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David and Ashley Dill Distinguished Professorship in Accounting

A generous gift of $1 million from David and Ashley Dill, both graduates of Murray State University, has funded the Department of Accounting’s first and only Distinguished Professor of Accounting.  The department has also received $250,000 of state matching funds. The faculty initiated a search for a distinguished teacher and scholar to fill the position. The Department of Accounting selected Dr. Samer Khalil as the David and Ashley Dill Distinguished Professor of Accounting.

Samer Khalil (PhD, CVA) serves as the David and Ashley Dill Distinguished Professorship in Accounting. Dr. Khalil holds a PhD in Accountancy from Concordia University (Montreal, Canada) as well as a Master in Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the American University of Beirut (Beirut, Lebanon). He is also certified as a business valuation expert by the U.S. National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts since 2008.

Dr. Khalil joined °ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û at the Associate Professor rank and as the Dill Distinguished Professor in Accounting in 2019. Prior to that, he served as an Associate Professor in Accountancy at the American University of Beirut (2006-2019) and as the Chairperson of the Finance, Accounting, and Managerial Economics Track for 6 years (2012-2017). Before that, and straight after completing his PhD, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Accountancy at HEC, Montreal (Canada).

At the Academic level, Dr. Khalil teaches accounting and governance related topics at various programs. He teaches introductory as well as intermediate financial and managerial accounting courses for undergraduate and graduate students. He further lectures on Corporate Governance, Financial Reporting and Analysis, Financial Modelling in addition to Business Valuation for graduate students. Dr. Khalil is also involved in teaching courses at the Executive Masters of Business Administration program as well as in executive education.

Dr. Khalil’s research focuses on various aspects of Corporate Governance including ownership structure (namely family ownership), auditing, board composition and board members’ compensation in addition to the market for corporate control. His research appeared in reputable Accounting and Finance journals including Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory, Accounting Horizons, Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Financial Stability, Journal of Business Finance and Accounting among others.

At the professional level, Dr. Khalil serves a member of the Board of Directors and as the Chair of the Audit Committee at Fenicia Bank, Lebanon since 2020. Dr. Khalil is also actively involved in business valuation. Over the past years, he has been actively engaged in the valuation of companies operating in various economic sectors including Banking, Oil & Gas, Food & Beverage, Construction, Fragrances, Education, Logistics, Farming and Agri-Business among others. He also lectured on Business Valuation related topics and conducted hands-on, applied valuation workshops in more than six different countries. He served as a member of the board of directors at Al Ajlan Global over the period 2013-2014.

At the service level, Dr. Khalil currently serves as a member of the Senate at the °ÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û. Dr. Khalil is also an Editorial Board member at Auditing: Journal of Practice and Theory since 2014, and is a member of the scientific committee for the European Accounting Association Conference since 2018. Dr. Khalil also serves as an ad-hoc reviewer for reputable journals including Contemporary Accounting Research, Journal of Banking and Finance, Auditing: Journal of Practice and Theory, Accounting Horizons, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Journal of Business Finance and Accounting among others.

Over the past years, Dr. Khalil was a member of the Scientific Committee for the Canadian Academic Accounting Association over the period 2011-2014. Dr. Khalil’s membership also includes various university committees including the Research, Administrative, Library Committee, Graduate Studies, Academic and Curriculum Review Committees among others. Dr. Khalil also acted as a moderator for a panel discussion on Women in Governance in 2017, served as a panelist on Deloitte’s conference on Governance in family firm in the Middle East region in 2014, and was invited to attend the World Bank MENA Region Exchange Event.