Portsmouth Business School

Profile

Professor Lisa Jack BSc (Keele) FCCA PGCE FHEA PhD (Essex)

I began my career as an auditor first as a graduate trainee with Eastern Electricity and then with Ernst & Whitney (now Ernst & Young) in Ipswich.

Subsequently, I worked as an auditor in local government and higher education.

After 10 years auditing, I moved into teaching professional accountancy and management programmes, becoming a qualified teacher as well as a qualified accountant.

Whilst teaching at Writtle College a land-based higher education institution, I became interested in how accounting practices in the agri-food industry were very different to those in other industries. This formed the basis of my thesis which was a socio-historic analysis entitled ‘The persistence of post war practices in UK agriculture,’ which won the Coleman Prize for the best thesis on a British history subject 2004/5 awarded by the Association of Business Historians. After six years a research & teaching post at Essex, I moved to Portsmouth as Professor in Accounting in 2009.

My main area of research is the agri-food industry and this has been funded by the Institute of Chartered Management Accountants (CIMA) under the title 'From Gate to Plate'.  In 2011, a team consisting of myself and Dr Juan M. Ramon Jeronimo and Dr Raquel Florez-Lopez of University Pablo Olavide in Seville, was one of only four successful bids under CIMA’s ‘Relevance Required’ Initiative, investigating risk and inter-organisational performance measures in intermediate food chain companies.

In general terms, my research interests lie in management information for decision-making, including accounting communication and education, I am particularly interested in the use of social theory investigate the reasons why accounting tasks are done in the way they are and why they might be done differently, to paraphrase Raymond J. Chambers.

In the Accounting Subject Group, my main role is research leadership, initiating projects and developing the research interests and training of staff in the Department. I also co-ordinate Doctoral studies in Accounting.

Teaching Interests

At Portsmouth, I teach third year undergraduates on the core unit ‘Accounting Strategic Management and Control’. At postgraduate level, I coordinate and teach the unit ‘Financial Crime & the Law’ (MSc Forensic Accounting). I deliver sessions for the MBA Master Class programme and the Graduate School Development Programme, and supervise dissertation students at all levels. I am currently supervising PhD students in topics ranging from strategic management accounting in agri-food and hospitality to the accountancy profession and education.

Publications