Prior to that, he was an Assistant Professor at State University of New York, Oneonta. He earned his Ph.D. from University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2005, his Master of Science in Accounting from Ohio University, and B. S. from Yonsei University-Seoul Korea. Before starting his graduate studies, Son was a CPA (Korean License), working for Financial Supervisory Service, Seoul, Korea, a government body to oversee Korean financial markets.