FIU: Morrison, Brown, Argiz & Farra, LLP donates $250,000 to establish the business school’s first-ever endowed professorship in the School of Accounting
Miami, FL—Antonio (Tony) L. Argiz, (BBA ’74), CEO and managing partner of Morrison, Brown, Argiz & Farra, LLP, (MBAF), and Executive Dean of the College of Business Administration, Florida International University, announced today that the firm has donated $250,000 to establish the business school’s first-ever endowed professorship in the School of Accounting.
Argiz has never forgotten the importance of his alma mater, which he attended on a baseball scholarship, where he met his wife, and whose professors helped him establish his career.
Personally, Argiz has given $52,000 to the university’s baseball program. His firm supported the Business School Building Complex Fund with a $100,000 donation—one of the first received—and named a forty-seat classroom in Academic Hall. His firm also supports the Growth and Excellence Fund as a sponsor of the Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame.
This year, Morrison, Brown, Argiz & Farra, LLP made a $250,000 donation to the Securing Our Future Fund to endow the first-ever professorship in the School of Accounting.
“We think this gift will help take the School of Accounting, already one of the leading programs in the country, to a new level,” said Argiz, who saw it as a logical step in the firm’s pattern of generosity. “It serves as a statement of confidence in the university and in the program, and it enables us to leave a legacy of educational excellence, set the tone for other firms to donate, and help strengthen our business community, which is fundamental to the future success of our society.”
It’s also a way for him to show how much he values the professors he had, such as Dr. Lucia Chang, Dr. Harvey Hendrickson, and Dr. Rosalie Hallbauer.
“I think of the professors who helped me with my education and nurtured me in my career,” he said. “This is a great way to give back because the gift will raise the quality of the program even more.”
Argiz is “extremely excited” about the firm’s latest gift.
“I feel a deep dedication to the university,” he said. “Thirty years ago, I never would have dreamed I could give back in this way to a school to which I owe so much: my education, my wife, my career, and approximately half of our firm’s staff of 260 employees.”
From her perspective, Sharon Lassar, the School of Accounting’s director, the gift, “adds to the prestige of the school as an outward display of the value our alumni place on their education. It also will help us continue to improve by putting us in a strong position to attract top research talent and further grow our reputation.”
Executive Dean Joyce J. Elam expressed her appreciation for the gift and announced her first appointee to the professorship: Krishnamurthy Surysekar, associate professor, recently was named to the newly-established Morrison, Brown, Argiz, & Farra, LLP Professorship in Accounting for a period of three years, beginning with academic year 2007-08. His appointment to this professorship is in recognition of his outstanding performance and potential for both research and teaching in the field of accounting.
Dr. Surysekar has nearly 20 years of experience in the accounting field, in India and in the U.S. Prior to joining the School of Accounting, Dr. Surysekar was a visiting assistant professor at the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business, and, earlier, assistant professor at Georgia Tech’s DuPree College of Management. He previously worked for a premier management consulting firm in India.
Since coming to the U.S. in 1989, he has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in principles of financial accounting, intermediate financial accounting, and cost/managerial accounting. While at Georgia Tech, Dr. Surysekar was credited with developing accounting courses for graduate students in engineering and computer science. He also worked with graduate students in the certificate in entrepreneurship program.
He has had several papers published or accepted for publication in the Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Journal of Accounting Auditing and Finance, and Management Accounting Research. He also serves as an ad-hoc reviewer for several academic journals in accounting and management, such as The Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, and the Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, and Decision Sciences.
In January 2003, Dr. Surysekar was appointed by Florida International University’s Provost to the University’s Graduate Faculty. While a graduate student, Dr. Surysekar’s academic work earned him the "Paine Award" for academic excellence in doctoral work at the University of Maryland and the "Dr. K. Nath Public Trust Prize" for academic achievement from the Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta.
Morrison, Brown, Argiz & Farra, LLP: The firm is ranked as the 50th largest independent public accounting firm in the nation, the largest in Florida, and tenth in the Atlantic/Southeast region. It has been listed as Best of the Best, the list of the top 25 performing firms in the country, for the past eleven years. MBAF provides tax and accounting, audit, technology consulting, and litigation support and business valuation services to wealthy individuals, entrepreneurs, private and public corporations and legal practitioners across a broad range of industries. For more information, visit mbafcpa.com.
Florida International University’s College of Business Administration
Florida International University’s College of Business Administration, South Florida’s leading business school with unique expertise in international business, entrepreneurship, and a broad range of financial services, is the largest of the university’s professional schools. Among the college’s nearly 30,000 alumni are some of South Florida’s most successful business leaders and entrepreneurs. More than 6,000 students are enrolled in undergraduate business courses in its R. Kirk Landon Undergraduate School of Business and more than 1,000 graduate students study in its Alvah H. Chapman, Jr, Graduate School of Business every year. Another 1,000 business professionals participate annually in one or more of its professional and executive education programs.
For additional information about the college, please visit http://business.fiu.edu/ or contact Sally Gallion, assistant dean, at 305-348-6631, sally.gallion@business.fiu.edu/
###
Printer Friendly Version
