After earning an undergraduate degree in accounting at the University of Notre Dame, Professor Coyle took a position as a staff accountant for Price Waterhouse. While there, he earned his CPA, was promoted to senior, and did a six-month tour of duty in Saudi Arabia. Professor Coyle left Price Waterhouse to obtain his M.B.A. at Cornell University's Johnson School of Management. While there, he did some teaching and discovered that he wanted to become a professor. Prof. Coyle earned his Ph.D. in Accounting from Texas A&M University in 1993.

Professor Coyle came to Babson in 1992, and received tenure in May 1999.

Professor Coyle has taught in the undergraduate, graduate, and executive education programs at Babson. Professor Coyle has taught Financial Accounting and Auditing in the Undergraduate Program, International Accounting, Forensic Accounting and Government/Non-Profit Accounting in the MSA Program and Financial Accounting in the MBA Program. For the auditing class, From 2010 to 2014 Prof. Coyle simultaneously taught Auditing to both Babson undergraduates and undergraduate students at the Graduate School of Management of St. Petersburg University, Russia. Prof. Coyle was on the design team of Babson's BRIC Program and since its inception in 2008 has taught the Russian business course. From 1996 to 2014 Prof. Coyle took MBAs to Russia to teach a Russia in Transition course.

Professor Coyle's research interests are in Russia and the former Soviet Union. He has published numerous cases, book chapters and articles about the business environment in Russia, including consideration of how that business environment is affected by geopolitical circumstances. He has traveled to Russia, including Siberia (by choice) and Ukraine, more than 100 times since his first trip to Russia in January 1993. Since January 1993, Professor Coyle has led 35 groups of Babson MBA and undergraduate students to Russia, totaling over 800 students.

Prof. Coyle has served as a co-chair and elected member of the Undergraduate Academic Policy Committee, a member of the Faculty Senate and was a member of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee and has served on various sub-committees, including those of the Board of Trustees and on numerous curriculum-related task forces.

He is a member of the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce and a CPA in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Prof. Coyle regularly attends the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia where Swan Lake is his favorite ballet. He plays golf poorly, noting that trips to Russia and Ukraine do little to help improve his golf handicap.