Professor Gao joined HKU Business School in 2020. Until then he had been on the faculty of Chicago Booth since 2008. He also spent the fall of 2019 at Yale as a visiting professor.

His research has focused on important public policy and securities regulation issues with respect to capital markets and corporate governance. He has conducted extensive research on accounting issues in the banking industries as exposed by the financial crisis of 2007-2009, the worldwide adoption of IFRS, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 in the United States. He has also worked on various aspects of disclosure and securities regulations, in particular in the intersection of financial reporting with capital markets and corporate governance. His research has been published in all top accounting journals. He is a recipient of American Accounting Association Competitive Manuscript Award and several Best Paper awards of conferences. He is on the editorial board of Journal of Accounting Research and regularly reviews papers for major journals in accounting, finance and economics.

Gao received a bachelor's degree from Renmin University of China in 2002, a master's degree from Peking University in 2004, and a PhD degree from Yale University in 2008. He has received several honors, including the IBM faculty fellowship, PCL Faculty Scholar, and Centel Foundation/Robert P. Reuss Faculty Scholar. He is a member of the Edward Alexander Bouchet Graduate Honor Society at Yale University, a network of scholars who exemplify service and advocacy for students who have been traditionally underrepresented in the academia. He participates regularly in the activities of professional organizations, including AAA, AFA, AEA, and CAPANA. He is a member of Growth and Institutions organized by Tsinghua University. He is also an inactive CPA in China.