Michael is a member of the Alpha Analytics Advisory Board. Dr. Diamond is Professor Emeritus at the University of Southern California with joint appointments in the Marshall School of Business and the Rossier School of Education prior to his retirement in August 2013.
At the Marshall School of Business, Dr. Diamond served as the Dean of the Leventhal School of Accounting from 1986-1994 and director of the school’s SEC and Financial Reporting Institute. During his tenure, the Leventhal School of Accounting was consistently ranked as one of the top five accounting programs in the country.
At the Rossier School of Education, Dr. Diamond was the Executive Director of APRISE (Asia Pacific Rim International Study. In addition to his international responsibilities as the Executive Director of APRISE, he has been involved with non-U.S. college and universities, such as the University of Botswana, Korea University and Sochi University in Russia.
Dr. Diamond served as Vice President and Executive Vice Provost of the University of Southern California where he was responsible for managing and overseeing an academic budget approaching $1 billion. He had broad ranging responsibilities pertaining to the university’s academic planning and budgeting processes, strategic planning, institutional research, academic dean selection; and was responsible for the university’s then five international offices. Over his tenure in the Provost’s Office, Dr. Diamond was one of the chief architects and implementers of three strategic plans adopted by USC’s Board of Trustees. He has published articles in Change and co-authored two monographs on academic leadership and crisis management in higher education, and has lectured throughout the United States, Europe and Asia on business and accounting education innovation. His articles have appeared in the Harvard Business Review, Accounting Horizons, Journal of Accounting, and The European Accounting Review. He has authored or co-authored several accounting textbooks that were used extensively in the United States.
Dr. Diamond has taught at California State University, Los Angeles, and has been a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the recipient of the California Society of CPAs Faculty Excellence Award for 1993 and was named as one of the “Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting” in both the fall 1997 and 1998 issues of Accounting Today. Dr. Diamond served as President of the American Accounting Association (the national association of university accounting professors) from August 1998 to August 1999.
In July 1994, Dr. Diamond developed with Michael Moore the Strategic Planning Partnership, an initiative of the Ernst & Young Foundation. This program assisted selected business schools and other academic organizations in strategic planning and change management processes.
Dr. Diamond and his wife, Elaine, a graduate of Hebrew Union College, have one son, Jacob, a graduate of Drew University and George Washington University.
Dr. Diamond received his B.A. degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles.