Vairam Arunachalam

Professor Vairam Arunachalam serves as PricewaterhouseCoopers / Joseph A. Silvoso Distinguished Professor and Associate Dean for Partnerships and Engagement. He previously served as Director of the School of Accountancy in 2003 and from 2008 to 2024. His research and teaching interests are in the areas of fraud examination, forensic accounting, and information systems. He is a member of the American Accounting Association, Institute of Management Accountants, and Association for Certified Fraud Examiners. He is a winner of several campus-wide teaching awards, including Mizzou's William T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence (1999), Excellence in Teaching with Technology Award (2005), and the Governor's Award for Excellence in Teaching (2007). He is also a recipient of the Trulaske College of Business' O'Brien Excellence in Teaching Award (1996), Outstanding Faculty Service Award (2001), and Distinguished Research Fellowship Award (2004).

Professor Arunachalam is a Past President (2000-2001) of the American Accounting Association - Information Systems Section, and served on the Board of Directors of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) from 2002-2004. He has also served as an academic member of the Board of the Accounting Program Leaders Group (APLG) and as a member of the Higher Education Advisory Committee of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE). Professor Arunachalam served as a member of the Board of the Missouri Society of CPAs (MOCPA) from 2013-2015, its Strategic Planning Committee for 2013-2014, 2017 and 2018, and currently serves on its Education Foundation Board (2018-present). He has also been a member of the Board of Regents of the Institute of Certified Management Accountants (ICMA) for 2014-2020. Professor Arunachalam serves as a member of the Board of Advisors for the Department of Accountancy in the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He currently serves as a Director in the IMA Research Foundation (2020-2024), having previously served as Director from 2004-2008 and as Chair from 2010-2012. He has been a member of and chaired several AACSB accounting accreditation review teams.

Professor Arunachalam is a former Boeing Faculty Fellow and has previously served as MU's campus liaison for the SAP University Alliance. He has received grants from PwC and i2 Inc. for developing a forensic accounting course that merges fraud examination and information systems. This has since led to regular course offerings in the area for accountancy students at Mizzou and the establishment of some high profile speaker series (e.g., Orin Ethics Symposium; Dawdy Speaker Series) for the benefit of Mizzou students, faculty, alumni, and professionals. More recently, Professor Arunachalam has been involved with the KPMG Master of Accounting with Data & Analytics program and the Online Master of Accountancy program at Mizzou.

Professor Arunachalam has also taught management accounting to graduate business students and business executives in Vietnam. He has published several research articles in journals such as Accounting, Organizations and Society; Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes; Journal of Information Systems; Behavioral Research in Accounting; and Journal of Applied Social Psychology.