Dan Sunderland

Dan Sunderland has recently retired from Deloitte & Touche after a 38-year career. He now serves as Professor of Practice in the Accounting Group.

Sunderland has served a wide variety of clients directly, including Fortune 50 clients, during the course of his career. In addition, over the last five years Sunderland has served as the Chief Auditor of Deloitte & Touche LLC. In this capacity, he has had regular interaction with a variety of regulators (SEC, PCAOB). These regulatory interfaces – often coupled with extensive Board interaction – have equipped him to help companies evaluate, respond to, and, ultimately, remediate singular risk-based events in not only the US, but also globally. He has an in-depth understanding of special investigations, corporate remedial actions, regulatory negotiations and crisis management. These experiences - which include years of interactions with management, boards, counsel, auditors, government regulators and a myriad of other interested parties in difficult times - provide unique perspectives in an academic environment.

Sunderland understands and excels in strategic vision. Over the past five years, he has successfully directed Firm policy relative to the re-design and execution of its core directive (executing an audit) and been instrumental in the communication of that directive to not only the global practice but to regulators in the US and around the world. Sunderland has recognized how strategic vision and technology interact, which has been instrumental in managing the marriage of these two streams. These technological changes have, at times, impacted the entire Firm and, at other times, impacted specific industry specializations. Sunderland’s familiarity with the not only the accounting, but also the operational and regulatory aspects of a variety of industries, including manufacturing, retail, financial services, and life sciences have enhanced his ability to lead development projects. Sunderland has lived “transformation” and comprehends the complexity of this effort from many different perspectives: methodological, operational, technological or talent-related.

Frequent interfaces with the academic community on a wide variety of accounting, auditing and governance topics have also given Sunderland a breadth of perspective. Sunderland is known in the profession – both in practice and academic forums - as a thought-leader and an innovator. Understanding different points-of-view and integrating them into solutions is a fundamental philosophy.

He is very much looking forward to working with Northeastern students and collaborating with Northeastern faculty in the coming years.