Five new tenure-track faculty members with expertise in finance, accounting or management and research interests ranging from audits to conflict management and mergers have joined Cal State Fullerton’s Mihaylo College of Business and Economics this fall.
Alexander Browne
Assistant professor of accounting
Ph.D. accounting, University of Texas at San Antonio
M.S. and B.S. accounting, Northern Kentucky University
Certified public accountant
Research interests: Auditing, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, auditing standards, regulation, audit quality and corporate governance
Most impactful undergraduate academic/co-curricular experience: Tutoring other students in accounting.
One thing you would like others to know: I am a musician, a composer and produced a few albums. Have listened to more than 10,000 albums in my lifetime.
Favorite film: “The Shawshank Redemption”
Xin Che
Assistant professor of finance
Ph.D. finance, University of Mississippi
M.S. finance, Syracuse University
B.S. economics, Xi’an Jiaotong University, China
Research interests: Insurance asset management
Most impactful undergraduate academic/co-curricular experience: A group project about a business case and preparing for the one-hour presentation.
One thing you would like others to know about you: I’m a foodie, a cookie monster actually.
Favorite book: “Harry Potter” by J.K. Rowling
Fangfang Du
Assistant professor of finance
Ph.D. finance, Arizona State University
M.S. finance, University of Utah
B.S. economics, Henan University of Economics and Law, China
Research Interest: Labor finance, executive compensation, mergers and acquisitions
Most impactful undergraduate academic/co-curricular experience: I participated in a scholarship program as a student worker, assisting the corporations funding the scholarship.
Favorite film: “Up”
Gergana Todorova
Associate professor of management
Ph.D. organizational behavior and theory, Carnegie Mellon University
Ph.D. strategy and corporate policy, Bocconi University, Italy
MBA management, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland
B.A. economics, University for National and International Economics, Bulgaria
Research interests: Team dynamics, conflict management, collective cognition, and leadership
Most impactful undergraduate academic/co-curricular experience: My statistics professor explained linear regression by designing a model made of a cardboard background, and a pipe for the regression line. It was hung with rubber bands on nails as the data points.
One thing you would like others to know about you: I tried different sports when I was in high school. My best achievements were two gold medals from figure skating competitions.
Favorite book: “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand
Jia Xie
Assistant professor of finance
Ph.D. and M.A. economics, Indiana University
B.A. financial management, Nankai University
Research interests: Real estate finance, urban economics, housing economics
Most impactful undergraduate academic/co-curricular experience: Winning one of the most prestigious research awards in economics in my university.
One thing you would like others to know about you: I love music and soccer.
Favorite book: “Freakonomics” by Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner