19 January 2007 Meet Lincoln's new accounting professor

Meet Lincoln University's Professor of Accounting, Chris Wright, appointed in August 2006.

Like most university academics, Professor Wright is both a teacher and a researcher. Among his research interests are such human-centred concepts as the pursuit and measurement of wealth and how they relate to well-being.

His research has him probing human notions of success asking questions such as: "Has the basic concept of wealth evolved?"

Among his concerns is that an accelerating rate of wealth creation, with the next generation perhaps set to be thousands of times wealthier than the current one, may have profound moral, socio-economic and inter-generational implications.

"There appears to be little correlation between rising wealth and happiness," he says. "Look at the world's wealthiest nations and their misery indices of crime, suicide and personal distress.

"Over the past 300 years, definitions of wealth have become fixated on money, often to the exclusion of all other considerations. What price can be put on peace of mind? Or a nice, sunny day? Or aesthetic pleasure? We know their value but how do we price them! Is too much wealth an issue? Do too many sunny days make for a desert?"

Living by his beliefs, Professor Wright keeps his busy daily schedule on time, not with a modern, multi-function, digital wrist-watch but with a 100-year-old, railway conductor's gold pocket watch – "because it has a nice feel to it!" For him it has an aesthetic value beyond price or common utility.

In addition to social-value aspects of accounting, Professor Wright's research interests include the accounting/finance interface, accounting theory, and governance and resource management issues. He is a former member of the Board of Examiners for the Canadian Society of Management Accountants and Magnus Theatre.

He has taught accounting, economics and aquaculture at three Canadian universities and his academic background is matched by a number of years of international professional experience as an internal auditor in the wood-fibre industry.