Academic Degrees
PhD, Accounting, University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign
MBA, Accounting, Texas Tech University
BBA, Accounting, Texas Tech University
Professional Certifications
CPA/Certified Public Accountant – 1972 Illinois and 1964 Texas
CMA/Certified Management Accountant – 1974
Biography
Professor Emeritus Belverd Needles is a globally recognized expert in international financial reporting, accounting education and auditing. He taught at DePaul for 41 years before retiring in 2019 and is a widely published journal and textbook author. During his career he lectured and presented at conferences and universities in more than 30 countries. Upon his retirement DePaul presented Needles with a Via Sapientiae Award, its highest faculty and staff honor, for his service to the university.
Needles came to DePaul in 1978 to chair the accountancy program and became director of the School of Accountancy when it was founded two years later, a role he served in until 1986. He later served as the Arthur Andersen Alumni Distinguished Professor.
Needles taught auditing and financial accounting and is a world renowned expert in international auditing and accounting education. He is the author or editor of more than twenty books and monographs, and has published a prolific body of work in the International Journal of Accounting. His textbooks include Principles of Accounting, which are used throughout the world.
Among his extensive service, Needles served as president of the International Association for Accounting Education and Research; was elected U.S. representative to the European Accounting Association; and served as chair of the International Accounting Section of the American Accounting Association. He is past-president of the Federation of Schools of Accountancy and chaired the Illinois CPA Society.
Needles has received the Illinois CPA Society Outstanding Educator Award, The Joseph A Silvoso Faculty Award of Merit from the Federation of Schools of Accountancy, the Ledger & Quill Award of Merit, and the Ledger & Quill Teaching Excellence Award. In 1992, he was named Educator of the Year by the American Institute of CPAs and Accountant of the Year for Education by the national honorary society Beta Alpha Psi. In 1996, he received from the American Accounting Association the award as the Outstanding International Accounting Educator.