MPAcc Gets New Faculty Director

A new era for MPAcc began fall 2021, with the passing of the Faculty Director torch from Associate Professor Asher Curtis to Associate Professor Matt Van Winkle.

Prof Asher Curtis

Since his arrival in 2017, Professor Curtis has been leading the massive task of updating curricular content to incorporate data analytics and new technology into the Master of Professional Accounting. He successfully introduced database software such as Alteryx and Python, as well as emerging technologies of artificial intelligence, block chain, and robotic processing into the curriculum. Professor Curtis’ hard work has established our program as one of the few Master of Accounting curriculums anywhere in the world to have this much integration between accounting and emerging technology. Our program is immensely grateful to Professor Curtis for all he has done and thankfully he will still be an integral part of the instruction for the MPAcc program.

Prof. Matt Van Winkle

The incoming Faculty Director, Matt Van Winkle, is a proud University of Washington Alum, earning his BA in Business Administration (Accounting and Information Systems) and then graduating in Foster’s inaugural MPAcc class in 2001. Going on to earn a Ph.D. in Accounting from the University of Michigan, Professor Van Winkle then founded, managed, and eventually sold Voyant, an investment research and consultancy business. Through Voyant, he and his team advised dozens of prominent asset managers in the US, Europe, and Asia. Most recently, he was a Portfolio Manager at Empyrean Capital, a multi-strategy hedge fund based in Los Angeles. Professor Van Winkle is excited to bring his vast experience and expertise back to UW and into the MPAcc classroom.

Find more information on the specialized Master of Accounting degree at the Master of Professional Accounting.