BAFA Award winners 2022

We would like to thank everyone who submitted nominations for the BAFA Awards. Following the Awards Panel meetings and the approval of the BAFA Board of Trustees, we are delighted to confirm  the following will be presented with their awards at the Annual Dinner during the  2023 Annual Conference with Doctoral Masterclasses to be held at the University of Sheffield on 17–19 April.

Distinguished Academic Award (DAA)

We are delighted to confirm that BAFA Distinguished Academic Award for 2022 is to be presented to  Professor Shahzad Uddin, University of Essex.

Shahzad Uddin is a Professor of Accounting at the University of Essex and the founding editor of Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies (JAEE). He has published on management accounting control, public sector accounting, governance and sustainability in varieties of non-Western organizational and cultural settings. Shahzad has published in top accounting, development, sociology and philosophy journals such as Accounting, Organisation and Society, Public Administration, Development and Change, Social Science and Medicine, Work, Employment and Society, and Journal of Critical Realism.

Distinguished Contribution Award (DCA)

We are delighted to confirm that BAFA Distinguished Contribution Award for 2022 is to be presented to Mark Protherough, ICAEW.

Mark was Executive Director Learning and Professional Development at ICAEW for over 10 years until 2021. He was responsible for innovating and keeping the ACA qualification attractive and relevant to students, employers and tuition providers globally. In addition, during this period, Mark was also Chair of the Global Accounting Alliance Education Directors group, Access Accountancy, and the BAFA Board of Trustees.

Lifetime Achievement Award (LAA)

We are delighted to confirm a BAFA Lifetime Achievement Award for 2022 is to be presented to  Professor Peter Armstrong (Retired)

Peter Armstrong came late to critical accounting research. His first career was as a research engineer, the enduring legacy of which is the Armstrong-Frederick kinematic yield criterion now standard in computer programmes for the analysis of inelastic strain in engineering structures He then left engineering to take a master's degree in the sociology of science and technology. There followed two years as a sociological fieldworker on the well known 'Chemco' studies, five years as a lecturer in general studies, another two years' sociological fieldwork and five years at Huddersfield Polytechnic as a tutor on shop steward courses. During this last period, he synthesized insights from neo-Marxist class theory, the sociology of professions and debates on the problematic status of engineering in the UK to theorize the rise of accounting controls in British companies. Through the agency of the late Anthony Hopwood this was published in Accounting, Organizations and Society and initiated further work in Critical Accounting at the universities of East Anglia, Sheffield, Keele and Leicester, at the last three of which he held chairs. He retired in 2010 as Professor Emeritus at the University of Leicester. Last year the title was rescinded by the present governors of that university in retaliation for his public expressions of disgust at, and contempt for, a management which, in its ignorance of the nature and purpose of universities, thought fit to dismiss a number of scholars distinguished in the fields of critical accounting and critical management studies simply because their work did not fit with its agenda. 

Lifetime Achievement Award (LAA)

We are delighted to confirm that a BAFA Lifetime Achievement Award for 2022 is to be presented to  Professor Bill Lee, University of Sheffield

After working in industry for a number of years, Bill conducted both his undergraduate and PhD studies at Bath University. He has subsequently worked at the Universities of Bath, West of England, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Keele and Sheffield. He has also been an academic visitor at Massey University and the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, Griffith University in Australia, the University of Tor Vergatta, Rome in Italy, ISM University of Management and Economics in Lithuania and the Ecole Hoteliere De Lausanne in Switzerland. He has sought to contribute to the academic community and wider society both through his research and by taking on a number of positions both in the institutions in which he has been employed and in the wider community.

Outstanding Contribution Award to Accounting and Finance Education (OCAAFE)

We are delighted to confirm that a BAFA Outstanding Contribution to Accounting and Finance Education Award for 2022 is to be presented to  Professor Alan Sangster, University of Aberdeen.

Alan Sangster is Professor of Accounting History at the University of Aberdeen. Alan is the 2022 American Accounting Association Outstanding Accounting Educator – its highest award – and its first European winner in its 50 year existence. He has published 82 papers (28 sole-authored), in journals including The Accounting Review, AAAJ, BAR, Abacus, JBFA, JIT, JMAR, Business History, & Issues in Accounting Education. Of these, 34 are in accounting history, 27 in education, 14 in systems, and 5 in management accounting; as well as 19 book chapters (13 sole-authored), 3 extended review essays, 4 research-based books (3 sole-authored); and 25 invited keynote addresses, 16 in history and 9 in education.  Read the full bio.

Outstanding Contribution Award to Accounting and Finance Education (OCAAFE)

We are delighted to confirm that a BAFA Outstanding Contribution to Accounting and Finance Education Award for 2022 is to be presented to  Professor Richard M.S. Wilson

Professor Richard (Dick) M.S. Wilson was Emeritus Professor of Business Administration and Financial Management at Loughborough University. Prior to joining Loughborough, Dick held professorships at Keele University, Queen’s University Belfast, and Nottingham Trent University, as well as many visiting professorships at universities around the world. During his career, he made an outstanding contribution to the discipline of accounting and to the community of UK accounting academics for whom, among many things, he served on the Executive Committee of the British Accounting Association (BAA) for over a decade from 1994; on the Executive Committee of the Conference of Professors of Accounting and Finance (CPAF); and, between 2001 and 2005, he served as Chair of the Committee of Heads of Accounting (now the Committee of Departments of Accounting and Finance). As a champion for the cause of accounting education, Dick was without equal. He played a very influential role in the career and lives of so many in the accounting discipline, particularly those within the accounting education community, and we owe him an enormous debt of gratitude. None of us who knew him will ever forget his enthusiasm, drive, and leadership, or his conviction that we, as educators, had a responsibility to our students to make their education something truly meaningful that would remain with them throughout the rest of their lives.

Richard was aware he had won the BAFA Award just before his untimely death on 18 January 2023. We send our sincere condolences to Richard's family, friends, colleagues and the entire accounting and finance community.