Maria Athienitis is an Instructor at the Collat School of Business. Maria is a qualified CPA and a certified Chartered Accountant with Bachelor’s degrees in Commerce and Accounting from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. In addition Maria has attained a Master’s degree in Accounting from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). She collectively has seven years auditing and consulting experience at the international accounting firms, Grant Thornton in South Africa and PricewaterhouseCoopers in Europe and corporate experience at Thomson Reuters (EMEA).
Maria has over 17 years of teaching experience, specialized in Financial Accounting, Advanced Corporate Reporting and Audit and Assurance. She has also provided freelance consulting and training to multinational corporations on implementation and training of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), including the development of teaching material for an online e-learning platform. Maria has presented in various corporate continuing education seminars, both in Europe and the United States on newly issued accounting standards.
Maria is a progressive, disciplined individual who has a passion for teaching and has an interest in the promotion of ethical behavior and leadership. She is currently the faculty advisor for the UAB student Organization, Student Center for the Public Trust (SCPT), which is an organization which promotes ethical behavior and leadership amongst students at the Collat School of Business.
