Anyone who thinks accounting lacks excitement hasn’t experienced the enthusiasm of the Whitman School’s new associate professor, Anywhere Sikochi.

“I’ve always loved accounting,” he says. “I can do research that impacts business, the government and entire countries, and I can use that information to drive decisions for people to put into place and also find information that helps create businesses and institutions around the world.  I can also teach and apply concepts in the classroom that make students say, ‘Wow! I didn’t realize accounting was this exciting.’”

Sikochi is new to the Joseph L. Lubin School of Accounting at the Whitman School of Management, joining in Fall 2024 as a visiting professor and staying on as a full-time tenured faculty member this past January. He brings with him both experience in teaching, as well as research in areas of information disclosure, debt contracting and credit risks.

Originally from Zimbabwe, Sikochi attended Middlebury College, where he studied economics and Russian language and literature as an undergraduate. He went on to earn an MBA in general management from the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School, followed by a Ph.D. in business administration from Penn State’s Smeal College of Business.

Prior to coming to the Whitman School, Sikochi was a Berol Corporation fellow and assistant professor of business administration in the accounting and management unit at Harvard Business School, where he taught financial reporting and control, while also pursuing his research. As his time at Harvard drew to a close, he reached out to long-time colleagues Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Professor of Accounting Joe Comprix and Associate Dean for Business Education and Associate Professor of Accounting Willie Reddic to let them know he was looking for a new position. Sikochi was quickly invited for a visit to the Whitman School.

“They really pulled out all the stops when I visited,” he says. “I met so many people, and I was genuinely excited about the School’s commitment to its students, as well as the way it supported the professors in their research.”

Sikochi was also attracted by the enthusiasm surrounding the potential for Micron to build a large-scale semi-conductor manufacturing facility in the Syracuse area, as well as the partnerships developing between the company and the University, including Whitman, to ensure that the next generation workforce has the necessary skills needed to support this massive initiative. He has already had the pleasure of welcoming a Micron executive as a guest speaker in his class.

Not long after, Sikochi, his wife and four children were on the move to Syracuse. He is now teaching Financial Statement and Analysis, primarily to juniors, seniors and graduate students—something he knows is vital for students to understand in the workplace.

He is also continuing his research. Sikochi is looking at capital as a big part of how communities thrive, whether that be a city, region or country. While some communities don’t have access to capital, it is the concept of mobilizing the resources already there that fascinates him.

In addition, Sikochi has been using his knowledge to help launch a small- to medium-sized business enterprise rating system in Nigeria—somewhat similar to the credit rating system in the U.S. The rating system is not just about credit worthiness but also serves as a means to let people know and have confidence that a company really exists. He has also been looking at issues of environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings and why there is a disagreement among agencies as to what ratings to give to individual firms.

Sikochi’s research on his areas of interest has been published in a number of high ranking journals. Most recently “Transitory and Permanent Cash Flow Shocks in Debt Contract Design” appeared in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, with Le Ma and Yajun Xiao, in February 2025.

There are endless topics to explore in the accounting space, and even though I’ve been here less than a year, I feel very supported in my research and in the classroom,” he says. “I’ve been warmly welcomed to the Whitman School, and I look forward to continuing to share my enthusiasm for accounting with colleagues and students here.”

By. Caroline K. Reff