Professors

Antonio Davila is professor at the Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC) of the University of Lausanne since 2021.

Before joining HEC, he taught at IESE Business School, Harvard Business School, and Stanford GSB. He has also been visiting professor at Oxford University and CEIBS. He has a doctorate from the Harvard Business School.

His research focuses on the role of management control systems for strategy, innovation, and entrepreneurship. He also does research in the field of professional sports management. His books Making Innovation Work and The Innovation Paradox are highly cited in the field of innovation. His textbooks on managerial accounting (Malea Fashion District) and sports management (Sports Business Management) are well-appreciated in the classrooms. He is now working on a new book on designing systems to spot strategic opportunities for companies to take advantages of changes in their markets.

His academic research has been published in top journals in management and accounting including Academy of Management Journal, Accounting Review, Journal of Business Venturing, Research Policy, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Review of Accounting Studies, European Accounting Review, and Accounting, Organizations, and Society.

He is engaged with companies from startups to large multinationals as an adviser, board member, and consultant. As a result of this collaboration, he has published many teaching cases.

Antonio Davila's full CV

• Innovation and entrepreneurship
• Performance measurement and control systems
• Strategy implementation
• Sports management

Farah Mejri - Graduate Assistant

His research focuses on the topics of financial reporting, earnings quality, corporate governance, ownership structures, auditing and mergers and acquisitions. Paul has published articles on these topics in journals such as: Contemporary Accounting Research, European Accounting Review, Accounting and Business Research, Journal of Business, Finance & Accounting and Corporate Governance: An International Review, Accounting in Europe. Paul is Editor of Accounting in Europe, a journal of the European Accounting Association, Associate Editor of the Journal of Business, Finance & Accounting and is also on the editorial boards of Contemporary Accounting Research, Accounting and Business Research, Comptabilité Contrôle Audit, among others. He has been a Professor at ESSEC Business School (and director of the ESSEC Financial Reporting Centre), the University of Edinburgh, HEC Montreal, UQAM and the University of Ottawa and a visiting scholar at Paris-Dauphine, Paris XII, Concordia University and Cass Business School. Past Associate Dean for Research and Head of Department, Paul is also a Canadian Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA-CA) and has worked for one of the Big Four auditing firms.

• Corporate reporting
• Financial analysis
• Corporate governance
• Earnings and audit quality
• Corporate valuation and mergers

Xinguye Zhan - PhD student

Anita Nikkhah - Graduate Assistant

Her teaching and research lies essentially in the field of swiss and international  financial accounting, particularly in areas such as the distribution of financial information and its consequences in thecapital markets, application of international accounting standards in the non-Anglo-Saxon countries, accounting in banks, measurement and accounting of financial instruments. With several publications in these areas, she sits on the readers'committee of various scientific journals in accounting.

Jiawei Lu - Graduate Assistant

Huajuan Yuan - Graduate Assistant

His research interests cover corporate governance, executive compensation, insider trading, and current asset value.

He also specialises in financial accounting, accounting theory, financial statement analysis, corporate finance and private equity.

• Effects on stock prices and earnings
• Insider trading
• Effects of tax cuts
• Job acts

Sona Vardanyan - PhD Student

Gaia Melloni is Assistant Professor in the Department of Accounting and Control at HEC of University of Lausanne since 2019 and an interdisciplinary researcher in fields of accounting and corporate sustainability and the integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in corporate reporting.  

After receiving her PhD in Economics and Management at the Graduate School of Economics and Management of the University of Padua, Venice and Verona in 2013, she worked at Bocconi University and Norwich Business School (University of East Anglia).  

She has also been a visiting scholar at Oxford University, Erasmus Rotterdam University and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.  

Her research has been published in international journals (e.g., Strategic Management Journal, European Accounting Review, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal and Journal of Accounting and Public Policy) and has received funding and awards (Horizon 2020 and Sandoz Family Foundation, among the main ones).  

She has also consulted for the European Parliament and the United Nations on sustainability reporting issues. She serves in board of directors and ESG commitees.  

• sustainability accounting
• integrated and sustainability reporting
• corporate sustainability
• ESG
• greenwashing
• corporate governance
• textual analysis
• impression management

Dan Luca Fulger - Graduate Assistant

His fields of research and teaching are focused on the structure and formal systems of management and governance that are conceived and implemented to improve the performance, the management and the innovation of companies.

Youssef El Fassi - Graduate Assistant

Deborah Dulex - Graduate Assistant

Nicolas Rudolf is an Assistant Professor of Accounting. He holds a doctoral degree in Accounting from the University of Mannheim. Nicolas Rudolf’s research interests include bank accounting and regulation, corporate governance, and manager characteristics. His work has been published in leading academic journals such as the European Accounting Review and the Journal of Finance. He teaches courses on Accounting for Financial Instruments and Creative Accounting and Financial Scandals. Nicolas Rudolf is a Research Fellow at the TRR 266 Accounting for Transparency trans-regional Collaborative Research Center and has professional experience with EY and KPMG in various roles.

• Bank Accounting
• Corporate Governance
• Manager Characteristics

Alessandra Maria Gargiulo - Graduate Assistant

Alain Schatt focuses on corporate governance issues. His research work has been published in several academic journals (Accounting in Europe, Auditing: A Journal of Theory and Practice, European Accounting Review, International Journal of Auditing, Journal of Accounting Literature, Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization). He has also published numerous articles in professional journals (Expert Focus, Revue Française de Comptabilité, Revue Française de Gouvernance d'Entreprise). Lastly, he has taken on a number of institutional responsibilities (Director of IAE Strasbourg, Vice-Dean of HEC Lausanne, Co-founder and Chairman of the International Corporate Governance Association, etc.).

• Corporate governance
• Economic consequences of accounting and financial regulations
• The audit market

Rémi Bel - Graduate Assistant