Ben Ayers is Dean of the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business and holds the Earl Davis Chair in Taxation. He came to UGA in 1996 and previously served as director of the college's highly regarded Tull School of Accounting for nine years prior to his appointment as Dean in 2014. Under his leadership, the college recently closed a successful Building Terry campaign, raising $121 million to support faculty, programs and facilities. Dean Ayers has received eleven teaching awards at the school, college, and university levels. He was recently recognized as being in the top 5% of the most productive accounting researchers over the past fifty years. He has been actively involved in the American Taxation Association and American Accounting Association and has received national research awards from both. Dean Ayers earned his bachelor's degree in accounting and Masters in Taxation from the University of Alabama, and his Ph.D. in accounting from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to pursuing his Ph.D., he worked for KPMG in Atlanta and Tampa and Complete Health, Inc. in Birmingham.