Thomas Z. Lys

Thomas Z. Lys is the Eric L. Kohler Professor Emeritus at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.  Over his career, he has been retained as a testifying expert in over sixty matters, on issues in accounting, finance, economics, corporate governance, real estate, and negotiation. 

Professor Lys’ research has been public in prominent academic journals, including the Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Business, and the Journal of Monetary Economics. His research investigates the stock price consequences that result from alternate financial reporting standards, changes in capital structure, changes in the money supply, and from corporate disclosures. He served as an editor of the Journal of Accounting and Economics for eleven years.

In Kellogg’s MBA program, Professor Lys taught courses in real estate finance, financial reporting, security analysis, and mergers and acquisitions. He co-taught his merger course with a faculty member from Northwestern School of Law offered jointly to both business and law school students.

In Kellogg's Executive Master's Program, Professor Lys conducts a course on financial reporting, security analysis, and behavioral finance integrating both the economic and the behavioral perspective of financial decision-making. He was awarded the Outstanding Professor of the Year Award six times and the Sidney J. Levy Teaching Award twice.

Professor Lys holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Bern, Switzerland, and a master and PhD in Accounting and Finance from the University of Rochester. He is fluent in three foreign languages: German, French, and Polish.