Dr Angela Ya Gao serves as the Faculty Admissions and Recruitment Lead at the University of Sussex Business School and as the Course Director for BSc Finance and Business. She is a Lecturer in Accounting. She holds a PhD in Corporate Governance, Department of Finance and Accounting, from University of Surrey and an MSc in Investment Management from ICMA Centre, University of Reading. She is a member of CPA Australia (Certified Practising Accountant Australia), and a Senior Fellow of Advance HE (formerly the Higher Education Academy).

She is strengthening her expertise in embedding AI and sustainability in business by (1) creating and building a postgraduate core module, Sustainable Business Finance, now in its third year, (2) completing the Sustainable Finance course at the University of Cambridge, and (3) being the Founder of the Sustainability and AI Business Action Centre https://sabac.uk/, actively engaging in consultancy and training work with businesses. She is also passionate about researching how AI is transforming accounting education.

Angela has 17 years of teaching experience in leading universities in the UK and China, including: University of Surrey, University of Science and Technology Beijing (China) and University of International Business and Economics (Beijing, China). In addition to her early years of awards and norminations in education and scholarship, her latest awards include: 

(1) the project of Sustainability Business Action Centre, which won the Knowledge Exchange Grant Awards 2024;
(2) the project of Students-led Video Contents Creation on Sustainable Finance, which won the Education and Students Small Grant Awards 2022;
(3) the project of Advancing the Accountability of Undisclosed Value of Intangible Assets in International Financial Reporting Practice, funded by Engagement Facilitation Fund (EFF), Research England 2020/21 Strategic Priorities Fund (SPF); 
(4) a contributor to the Student Connector Project which won the Sussex Education Awards in June 2021.

Angela is a peer reviewer for Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Applied Accounting Research, and Innovations in Education and Teaching International. She also publishes blogs and ideas on Zhihu (Quora equivalent in China) with a total of 4.3 million views, 25,000+ Likes and 17,000+ Archives (until July 2025).

Prior to joining academia, Angela had experience in financial and environmental investment sectors.

Angela is proficient in English and Mandarin Chinese (native). She has working knowledge of French.