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 CompaqHewlett-Packard broadened and deepenedmy technical accounting and problem solvingexpertise as well as developingthe soft skills necessary to succeed in a constantly and rapidlychanging business environment. I have over16 years experience in the role of Financial Controller encompassing -at a subsidiary level , at a country level, and atsub-regional level,. I have alsoserved 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 companys 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 ini) the potential implications for the skillsets required of management accountants and ii) the potential implications for data governance structures within organisations.I