Robert Ricketts is the Director of the School of Accounting in the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University. He has been a member of the Accounting faculty since 1988 and has held the Frank M. Burke Chair in Taxation since 1999. Prior to earning his Ph.D., which he received from the University of North Texas in 1988, he worked for the Dallas office of Ernst & Whinney (now Ernst & Young) as a tax senior.

Ricketts' tax scholarship addresses a broad audience. He co-authors several courses on partnership taxation for the AICPA, and a forthcoming book on comparative taxation written by an international group of authors. He also contributes chapters to a leading undergraduate textbook on taxation, and has numerous academic publications on issues ranging from the risks of over-reliance on tax software to the response of multinational corporations to tax holiday legislation. He teaches at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and works extensively with doctoral students. His love for students, and for Texas Tech, is well-known by students, colleagues and alumni across the world.

The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) is the world’s largest member association representing the CPA profession, with more than 418,000 members in 143 countries, and a history of serving the public interest since 1887. AICPA members represent many areas of practice, including business and industry, public practice, government, education and consulting.

The AICPA sets ethical standards for the profession and U.S. auditing standards for private companies, nonprofit organizations, federal, state and local governments. It develops and grades the Uniform CPA Examination, and offers specialized credentials for qualified professionals who concentrate on personal financial planning; forensic accounting; business valuation; and information management and technology assurance. With The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), it offers the Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) designation, which sets the global benchmark for quality and recognition in management accounting.

The AICPA and CIMA also make up the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (the Association), which represents public and management accounting globally, advocating on behalf the public interest and advancing the quality, competency and employability of CPAs, CGMAs and other accounting and finance professionals worldwide.

The AICPA maintains offices in New York, Washington, DC, Durham, NC, and Ewing, NJ.