Liz Yanmin Gao Associate Professor

Education

PhD in Accounting, Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia

Employment History

Dr. Liz Gao is an associate professor of accounting at Thompson Rivers University (TRU). She is also a KPMG Research Fellow and the Leader of the Financial Reporting and ESG Research Cluster.

She obtained her PhD in Accounting from the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia. Before joining TRU, she worked at University of Alberta and at City University of Hong Kong, which are world-leading research universities. She received the 2022-2023 TRU Gaglardi Dean's Award for Research Excellence.

With more than 15 years of teaching experience, she has taught courses in Management Accounting and Financial Accounting from the introductory to graduate level. Before her academic career, she obtained a professional designation from ACCA in the UK and worked as an auditor. Over years, she has supervised many research assistants (RAs), MBA students, and PhD students.

Her research studies a range of issues of interest to academics, policy makers, and practitioners, including accounting fraud, corporate governance, ESG (environmental, social, and governance) reporting, and corporate innovation. She obtained major competitive research grant from Canada (SSHRC: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada). Her research papers have been presented at many conferences and workshops around the world. She has published papers in top-tier refereed journals, such as Review of Accounting Studies, Journal of Urban Economics, and Contemporary Accounting Research.

Professional Affiliations

• AAA (American Accounting Association)
• CAAA (Canadian Academic Accounting Association)
• ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, UK)