Alumni

‘Using a combination of speech recognition technologies and natural language processing technology, it’s able to communicate with the guests regardless of dialect, accent or what their order is.’

With the start of the fall term, our community is getting ready to return to campus, and so it is a great time to be introduced (or re-introduced) to some of our faculty and staff. Candid, enlightening, serious, and not-so-serious, our Q&A series allows the personalities of the faculty and staff members who make up the School of Accounting and Finance community to shine.

This week, we interview David Ha (MAcc ’09), Professor and MAcc Co-Director, who has been with the School for ten years. Fun fact: At Grad Ball when Ha was a university student at Waterloo, he was voted by his class as most likely to become a professor one dayguess they were spot on in their assessment! 

Monday, January 4, 2021

Investing for good

Upkar Arora (BA '85, MAcc '85) understands just how powerful our investments can be.

He joins us to talk about his work at Rally Assets, an impact investment firm. Plus, he speaks about his personal investments to Waterloo as an alumnus, donor and committed volunteer. Why does he care so deeply about our University community? How does he hope these investments will impact the world? How can others make an impact too?

Every year, we have a challenge: to select just 100 women to receive our Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Awards. These are women who personify what it means to be powerful through the way they empower and champion others, influence change and stand up for all of us. And as Top 100 winners, they stand among more than 1,000 powerful leaders across Canada who share that honour… and our thanks.

Bill Anderson, Chairman of Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSX: SLF) (NYSE: SLF), announced today that Sun Life President and Chief Executive Officer, Dean Connor intends to retire August 6, 2021.

Kevin Strain, currently Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer, will be appointed as President and a member of the Sun Life Board of Directors effective February 15, 2021. He will assume the Chief Executive Officer role upon Mr. Connor's retirement. Mr. Connor will also retire from the Sun Life Board of Directors in accordance with company policy.

Welcome to our second annual ranking of Canada’s Top Growing Companies. The 400 businesses on this list sprawl across sectors, from fashion to finance, and manufacture everything from medical testing devices to organic pasta.

Much of the success celebrated in these pages occurred before a global pandemic changed how most companies operate. But as you will read, many of these businesses were able to adapt, innovate and even expand despite the challenges posed by these past few months.

Professor Cody Buchenauer (CPA, CA, MAcc ’14) is a School of Accounting and Finance (SAF) alum with a remarkable career journey. From a student navigating through co-op terms to an industry professional holding a role as senior manager at EY, Buchenauer is now a full-time faculty member as well as a member of SAF’s co-op and experiential learning team. Bridging academia and industry to guide current students’ career paths as a passionate educator, his journey is a testament to the impact of the co-op experience offered at SAF.

Currently, Ho works as an associate in private equity at Brookfield Asset Management and he attributes the start of building his investor mindset to his experience at the University of Waterloo with the Student Investment Fund (SIF). SIF gave him and other SAF students the unique opportunity to invest with real money and get hands-on-training in equity valuation and portfolio management with guidance from industry experts and faculty mentors. This taught him about value investing that he then applied to his co-op role as private equity analystat the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and when competing in the CFA Institute Research Challenge.

On a bright sunny day at the TD Centre in Toronto, professor Adam Vitalis interviewed four SAF alums about their careers in the internal audit field. Internal audit is a critical component of effective corporate governance and risk management and plays an important role in helping organizations achieve their objectives while safeguarding their assets and reputation.

The School of Accounting and Finance (SAF) caught up with Laura Fong (MAcc '20) to chat about her career since graduation and her path to pursuing a career in tax. Fong, a Master of Accounting (MAcc) graduate, worked with Deloitte for all her co-op terms as a student. With the support and encouragement of her colleagues, she has happily stayed at Deloitte post-graduation. She continues to thrive in this positive environment as she grows her skills to become a great tax practitioner.