An Elevator Ride with a Zicklin Auditing Expert
January 5, 2026Zicklin News took a recent elevator ride at the Newman Vertical Campus with Douglas Carmichael, Eli and Claire Mason Professor of Accountancy in the Stan Ross Department of Accountancy. Earlier that day, he had led Ensuring Integrity: The 20th Annual Audit Conference, one of the Zicklin School’s most important events. Prof. Carmichael reflected on the conference and his longtime career at the Zicklin School of Business, which he joined in 1983.
“The 2025 conference featured some very prominent speakers, including the chief accountant at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the chief auditor of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. We also held informative sessions on topics including AI and technology. I tell my students that auditors are the gatekeepers of the capital markets because, as independent outsiders with financial expertise, they help maintain trust and confidence in the financial system. It’s a very important profession that relies on ethical standards. At the same time, audit firms function as businesses with a profit motive like any other business. I recommend The Craft of Auditing as a textbook for undergraduates because it explains both aspects of auditing—the professional and business sides.”
This article is the first in a new series, “An Elevator Ride with . . . ” profiling members of the Zicklin community.