, as an undergraduate, I met my future wife, Rebecca, in an accounting class taught by Dr. Rockness.)

Most memorable moment as a professor:  My most memorable moments are when former students stop by or send an email to tell me that what they learned in my class had a direct positive impact on their careers.

“If I weren’t a B-school professor…” I’d be teaching something to someone. I coach basketball for both of my sons, my wife Rebecca teaches them tennis, and my brother Jim and sister Chrissy were collegiate athletic coaches and teachers.  Teaching and coaching is just in our family.

Students say: 

One of the first professors that you meet at Fuqua, Bill Mayew makes learning accounting both educational and engaging. Whether he’s moderating a panel on gender and communication for the Association of Women in Business or blocking shots in a student vs. faculty basketball game, Professor Mayew encourages students to learn the personal and professional skills that will set them up for long-term success.

-Grace Webster, Fuqua MBA, Class of 2014

In sports, you hear the term “players’ coach.”  Bill Mayew is a “students’ professor.”  His passion for his work is infectious.  When I arrived at Fuqua, every second year said the same thing: “You have to take a class with Bill Mayew.”  They were right.  

-Kevin Brilliant, Fuqua MBA, Class of 2015

In my years from undergraduate and now graduate school, Bill Mayew is the best professor I’ve had. Not once did I or any other classmate ever look at the clock to see what time it was. Time just flew by in Bill’s class because he was very engaging and authentic in his style. Before I took Bill’s class, I have to admit, I would get a bit bored in accounting classes, but I did not have a single dull moment in his Corporate Financial Reporting class.

Bill’s style is like a sports coach–that might be because he played basketball himself in college. In class, he would be guiding us to think about different possibilities in a situation. He would direct us like a basketball coach would his players. This is what makes his style so unique and engaging and makes him stand out from every other professor. It is not a surprise to me that Bill has made it to the Top 40 Professors Under 40 list!

-Preet Chawla, Fuqua MBA, Class of 2015

Growing up, Bill Mayew was an all-star basketball player; now, he’s an all-star instructor. The associate professor of accounting consistently scores an overall instructor rating of 6.8 on a 7-point scale–no easy feat, particularly given most students’ interest in accounting. He’s also racked up two excellence in teaching awards–all before hitting 40. Outside the classroom, Mayew is known for challenging students to ping-pong matches or brushing off his basketball skills for a game of hoops.

Outside the classroom and off the court, Mayew researches managerial communication of firm performance. In particular, he studies fraud detection in CEOs’ vocal indicators during earnings reports–a topic that’s received plenty of media attention after the financial crash. Mayew’s research has appeared in outlets ranging from The Wall Street Journal and Forbes to CNN and U.S. News & World Report. His work also bears academia’s stamp of approval; Mayew took home the Financial Research Association’s Best Paper Award and the Glen McLaughlin Prize for Research in Accounting Ethics. Mayew has also been published in the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Accounting Research, the Review of Accounting Studies, and Contemporary Accounting Research.

Bill Mayew is among “The World’s 40 Best B-School Profs Under the Age of 40“