He received his Ph.D. in accounting from the University of. Minnesota and M.Acc. and B.A. from the University of Waterloo. He worked as a Chartered Accountant with experience in public practice. His research has been published in The Journal of Accounting Research, Contemporary Accounting Research, The Journal of Financial Statement Analysis, Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, The International Tax Journal, CA Magazine, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. At UT, Professor Hirst teaches financial accounting and financial statement analysis in the regular and executive M.B.A. programs. He was awarded the 1995 Joe D. Beasley award for teaching excellence in the M.B.A. core and the 2000 Graduate Business Council Teaching Excellence Award for Outstanding Involvement in the MBA Community.