UNT College of Business Establishes Endowed Chair with $1.5M Gift

The University of North Texas – College of Business was recently honored with a commitment of $1.5 million to establish an endowed position as chair to the Department of Accounting.

The endowment comes from UNT alumnus Don Millican and his wife Donna. Graduating in 1974 from UNT, Millican now serves as the chief financial officer at Kaiser-Francis Oil Company in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Through his gift, Millican hopes to support his belief that all UNT students should have the opportunity to compete at the highest levels within the field of accounting.

The first endowed chair holder will be Ananth Seetharaman, who joined UNT this past August after leaving his role as professor and chairman of the accounting department at Saint Louis University (SLU). During his leadership at SLU, both undergraduate and graduate accounting programs were ranked among the top 25 in the nation.

Seetharaman is an award-winning teacher and holder of two master’s degrees and a doctoral degree from Georgia State University. His main interests include managerial accounting and income taxation, with his research appearing in such highly regarded publications as the Accounting Review and the Journal of Accounting.

“UNT gave me an outstanding foundation on which I have been blessed to build a successful career,” Millican said in a statement. The new position will be named for him. “I attribute that foundation to the excellent teaching and the strong work ethic culture that continues to exist at UNT. I believe it is the mission of UNT, and particularly the College of Business and the Department of Accounting, to give students an education platform that will truly change the trajectory of their lives.”

regions: Dallas

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