Sam earned his Ph.D. in business administration with a specialization in accounting from Duke University. He earned a M.S. in economics from the University of Utah and B.S. in business (finance emphasis) from Brigham Young University, and prior to Nebraska, he was an assistant professor at the University of Iowa. Before entering academia, Sam worked for Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch.

Sam conducts empirical research in the area of financial accounting and has published in the Journal of Accounting and Economics and the Journal of Accounting Research.