William R. Kinney, Jr. was born Aug. 13, 1942 to William Rudolph and Beulah Mae Kinney in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. As the great-great grandson of five-term Governor Cyrus Harris, he developed a deep appreciation for the rich cultural heritage of the Chickasaw Nation and his parents instilled the value of education. He embodied both of these values over the course of his fifty-year academic career.

Mr. Kinney earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Oklahoma State University and in 1968, his Ph.D. from Michigan State University. In 1969, he joined the faculty at the University of Iowa. In 1983, he joined the University of Michigan as Price Waterhouse Professor and Director of the Paton Accounting Center.

In 1988, he became the Charles and Elizabeth Prothro Regents Chair in Business at the University of Texas at Austin. During this time, he co-founded and directed UT’s Center for Business Measurement and Assurance Services.

Mr. Kinney authored or co-authored nine books, monographs and more than 100 scholarly articles that appeared in top accounting journals, and substantially influenced Securities and Exchange Commission policy.

He served on multiple editorial boards, including 25 years for the Journal of Accounting Research. He was The Accounting Review’s managing editor from 1986-1989 and was an associate editor/editor over a 28 year period.

Mr. Kinney was the American Accounting Association’s Director of Research, and a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Academic Fellow (2007-08). 

As a globally recognized auditing standard setter, he served on the American Institute of CPA’s Auditing Standards Board and two terms on the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board. He was a member of the AICPA’s Special Committee on Assurance Services, the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council, the PCAOB’s Advisory Council, and advisory groups for the National Association of Corporate Directors and the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Mr. Kinney received the AAA’s Outstanding Accounting Educator Award, three AAA/Deloitte Wildman Medals for contributions to practice, and a Notable Contribution to the Accounting Literature Award. A CPA since 1964, the AICPA honored him with its award for Distinguished Achievement in Accounting Education, and in 2014, he was inducted into the internationally recognized Accounting Hall of Fame.

A champion of diversity in scholarship, he was awarded Exemplary Mentoring of Diversity Faculty and Doctoral Students and chaired an award-winning dissertation written by a Ph.D. student of Mayan Indian/Hispanic ancestry.

Mr. Kinney and his wife Carolyn have been married 58 years and reside in Austin, Texas. They have three children and six grandchildren.