Sustainability Accounting Standards Board chair to speak at UB

By Matthew Biddle

BUFFALO, N.Y. — More than 1,300 companies worldwide disclose their environmental and social impact using standards set by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) — and this spring, the University at Buffalo School of Management will host the board’s chair, Jeffrey Hales, PhD, for a free lecture.

Presented by the school’s Helen and Oscar Sufrin Lectureship in Accounting, Hales’ talk — titled “Sustainability Reporting: What is it and What to Expect?” — will be held at 6 p.m. March 30 in the Student Union Theater on UB’s North Campus.

Today, as investors evaluate business opportunities, they’re looking at much more than a firm’s bottom line. Many investors view sustainability as a critical element in building a company that can adapt to industry, regulatory and market shifts — making Hales’ lecture particularly timely for accounting students and professionals.

Since 2018, Hales has served as chair of the SASB Standards Board, now part of the Values Reporting Foundation. In this role, he oversees the agenda-setting and due process associated with developing and maintaining the SASB’s standards. Hales previously chaired the SASB Standards Council from 2012 to 2016.

In addition, Hales teaches at the University of Texas at Austin, where he holds the Bake Chair in Global Sustainability Leadership, is the Charles T. Zlatkovich Centennial Professor of Accounting, and serves as executive director of the Global Sustainability Leadership Institute.

Open to the public, the lecture will be followed by Q&A. Advance registration is required by March 28; visit https://bit.ly/UBsufrin22 to reserve a seat. For more information, contact Cassie Nguyen, clinical assistant professor of accounting and law in the UB School of Management, at phuongng@buffalo.edu.

The Helen and Oscar Sufrin Lectureship in Accounting brings distinguished business professionals to the UB School of Management to speak about accounting issues. Funding is provided through the generous support of Leslie Sufrin, CPA, and Gerald Sufrin, MD, a longtime UB professor, in honor of their late parents.