Rate My Professor Suki Sian

Professor Suki Sian is Professor of Accounting and Head of the Department of Accounting and Financial Management in the School of Business and Management at Royal Holloway, University of London. She earned an MSc from the London School of Economics and a PhD in Accounting from the University of Aberdeen. A Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, she began her career working as an auditor and accountant in practice. Prior to her current role, Sian served as Head of the Department of Accounting and Financial Management at Queen Mary University of London for six years. There, she was a member of the Senior Leadership Team in the School of Business and Management, founded the Accounting and Accountability Research Group (AARG), and contributed to the Centre for Research in Equality and Diversity (CRED).

Sian's research examines profession and professionalisation processes in accounting, exclusion and marginalisation within the profession, historical and sociological aspects of accountancy professionalisation, gender-based marginalisation and discontinuous careers in international professional accountancy, diversity and social mobility in the UK accounting profession, and impacts of audit model changes—such as those from pandemic-enforced homeworking—on gender equality. She has published in prestigious journals including Accounting, Organizations and Society, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, and Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal. Key publications include co-editing Accountancy and Empire: The British Legacy of Professional Organization (Routledge, 2010) with Chris Poullaos; UK small owner-managed businesses: accounting and financial reporting needs (Accountancy & Finance, 2009); Professionalisation, Power and Empire: Accountancy in British India, 1913–1932 (Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 2025); Temporal signification of careers and organisational return-to-work barriers after an extended career break: insights from professional women in the United Kingdom (Gender, Work & Organization, 2025); and Trapped between the past and future: temporal orientations and the ‘becoming’ of post-maternity extended career-breaks among women professionals in the UK (Sociology, 2025). Sian serves on the editorial board of Critical Perspectives on Accounting and leads departmental strategy and growth at Royal Holloway.