Fabio Gaertner, the Cynthia and Jay Ihlenfeld Professor for Inspired Learning in Business and an associate professor of accounting and information systems at the Wisconsin School of Business, is the recipient of a 2023 Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Honored in a recent award ceremony, Gaertner is one of only 12 winners campus-wide to receive the designation. Since 1953, the Distinguished Teaching Awards have acknowledged some of the university’s top educators. Gaertner was granted the Chancellor’s Teaching Innovation Award, which recognizes innovation in approach to learning.
Gaertner “is one of the most effective instructors I have seen,” says Tom Linsmeier, Richard J. Johnson Chair of the Department of Accounting and Information Systems and the Thomas G. Ragatz Accounting and Law Distinguished Chair.
Gaertner currently teaches Financial Accounting for MBAs, a core class in the school’s MBA program that brings together students with varied accounting experience—everyone from first-time accounting students to certified public accountants—and it’s also highly quantitative, making it quite challenging to teach.
“When Fabio first started teaching the class in 2016, it had consistently been the lowest rated course in the full-time MBA program,” says Linsmeier.
The course is now a student favorite, and not solely because it’s enjoyable.
“Students report being challenged and feeling confident in the subject, that they learn lifelong financial skills that empower them in their personal and professional lives. Fabio has connected with students in this course in a way no instructor has before,” says Linsmeier.
Gaertner’s research includes the effects of executive compensation and taxes on corporate outcomes, asset prices, and accounting information. His work also examines how different ownership and governance features interact with explicit management incentives in shaping managers’ decision making.
Gaertner was named a Poets&Quants Best 40 Under 40 MBA Professor in 2020. He received WSB’s Erwin A. Gaumitz Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award in 2021.
Read more about the 2023 Distinguished Teaching Award recipients.
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