Adam Koch and Peter Maillet
Professors Adam Koch and Peter Maillet were honored with All-University Teaching Awards April 22, 2015.
Koch, who received an All-University Teaching Award in the General Awards Category, teaches financial accounting in the M.S. in Commerce Program, an undergraduate elective in financial statement analysis, and accounting in the McIntire Business Institute (MBI). Maillet, Associate Dean for Global Initiatives and Lecturer in Global Strategy and Finance, received the All-University Teaching Award for Excellence in Education Abroad. He teaches an undergraduate course in global finance and a graduate-level class on the global business environment and is also Director of the M.S. in Commerce Program’s Global Immersion Experience (GIE).
“Koch is masterful at helping students recognize how seemingly complicated topics can be reduced to a much simpler framework for understanding and analysis,” said his nominator. “Students trust Adam, which is perhaps the most important trait for an effective teacher. They trust that he is careful with their time, careful with preparing them adequately, and careful in his evaluation of their work.”
“[He] walked step-by-step through real-life cases, real accounting data, and real companies,” said a group of Koch’s current students. “His fresh perspective created a stimulating classroom experience and allowed students to see how they could apply these concepts throughout their professional careers.”
A former student described a highly successful first week on the job thanks to Koch’s effective teaching style and highly relevant coursework: “My first week on the job, I was tasked with making some adjustments to standardize and compare several companies’ financial statements. The adjustments were exactly the same as some we’d covered two months prior in Professor Koch’s class, and as such I passed this first on-the-job test with flying colors.”
Maillet brings international expertise to the McIntire School, having worked for nearly 20 years in the global financial services industry as an investment banker, business manager, and private equity investor. During his finance career, Maillet lived and worked for nearly 10 years throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
“Peter has been a leader in ‘globalizing’ business education at McIntire, spearheading the truly international learning experiences that many McIntire students now enjoy,” his nominator said. “He was responsible for developing and then implementing McIntire’s M.S. in Commerce GIE, in which groups of 20 to 25 students spend four weeks abroad, now in five dispersed geographic areas of the world: Southeast Asia, East Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East/India.”
“His ‘Global Finance’ course embodies the quintessential McIntire School experience by requiring students’ best efforts, capturing their full engagement, and driving them to expand their own worldviews,” said Maillet’s students. “His teaching style effectively blended relevant materials with his own professional experiences while also motivating students to contribute to the classroom learning environment with their own independent research.”
“Teaching has an eternal effect,” UVA President Teresa A. Sullivan said. “Those who learn from you in turn will teach others, and so on. Teaching weaves the generations into a historical fabric that connects us all.
“To teach is also to make order out of disorder, to transform confusion into understanding,” she added. “The act of turning incomprehension into knowledge, transforming inability into skill, and defining ethical sensibilities is profoundly creative.”
