Jerry Hays

Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) Candidate
Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and
Adjunct Professor
Financial Accounting, Management Accounting, and Auditing & Internal Control
Austin Community College, Austin, Texas and
President-Elect, IMA Texas Council

“I’ve experienced firsthand the tremendous support that IMA provides to management accountants and students.”

“I retired a few years ago, after working for 30 years in management accounting for various oil and gas companies. As a next step, I thought it would be great to teach at the university level, to pass along my love of the management accounting field to a new generation. Geralyn McClure Franklin, who at that time was dean of the Business School of the University of Dallas, urged me to get my doctorate as a path to a teaching career.

“As my dissertation topic, I decided to focus on fraud reporting by corporations. I heard that a prominent authority in the field was speaking at a local event, which was sponsored by IMA, so that was my first real exposure to the organization. What I found was a group with tremendous breadth and depth. I was impressed by the full coverage that IMA gave to the profession of management accounting, and I joined the Austin Chapter. Since then, I’ve been fortunate to serve as president of that Chapter, and now I’m president-elect of IMA’s Texas Council.

“Along the way, I learned that IMA had a very strong research organization. I applied for a doctoral research grant. IMA not only awarded me the grant but even helped me send out a survey to members to gather data for the dissertation. Working with the IMA Research Foundation has been great.

“IMA offers resources to build competency in many areas—such as budgeting, forecasting, and performance reporting, to name a few—that you otherwise have to ‘learn on the job.’ The other great benefit of IMA is the sense of fellowship and community. I always try to get the word out to students so they can take advantage of everything IMA has to offer early on.

“I look forward to continuing to contribute to the profession by conducting research, teaching, and encouraging students to get into the field of management accounting—and I know IMA will be a great resource in all these areas.”