Eric's parents, Frank and Vi, were well known St. Lambert residents who lived in the Alexandra Park district. Frank worked in Montreal for the Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, then in Toronto when the Company left Quebec in the late 1970's. He remained with Sun Life until retirement. Vi was active in volunteer school board activities and shuttled three boys to hockey, baseball, soccer, swimming, and diving events on a regular basis. They currently live in St. Catharines, Ontario.

Eric was born in January 1961, and grew up on Bromley Ave. and recalls this being just a one-block street was perfect for playing street hockey, as the only traffic was from neighbors. Also it was just a block from Alexandra Park, meaning a short walk, skate, or bike ride from a game of “500”, or a swim in the summer, or a pickup game of hockey at the outdoor rink in winter.

Elementary School:
Early elementary schooling was at Victoria Park on Third Ave. (now Boulevard Queen). Eric recalls, “I was in the second French immersion class. Who would have known on the first day of kindergarten that school was taught in French? Oh well. I spent most of my time with friends Craig Barwick, Steve Souaid, Derek Thorslund, and Mike Corbeil.” Eric progressed to the larger elementary school at 81 Green, and finally on to CCHS at the “furthest distance from home, but a great bicycle ride”.

High School:
Eric mentions that one of the high school teachers who stands out most clearly is Mr. Wendell MacLean. “To this day, I remember the geography lessons he taught us”. Further, “I am quite confident that I was not the favorite of any of the teachers! We had a way of causing mayhem back then”.

Asked if he could recall any times he might have been in trouble with teachers, Eric replied “From time to time, sure. Science labs were playgrounds and that meant all sorts of things could happen. Thirty years later it still brings a smile to my face when I recall Mr. Paquette opening a bottle of soda water we needed for an experiment. A group of us (Craig Barwick and Dave Lamb were co-conspirators) had shaken it for a good ten minutes prior to calling him over to open it. As he held it close to his chest to open it, we could hardly contain ourselves. The inevitable geyser of soda water exploded to his surprise, creating an indelible moment for the troublemakers we were.

School Sports:
Eric says he lived for the hockey season. He never played all-star, never broke records, but it was a highlight. He got to play a season with Steve Kasper (Mr. Kasper Sr. coached them on the Devonshire team). Eric remembers this was the only season Steve ever played house league. “You could see that even as an Atom player he was in a different class.” He also played softball, All-Star baseball, soccer, and a year of football in grade-6. He managed to lead the team in touchdowns. Of course, when the team scored only three TDs (two of which were his), he is not sure that record means much.

Post-secondary education:
Eric attended Champlain CEGEP, then one year at Concordia University before transferring to the University of Waterloo in Ontario. At UW, he earned a BA in Economics and a Master of Accountancy. He then joined the firm Thorne Riddell, Chartered Accountants in Toronto and passed the CA and CMA exams in 1985. Eric points out that “Most of my clients were in the gold mining business which was (is) a very interesting field”.

After a few years in industry, he enrolled in graduate school at the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities) where he earned a PhD.

Career:
Since 1991, he has been working at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas in Austin (home of the Texas Longhorns). He began as an Assistant Professor of Accounting and is now the Associate Dean for Graduate Programs and John Arch White Professor in Business at the McCombs School. Eric is responsible for the portfolio of MBA programs and the Master of Science in Technology Commercialization program.

In the classroom, he teaches graduate courses in Financial Accounting and Financial Statement Analysis, about which he says “They are riveting. At least they are for me”.

In 2003-04, Eric spent a year living in Fontainebleau, France where he taught at INSEAD. He believes his Quebec accent and idioms from the 1970's surely made him sound like Austin Powers to the Parisians he met.

Eric's research has been published in leading journals in accounting and business including, the Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review, Contemporary Accounting Research, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

For several years, he served on the American Accounting Association's Financial Accounting Standards Committee, a group of scholars and professional accountants charged with providing input to the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board in their standard setting process.

Eric has been recognized for Teaching Excellence in the MBA Core at UT and INSEAD and the Executive MBA Program in Mexico City. He has developed and taught programs for executives in Asia, Europe, and throughout the Americas for KPMG, Dow Chemical, 3M, Texas Instruments, USAA, Motorola and other major companies.

Additional research in the area of auditor judgment won the American Accounting Association's notable Contribution to the Auditing Literature Award in 2000. His work in financial analyst judgment received the American Accounting Association's Financial Reporting Section's Best Paper award in 1999 and the AAA's Distinguished Contribution to the Accounting Literature award in 2011.

Married:
Eric met Patty Webb while working with Thorne Riddell, in Toronto. He says they shared a dislike for being auditors! They were married in 1988.

The Hirsts have two boys, Kevin (a 2011 graduate in psychology from the University of Minnesota) and Matt, a Radio, Television, and Film student at the University of Texas at Austin.

General:
My interests still lie in live music and living in Austin, the self-proclaimed Live Music Capital of the World makes it easy to keep up with that. I now live a short walk from the annual Austin City Limits Music Festival. Each fall, for three days I immerse myself in 130 bands on seven stages. This year, final night headliners will be Arcade Fire (they've been here twice prior)—and as you know they won best album Grammy last year and their lead signer hails from none other than St. Lambert. Austin also makes a great place to catch the Tragically Hip. I've seen them half a dozen times here in very small clubs.

When I'm not watching live music, teaching, or running MBA programs, you can find me on my bicycle. I ride three or four century rides each year including the MS 150 from Houston to Austin and the Livestrong Ride in nearby Texas Hill Country. To escape the Texas summer heat—and yes, it gets hot here—I head to Steamboat Springs, Colorado for a break each summer.