Sharon Cotter

Prior to joining the lecturing staff in University of Galway's Accountancy and Finance discipline in 2017, I worked as a chartered accountant in the information technology sector. I joined Digital Equipment Corporation after qualifying as a chartered accountant and, over the course of a twenty-eight-year career with Digital Compaq Hewlett-Packard, broadened and deepened my technical accounting and problem solving expertise as well as developing the soft skills necessary to succeed in a constantly and rapidly changing business environment.

I have over 16 years experience in the role of Financial Controller at a subsidiary level, at a country level and at sub-regional level. I have also served as a company director for a variety of Hewlett-Packards Irish entities. A special area of interest and expertise during my time with Hewlett-Packard was that of pension provision. I served as chairperson of the company’s Irish defined benefit schemes investment committee.

My primary research focuses on how, and to what extent, new digital data analysis tools and techniques impact how management accountants provide support to decision makers within a business. I am also interested in (i) the potential implications for the skillsets required of management accountants and (ii) the potential implications for data governance structures within organisations.