Professor of Accounting
Professor Kemi C. Yekini
Chartered Accountant, Certified Fraud Examiner, and researcher into the transparency of corporate reporting.
1,260
Citations
13
h-index
23
Journal articles
30+
Years in accounting
Over three decades in accounting.
From KPMG to Professor of Accounting at Aston Business School.
A practitioner turned professor
From KPMG and Deloitte to leading research centres in the UK.
Kemi is a Chartered Accountant who began her career at KPMG and Deloitte in Nigeria and held senior management roles in industry before moving into academia in 2007.
Her research examines how transparent and readable corporate reporting is, from sustainability and CSR disclosures to financial narratives, governance and fraud.
She introduced a semiotics-based method for studying CSR communication, and has worked with sustainability consultancy Radley Yeldar assessing the language of client reports.
1992
Chartered with ICAN
1st
Professor of Accounting in SOAS history
Three decades, in order
I was fortunate to be Kemi’s PhD supervisor. Her work was always of the highest quality. She showed great academic ability, studied independently, and brought real insight to everything she did. She is a model academic!
Kemi was a very dutiful member of staff who was always keen to give her best to every audit assignment, and she consistently delivered very good work. She is also deeply committed to the firm’s long-term goals. I highly recommend her.
Kemi is a highly skilled professional with a pragmatic, can-do approach. I really enjoyed working with her and found her supportive as well as fun to be around.
Selected work
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Research & service
Research areas
- Sustainability accounting and reporting
- CSR communication and semiotics
- Transparency of narrative disclosures
- Corporate governance
- Earnings management and financial statement fraud
- NGOs and community participation
Editorial
- Editor-in-chief, ICTACT Journal on Management Studies
- Associate Editor, African Accounting and Finance Association
- Editorial board, Advances in Environmental Accounting and Management
- Reviewer for Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Critical Perspectives on Accounting and Accounting Forum
Credentials
- Fellow, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria
- Certified Fraud Examiner, ACFE
- Fellow, Higher Education Academy
- Member, EAA, BAFA and AAFA
Find Kemi
In the field
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Honours & talks
Awards
- Vice Chancellors Future Research Leader Award (2017)Awarded by Leicester Business School, De Montfort University, recognizing her leadership in world-class research projects.
- Established and Led a Multidisciplinary Research CentreFounded the Centre for Research in Accountability, Governance, and Sustainability (CRAGS) at Leicester Business School, fostering collaboration and advancing research on sustainability and corporate governance.
- ACCA and CIMA Accreditation for BSc Accounting & Finance (2019)Successfully secured professional accreditation for the program at SOAS University of London within four months, significantly increasing student enrollment.
- Best Female Accounting Graduate Prize (1990)Honoured by the Society of Women Accountants of Nigeria as the top female graduate in her accounting class at Ogun State University.
- Published in Highly-Ranked International JournalsAuthored numerous papers in top-tier academic journals, including Accounting Auditing and Accountability Journal (AAAJ), Accounting Forum, Business and Society, and the International Journal of Accounting, making significant contributions to research in sustainability, corporate governance, and transparency.
- Supervised Doctoral Theses to CompletionSuccessfully supervised several PhD students, with one thesis winning the Best Thesis Award from the Faculty of Business and Law at De Montfort University.
- International Speaker and ContributorDelivered over 50 academic research papers, conference presentations, and guest lectures globally, including the Academy of Management Annual Meeting (USA) and the European Accounting Association.
Selected talks
March 2023
UK International Accountants Conference, ICAN UK District
February 2023
8th International Academic Conference on Accounting and Finance, ICAN
January 2020
UN ECA Expert Group Meeting, Economic Report on Africa 2020
August 2019
Academy of Management Annual Meeting
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Read the research
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