Themin Suwardy

Dr Themin Suwardy is an Associate Professor of Accounting (Practice) with the SMU School of Accountancy. Before his current appointment as Associate Provost (PGP Education), he was Dean of Postgraduate Professional Programmes (2016-2021), looking after SMU portfolio of Masters programme with an annual intake of over 1,400 students. Prior to joining academia, Themin was an auditor with KPMG Peat Marwick.

He has received over 20 SMU and international teaching awards, including Best MBA Core Teacher Award five times, EMBA Most Outstanding Faculty Award four times, and three SMU university-wide teaching awards. He was a recipient of the HP Mobile Technology for Teaching Award (2004), the inaugural CEEMAN's Champion Award for Management Teaching (2010) and the IBM Faculty Award (2017). He was accorded Republic of Singapore's Public Administration Medal (Bronze) in 2011 for his contribution to education.

Themin has been active member of the accounting profession through his involvement over the years in numerous professional bodies, including CPA Australia (President, Singapore Division, 2013-2014), IIA Singapore, SAC, ISCA and served as Vice-President of the International Association for Accounting Education and Research. In 2015, he was conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award by CPA Australia for his significant and distinguished service to the accounting profession.

Themin serves as the Vice Chairman of SATA CommHealth and chairs its Investment and Finance Committee. He is also a Director of GMAC and chairs its Membership committee. He is a member of the Goods and Services Tax Board of Review. He has consulted and worked with KPMG Forensics Singapore, DFS Singapore, Singapore Airlines, HP, IBM Singapore, Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority of Singapore (ACRA), amongst others. He is a frequent commentator and writer for The Business Times.

Education and Professional Qualifications

• PhD, Monash University, Australia
• Bachelor of Business (Accountancy) (Honours), Monash University, Australia
• Bachelor of Computing (Information System), Monash University, Australia
• FCPA (Australia), FCA Singapore, FCMA (Australia)

Research Interests

• Accounting Education
• Corpoate Governance
• Financial Reporting and Disclosure
• Fraud, Internal Controls and Audits

Teaching Interests

• Financial Accounting

Selected Recognition and Awards

• EMBA Most Outstanding Faculty award, 2018
• IBM Faculty Award, 2017
• SMU School of Accountancy Long Service Award, 2016
• CPA Australia, Lifetime Achievement Award, 2015
• SMU Postgraduate Professional Education Teaching Excellence Award, 2013
• Republic of Singapore’s Public Administration Medal (Bronze), 2011
• Forbes’s 2010 Heroes of Philanthropy, 2010
• SMU Distinguished Teach Award, 2010
• CEEMAN Faculty Champion Award for Management Teaching, 2010

Selected Publications

• Suwardy, T, Tomar, A. and Das, N. (2021), “Gearing up Higher Education for a More Resilient Future post COVID-19”, Internationalisation of Higher Education – Policy and Practice, 2021(2): pp. 23-35.
• Suwardy, T (2020) in Sangster, A., Stoner, G. and Flood, B. “Insights into Accounting Education in a COVID-19 World”, Accounting Education, pp97-99,
• Suwardy T, Harrison WT, Tietz WM, Horngren CT, Thomas CW (2019), “Financial Accounting: International Financial Reporting Standards”, 11th global edition, Pearson Education, link.
• Wang JW, Kusnadi Y, Leong KS and Suwardy T (2016), “Audit Committees and Financial Reporting Quality in Singapore”, Journal of Business Ethics, 139(1): 197-214, link.
• Stoner G. and Suwardy T, (2016) “Thoughts from the IAAER’s 12th World Congress of Accounting Educators and Researchers”, Accounting Education, 25(4): 287-290, link.
• Seow PS, Pan G and Suwardy T, (2016), “Detecting Financial Statement Fraud using Digital Analysis: A Validation and Extension of Debreceny and Gray's (2010) Techniques”, Journal of Forensic and Investigative Accounting, 8(3): 501-514, link.
• de Lange P, Jackling B and Suwardy T, (2015), “Continuing Professional Development in the Accounting Profession: Evidence from the Asia Pacific Region”, Accounting Education, 24(1): 41-56, link.