In our latest feature, we speak with Zachary Huxley, whose career journey has spanned audit, valuation advisory, academia, research, and mentorship.
He reflects on what first drew him to valuation, how the CBV designation shaped his professional path, and why valuation training provides students with a strong foundation for a wide range of careers.
Read the full feature to learn more about Zach’s journey and the impact CBVs are making across the profession and beyond.
You began your career in audit and financial advisory before transitioning into academia. What first drew you to valuation and how has the CBV designation shaped your path from practice to becoming an educator?
My path has come full circle. I came to valuation during my master’s in accounting, inspired by a lecturer who was a CBV and who shared examples from his career in consulting and corporate M&A. After that course, as I began my accounting career in audit, I asked to move into my firm’s valuation advisory team and started the CBV process. Immediately, I felt like I was in the right place.
The designation later opened the door for me to teach an evening class at my alma mater, which led to a full-time academic appointment and, eventually, a PhD. Leaving practice was difficult because I enjoyed client work, but my academic interests ultimately won out.
The CBV designation has been invaluable in bridging practice and research. It gave my work credibility and helped me translate practitioner problems into rigorous, under-researched academic questions.
What parts of your experience in professional services have been most valuable in academia, and how do they show up in your teaching or mentorship?
My valuation advisory experience has been central to my academic work. I teach valuation-related courses, so I routinely draw on client cases to give students concrete examples of methods, assumptions, and judgment call in the classroom.
Beyond the applied aspects, CBV practice has more in common with academic careers than one might expect. In practice, CBVs often play an educational role, whether directly with clients or with judges and lawyers in litigation contexts. It was in practice that I learned to break down complex financial calculations for non-specialist audiences, and that has been extremely useful in my teaching.
There is also an important, often overlooked aspect of valuation: stepping back from the immediate context to conceptualize the problem. For instance, how does one best quantify damages in a corporate dispute? In some cases, this is relatively boilerplate, but in others it requires a level of abstraction and conceptualization that is very similar to academic research. Overall, my professional services experience has been extremely useful in both my teaching and my research.
From your perspective, what does valuation training uniquely offer students as they prepare for a wide range of business and finance careers?
For one, it directly prepares students for what I consider to be the most interesting business and finance career. Beyond that, valuation training is a great stepping stone to understanding how businesses work in an integrated way.
The focus on value drivers and their interrelationships within a company helps students understand not only the big picture, but also how a business creates value and how it all ties together. In this way, valuation training doesn’t pigeonhole students into a narrow specialty; it equips them with a framework for understanding business that is valuable in many professional contexts.
How has your CBV background helped you balance technical precision with the human side of the work, whether that’s teaching, mentorship, research, or professional collaboration?
There is a significant relational, human side to valuation despite its technical foundation. Managing relationships is important in any job, and CBV practice helps develop competencies in that area: working as a team on complex problems, encouraging collaborative client relationships, and communicating effectively in person and online.
Those same skills carry directly into my academic roles: teaching with empathy, mentoring students from diverse backgrounds, and collaborating with co-authors.
Looking back, what helped you realize academia was a fit for you, and what advice would you give to students who are passionate about finance and education-focused work?
In hindsight, it was probably clear to others that academia was a good fit for me. I like thinking about complex problems, researching, and digging deeply into specific topics. I also love sharing knowledge, especially about things I’m passionate about. The biggest concern was leaving a job I knew I enjoyed – public practice – to pursue something I thought I’d enjoy, but it worked out!
For students who are passionate about finance and education-focused work, my advice is simple: talk to the professor whose work or teaching genuinely interests you. Those conversations can reveal career paths you may not yet know exist and help you see how your interests might translate into an interesting and fulfilling career.
Finally, we’d appreciate you sharing a #FunFact about yourself.
To celebrate the end of my master’s degree, and what I thought at the time was the end of my academic journey, I hitchhiked solo from Morocco to Belgium. The trip included camel riding, rock climbing and lots of camping in outstanding places.