Patricia Barker is an Associate Professor of Accounting in DCU. She qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1973 and was the 20th woman to qualify since the inception of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in 1888.  Prior to joining DCU she worked in KPMG in Manchester and Manchester M. University. The first Irish woman to attain a doctorate in Accounting, she established a research agenda which includes technical financial accounting, financial reporting to employees and women in the professions.  She has published extensively in these areas.  She is the current Deputy Chairman of the Institute of Chartered Accountant’s Technical Accounting Board and she represents Ireland on the Accounting Standards Board in London. She has also served on the expert group advising the Department of Finance on government accounting and chaired an expert group to recommend a model to the Oireachtas for the European Court of Auditors as part of Ireland’s agenda for the Presidency of the EU.