Excitement permeated the聽packed room as eight finalist teams made their last effort to convince a panel of judges that their business idea was deserving of one of four $5,000 awards at Velocity鈥檚 $5K pitch competition. 聽
Jacqueline Sue and fellow 2019 Master of Accounting (MAcc) graduate, Jasper Lam are both working in social-focused organizations. In building their careers, both attribute the co- and extra-curricular opportunities they鈥檝e had in leading them into careers with an objective to solve social problems and provide social benefits. The School of Accounting and Finance caught up with Jacqueline and Jasper to learn more about their experiences and their motivations to do good for their community, Canada, and potentially the world.
Young alum Annu Puri (MAcc 鈥19), attributes his current success to 蓝莓视频鈥檚 entrepreneurial spirit and the experiences and mentors he鈥檚 had throughout his academic career. Calling 蓝莓视频 Region home, Puri returned to the University to see how it has changed across campus, chat about his career path, and highlight his passion project, , with the School of Accounting and Finance (SAF).
Erica La鈥檚 (MAcc 鈥10, CPA) career journey started quite traditionally from an accounting perspective. As an Accounting and Financial Management (AFM) student, La completed her co-op work terms and began her career after graduation with PwC. After exploring and taking on diverse roles within audit, La left PwC as a senior associate, to work for Borealis Infrastructure, now known as OMERS Infrastructure. La鈥檚 next career move brought her to RealStar, a past audit client from
Blake Phillips is the Director of the School of Accounting and Finance (SAF, September 1, 2022 - ), the ninth director since the School was established in 1980. From 2018 鈥 2022, Blake served as the Deputy Director for the SAF.
Sheilaah Guthrie, associate director of advancement at the School of Accounting and Finance had the chance to sit down with alum Lana Paton (BMath 鈥93) whose generous donation established the Lana Paton Women in Finance Scholarship in 2020. Lana is vice-chair and managing partner of the Greater Toronto Area and South Western Ontario Region at PwC Canada and a member of their Extended Leadership Team. The Lana Paton Women in Finance Scholarship was created to encourage and support aspiring undergraduate women to strive for leadership roles. Historically, leadership roles in the finance industry have been dominated by men. The School hopes the scholarship will act as encouragement to bridge the gender gap in leadership roles within finance, accounting, and business in general. Amazingly, Lana鈥檚 scholarship has already inspired other alumni to establish similar undergraduate scholarships that will further break down gender disparity and inclusivity barriers.聽
Seasoned entrepreneur Ian Weng (MAcc 鈥13) began his career at KPMG in audit and advisory services after graduating from the Master of Accounting program. While at KPMG he gained a breadth of knowledge and obtained his CPA, CA designation. Like many University of 蓝莓视频 alums, however, he caught the entrepreneurship bug and wanted to create something鈦犫攕o he ended up leaving KPMG to start his first tech startup called ChopChop.
SAF congratulates alum, Vanna Krantz, as she leads Grindr as their new CFO.
Grindr LLC named a former . executive as its next chief financial officer as the firm behind the dating app plans to go public through a combination with a special-purpose acquisition company later this year.
Welcome to Fall 2022 and with the beginning of the semester, SAF will be welcoming five new faculty members. We鈥檙e excited to have them with us and look forward to being inspired by their energy, research and expertise. Please join SAF in welcoming them to the School of Accounting and Finance.
Muhammad Azim, Assistant Professor
A medical technology company launched by two 蓝莓视频 Engineering graduates is making聽news this week with the announcement that a device it developed has been successfully used to treat stroke victims.