Reporting to the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), member of the senior management team, responsible for providing leadership and strategic direction to the firm’s finance organization including management of financial risk. Responsibility includes controllership, accounts payable, accounts receivable, treasury, payroll, procurement, partner services, and level 1 support for the CRM and practice management systems. Managed a team of ~65 with 4 direct reports.• Assumed oversight for operational activities related to pandemic response plan in collaboration with Senior Leadership team. Ensured safety protocols in place, and responded proactively: leveraged government assistance programs, brought in additional partner capital, secured further bank financing and minimized workforce action, while keeping up-to-date on local health mandates in 9 provinces.• Led the functional review for 2 firm wide systems, ERP and practice management, which resulted in the production of key criteria documents for each system. This led to the creation and release of RFP documents to potential vendors.• With the CFO, led the implementation of standardized billing across the firm to gain consistency on timing of invoices, improve cash collection of receivables and decrease write-offs.• During the five years in the role, managed an increase in the volume of processing from a $300 million firm to a $500 million firm, while having minimal increase in the team. This resulted from the implementation of software enhancements to the ERP systems, combined with process improvements that were implemented.• Oversaw implementation of new cloud-based payroll system for the ~3000 employees of the firm within a 9 month timeframe to align with calendar year end; all employees received accurate pay deposits on launch.• Oversaw the allocation of income to all partners in the firm, working with senior leadership including the payment of partner draws.

Directed day-to-day finance operations $300M+ in annual revenue, with functional responsibility for financial accounting, including budget consolidation, accounting for investments, general ledger and financial reporting functions. Supported presentations to the Partnership Board and National Management Committee and worked with the Senior Leadership Team and national leaders including Human Resources, Client Services, Marketing and Communications, Operations and Information Technology.• As this was a new role to the firm, developed and created the controllership team in a centralized environment, moving the firm away from the 9-10 finance groups that were previously in place. This resulted in annual savings of more than $1 million to the firm. • Accelerated the monthly reporting time to leadership by decreasing the number of days taken to prepare month-end reporting from 20 days down to 11 for the four years in the role.• Created two Centres of Excellence to handle transactions processing for the firm, with all AP, AR and Treasury functions moved to Halifax from the 9-10 centres that were in place previously. This led to a better experience for colleagues and vendors. For example, the time to pay employee expense submissions was reduced from 8 weeks to 4 days with centralization.• Oversaw preparation of firm wide annual financial statements of the firm (consolidated and 11 individual entities made up of partnerships and corporations) including reporting under IFRS.• Primary system architect for the financial reporting system, including development of firm wide standard reports and templates. This also involved project managing changes to all related systems, including other department dependent systems, to ensure key data elements were consistent across all systems to allow for tight integrations.• Managed through multiple CRA and year-end audits with the end results being all the original submissions were accepted as filed with no adjustments identified.

Department leader of a team of 6 responsible for the setup and maintenance of key systems including time & billing system, internal financial accounting system, partner compensation databases, and scheduling software. Responsible for the preparation of firm wide annual financial statements of the firm (consolidated and 7 individual entities made up of partnerships and corporations)• As this was a new role for the firm, established the MIS team to provide a centralized support for key firm systems. Built out the team based mostly in the GTA, combined with the development of policies, best practices and training materials. This moved the firm away from the previous ad-hoc local office support.• Led the implementation or upgrade for several key systems including Practice Management, ERP, scheduling, CRM, to improve colleague experience.• Developed expense report template that standardized the accounting and GST/ HST/ PST deductibility rules for all (at the time) 8 provincial jurisdictions of operation. This led to less errors in GST calculations and faster processing times for colleagues and the AP team.• Vice-Chair of Firm Wide Systems Committee, which is responsible for coordination of all departments with respect to systems in use.• As project manager collaborated in a number of cross-functional initiatives, including selection of a new HRIS and CRM solution.

Responsibilities and accomplishments include:- Responsible for the management of projects for the Finance & Administration department.- Key projects accomplished were the consolidation of the firm's internal financial reporting system, migration of the internal time & billing system to one server and database, integration of a new merged firm and development of standard Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).- Coordinated with all levels of senior management and functional departments.

Responsibilities and accomplishments include:- Led the Business Consulting and the Information Technology Advisory Services departments for the Winnipeg office, which included 4 full-time personnel and co-ordination with other BC and ITAS departments across the country. This included both consulting to clients and maintenance of the internal LAN.- External general consulting projects include business planning, forecasting, HR consulting, and preparation of financial projections.- External IT consulting engagements include systems change consulting, systems implementation, project management, systems review, classroom facilitation, and system support.- Certifications held for a number of accounting packages and detailed understanding of networking components, specializing in the Microsoft family of operating systems.- Responsible for the capital budgeting related to computer purchases of the Winnipeg office.