Graduate School of Business

YSB Professor Dae-Hee Yoon of Accounting has been selected as the Samil Distinguished Professor of 2020, an honor sponsored by Samil PwC, with selection of honorees by the Korea Accounting Association. Among the three categories of research, writing, and service, Professor Yoon was selected in the research category.

His main research field deals with companies’ performance evaluation systems, which include the performance indicators of each business sector and management's compensation contracts. He is also conducting research into auditing and the disclosure of corporate accounting information.

After receiving his bachelor’s degree from YSB and passing the exam to be a certified public accountant, Professor Yoon earned his master’s in accounting from YSB, then got a job in accounting. He soon decided to get a Ph.D. degree from Yale University in the US because he felt he knew too little to be as helpful to companies as he wanted to be. He attributes his passion for accounting to its role in dynamic decision-making process in organizations and in capital markets. Moreover, quantitative analysis can clearly affirm or deny theoretical claims and deliver the data necessary for presentation of the results.

Professor Yoon also advised students on how to approach different fields with accounting. Because financial accounting is focused on applying accounting standards and is not intuitive, he said, students should first understand the meaning of the accounting standards and then repeatedly practice solving key problems in the discipline to the point that they can, then apply what they have learned to other problems.

Management accounting, he continued, generally forms the framework of decision making within a company. Students should pursue their interest in this field by mastering the basic theories and how those are applied in the real world of business.

He also noted that many business students find accounting difficult and avoid the field because of both its perceived difficulty and a misconception that it is merely a methodology for writing financial statements. As a result, he said, accountants are almost always in demand.

"I hope students will actively explore various fields and try to find their favorite career paths while in school, Professor Yoon said. "If you need help from professors about courses or careers, please feel free to ask for advice anytime."

In Korea, before he went abroad for his doctorate, Professor Yoon worked in auditing and consulting, then as a bond valuation analyst for the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries at Korea Investors Service, and at a consulting company. After gaining his doctorate, he was an assistant professor of accounting at the City University of New York before returning to Korea to join the YSB faculty.