1 June 2021. Prof. Dr. Florian Eugster is a citizen of Altstätten (SG) and was born on 16 April 1984 in Horgen (ZH) on Lake Zurich. He is a Swiss citizen and in 2020 also obtained Swedish citizenship.

Prof. Dr. Florian Eugster began his academic career with a Bachelor of Arts in Banking and Finance in 2007 as well as a Master of Arts in Business Administration summa cum laude at the University of Zurich. He then completed his doctorate under Professor Alexander Wagner in 2013 in finance at the same university. During his doctoral thesis, he spent time doing research at the Accounting Department of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, Canada, which was financed by the Swiss National Fund (SNF).

In May 2013, he accepted an appointment at the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE) in Sweden, where he worked as an Assistant Professor in Accounting from January 2014. He was promoted to Associate Professor in March 2021. Prof. Dr. Florian Eugster welcomes his appointment at the University of St.Gallen, “After seven years abroad, I am very glad to be returning to my homeland. It is a great honour for me to be appointed to the renowned University of St.Gallen and I look forward to working with the students and faculty.” He will also perform the role of a director at the Institute for Accounting, Controlling and Auditing (ACA-HSG).

Science prize for doctoral thesis

Prof. Dr. Florian Eugster has received a series of honours throughout his academic career. For example, his doctoral thesis “Voluntary Disclosure Quality, Earnings Management and Executive Compensation” won the Swedish Handelsbanken’s prestigious Wallander Award. This ensured optimal research conditions for him at the Stockholm School of Economics.

Prof. Dr. Florian Eugster’s research work has concentrated on questions of auditing, sustainability and the disclosure of company-specific information on the capital market. He has answered research questions such as how the extroverted character of a manager influences company disclosure, whether companies can lower their capital costs by increasing information disclosure and to what extent improved reporting influences companies’ future profitability.

In a current working paper, he analyses the effects of passive institutional investors on the quality of auditing, determining that institutional investors make a significant contribution to enhancing audit quality.

Prof. Dr. Florian Eugster has published in relevant journals, such as Contemporary Accounting Research (FT50), one of the most renowned specialist journals in accounting. Articles with co-authors have been published in the Special Issue in Textual Analysis, the European Accounting Review, the Journal of Business Finance and Accounting and the Journal of International Accounting, Auditing & Taxation.

Transfer of research results to teaching and practice

Prof. Dr. Florian Eugster has many years of extensive teaching experience alongside well-founded training in the field of teaching. For example, among other courses and programmes, he has completed the international teaching programme at the China Europe International Business School and a course on teaching skills at the University of Zurich. He has taught courses at the bachelor and master’s level and was also involved in the MBA Executive Teaching at the Stockholm School of Economics in Stockholm and Riga.

Prof. Dr. Florian Eugster has many years of extensive experience on the Swiss further education market. He taught at AZEK, the controller academy, the Swiss Finance Institute, and at EXPERTsuisse, where he helped to train future auditors. He was a member and director of the University of Zurich’s Teaching Center and is consequently well versed in innovative teaching and learning concepts. His completion of numerous further training courses in teaching and commitment to executive education underline his aspiration to pass on research results in an accessible, interesting and innovative manner in both teaching and practice.

He will teach courses in the field of auditing and financial statement analysis and valuation at the bachelor, master and doctoral level at the University of St.Gallen.