Brian Miller’s lifetime of learning in accounting

Brian Miller showed up to college as a freshman cross country runner without much of a plan for what he wanted to do after graduation.

A loose idea to become a cross country coach was in the back of his mind, but with a strong background in finance and accounting, he chose to pursue those fields and see what the future held.

Miller grew up watching his father work as Chief Financial Officer for a large division of Honeywell and his mother work as an elementary school teacher. Once he discovered the career he was most passionate about, Miller found himself in a role that reminded him of both parents.

“I love being able to teach, and I love finance and accounting,” Miller said. “I guess I took a little bit from both of my parents. Being a professor just came natural to me. In some ways, my desire to coach turned into a career in teaching.”

That natural instinct for teaching has grown Miller into one of the most respected accounting professors and researchers in the world. He is an Associate Editor at Management Science and has served on the editorial board or as an ad-hoc reviewer for nine other journals.

Miller joined the Warrington College of Business in the fall after 17 years at Indiana University, where he earned more than 20 teaching awards and recognitions during his time as professor and associate chair of the MBA program.

Miller’s career path toward professor actually started in the public sector. His first job after college came in assurance services at B.K.D. – now known as Forvis. It was an ideal entry-level accounting role at a mid-sized public accounting firm that gave him in-depth experience and access to C-suite executives, even as a junior employee.

After his time at Forvis, he earned an MBA from the University of Cincinnati and turned that into a financial analyst role at Procter & Gamble, working on Fabric Care brands like Tide. Miller worked his way up to a business development role where he was part of the go-to-market team that launched new products like Swiffer and Febreze. After another promotion moved him to finance manager and the responsibility for a several billion dollar forecast, Miller felt the itch for something new.

His initial plan was to work in the corporate world until his 50s before shifting into a semi-retirement of teaching. Miller had multiple close friends who were in academia and challenged him to take the leap earlier than that.

“I always knew in the back of my mind that I wanted to teach,” Miller said.

With two kids and his wife expecting the couple’s third, Miller had to walk away from his successful career and a respected position at Procter & Gamble to pursue his passion. 

“I went from a secure job to taking on a lot of risk, but it was something I felt right about doing,” Miller said. “I wanted to control my own day-to-day, explore interesting research projects and teach. At Procter & Gamble, it was a great job, but there was no time to do the fun stuff of digging into data sets. I wanted to do that and teach.”

Miller applied to 10 different PhD programs – including Florida’s – before ultimately landing at Pennsylvania State University. He interviewed with the Florida program before ultimately deciding he didn’t want to move to Gainesville as a PhD student because he wanted to return later as faculty member.

He immediately landed his role at Indiana University after earning his PhD and immediately felt at home. Born and raised in Freeport, Illinois, Miller was familiar with living in that part of the country and his family liked the idea of living in Bloomington.

“It was a great experience,” Miller said. “The university grew a ton while I was there. The undergraduate business school enrollment went from somewhere around 2,000 students when I arrived to more than 10,000. A lot of opportunity comes with that growth.”

After 17 years as a faculty member at Indiana, Miller and his wife assumed that’s where they would always be. That’s when his phone rang. On the other end was Fisher School of Accounting Director Gary McGill, who wanted Miller to move to Gainesville.

Miller had a personal connection to Florida, too. After he went to college, his parents moved from Illinois to Fleming Island – about 60 miles northeast of Gainesville. Miller spent plenty of time in Florida, taking his wife and kids to see his parents on summer vacations and holidays.

The familiarity combined with the potential for growth at the University of Florida – and the opportunity to fulfill his dreams as a PhD student – made it a great opportunity for Miller.

“Deciding to leave was a combination of joining such a quality university and the things Dean Saby (Mitra) is doing at Warrington,” Miller said. “The way that UF has positioned itself over the past several decades is impressive. I’m excited to be a part of the future.”

Miller is working with MBA, DBA and PhD students at Warrington. While focusing on students at those same levels at Indiana, Miller developed a program with a deeper purpose.

His MBA students at Indiana worked with companies in developing countries to provide consulting services. They worked together for months online before traveling to the country and sitting with the company for eight hours each day to solve their problems and help them find solutions.

Miller’s global immersions have impacted companies in Argentina, Guatemala and Indonesia throughout its time, providing MBA-level consulting for companies who wouldn’t be able to afford it otherwise. He’s working to see if he can bring some of his expertise in these type of experiential courses to similar immersion experiences that Warrington currently offers.

“I’m really passionate about these type of immersions,” Miller said. “The students love it. They are changed by the experience and we leave the world a better place. It’s a great mix of applying what we learn in the classroom, getting international exposure and leaving the world a better place.”