Outstanding Teaching, Scholarship, Cited in 2006 Awards to Professors

Professors George Parker, Mary Barth, and Peter DeMarzo, from the finance and accounting faculty, are the 2006 recipients of the three awards presented by students at the Stanford Graduate School of Business to outstanding faculty members.

Parker, the Dean Witter Professor of Finance and Management, Emeritus, who has taught at the Stanford Graduate School of Business for 33 years, was honored with the 2006 Distinguished Teaching Award presented by MBA students.

Barth, the Joan E. Horngren Professor of Accounting and senior associate dean for academic affairs at the School, was cited by PhD students for her outstanding support of their academic work and her personal dedication to their careers.

DeMarzo, the Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance, was honored by fellows in the Sloan Program for making the difficult required finance course comprehensible to students with varied finance backgrounds.

Parker’s Corporate Finance “course was one of the most fun courses I have taken,” shared one student. Another wrote: “[He] was amazingly gifted at making [this subject] accessible to everyone, from the strongest quant jock to the serious poet. Although I had him in an 8am class, I looked forward to his class every day.”

In accepting the Distinguished Teaching Award at a recent noontime ceremony, Parker acknowledged the support of wife, Joan, “who was impressed,” said Parker, “but she said I still have to take out the trash.” Parker also expressed his gratitude for his role models: the faculty who taught him as he earned an MBA and PhD from Stanford GSB, as well as colleague James Van Horne, a two-time winner of the Distinguished Teaching Award whom Parker considers “a master teacher in every regard.”

Since joining the faculty in 1973 to teach and direct the Sloan Master’s Program, Parker also has overseen the school’s executive education program and served as senior associate dean for academic affairs and director of the MBA Program. “I’ve done everything there is to do here except serve as dean and clip the flowers,” quipped Parker in an interview. Three years ago, he was honored with the Robert T. Davis Award presented by the faculty to a colleague in recognition of lifetime service to Stanford GSB.

In honoring Barth, who joined the business school faculty in 1995, doctoral students praised her supportive relationship with them and their work, while recognizing that at the same time she holds the influential position as one of 14 members of the International Accounting Standards Board.

“Mary has somewhat of a celebrity status,” wrote one student. “I’ve been to conferences in Europe on two occasions, and PhD students over there seem amazed that she is my advisor and that I know her personally. You could consider her the Michael Jordan of accounting.”

“Mary is one of the main reasons I chose to come to Stanford,” wrote another. “She is unique in that her work has had as much of an influence on accounting practice as it has had in academia. She is a role model for me in my career.”

Said another: “Each time I give her a draft of my work, the level of detail in her feedback and thoughtfulness in her comments leave me with the impression that she knows my work better than I do.”

In 1996 Barth received the MBA Distinguished Teaching Award.

The one-year Sloan Masters Program includes 54 mid-career managers, some with less expertise in finance than others. In honoring DeMarzo, Sloan students cited his ability to reach the entire class.

“He took an extremely complex course and managed brilliantly across an array of abilities [of individual students]. The class was fun, demanding, and extremely informative. I am finding subsequent finance courses easier because of the foundation he gave us,” wrote one student.

“He has managed to strike a good balance in ensuring that the beginners can follow, and the experienced students feel challenged.”

It was the second time DeMarzo had been honored by the Sloan Fellows. He also won their teaching award in 2004.