Aileen qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG in Dublin where she subsequently became training manager before resuming her UCD academic career in 1984. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Accountancy Subject Area, President of the European Accounting Association and recently completed a three-year term as Director of the UCD Quinn School of Business. Aileen¿s teaching and research focuses on financial accounting and reporting, accounting regulation and the accountancy profession. In addition to teaching both undergraduate and graduate students in UCD, she has delivered Continuing Professional Development courses for the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (now Chartered Accountants Ireland) and the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Ireland. She also lectured in accountancy at the University of Zambia in the mid-1980s. She has published widely, including co-authoring books on group accounts and Irish financial reporting practice, and articles in the academic and professional press. Aileen is actively involved in Irish and European accounting research networks.  She is currently President of the European Accounting Association (EAA), having been a member of its Management Committee since 2003, and was Congress Chairman for the 29^th annual congress of the EAA which was held in Dublin in 2006. She represents the EAA on the Consultative Advisory Group of the International Accounting Education Standards Board (IAESB), and is past Chairman of the Irish Accounting and Finance Association. Aileen¿s current research focuses on professionalism in accounting, professional ethics and integrity of financial reporting communications.

Aileen is also a member of the publications committee of Chartered Accountants Ireland and a member of the Resources Management Committee of An Cumann Camógaíochta, the Camogie Association. She was a member of the inaugural audit committee of An Garda Síochána (the Irish police force) until 2008.