News

The 2022 University of Waterloo Accounting Conference (UWAC) was held at Hagey Hall on Saturday, November 19, 2022, and included a case competition, workshops, and networking, providing 160 first-year School of Accounting and Finance (SAF) students with the opportunity to apply their in course knowledge, develop crucial soft skills, and grow professionally.

Susan Uthayakumar is the chief energy and sustainability officer at Prologis. She is responsible for evaluating and scaling both existing and emerging energy solutions across the Prologis platform and for ensuring that Prologis continues to be the leader in sustainability in the logistic real estate industry.

Matthew Roman is a partner at KPMG LPP, serving as a trusted business advisor to privately owned businesses in the Region of Waterloo. Within KPMG, Matthew is the National Tax Learning & Development Leader. He and his team contribute to the creation and delivery of internal resources to improve the technical and professional skills of KPMG tax professionals. He is a recipient of the CPA Canada Gold Medal for achieving the highest standing in Ontario on the Common Final Examination (CFE) of the CPA Profession.

The federal government has introduced several changes to taxation and tax benefits for this year — and experts tell CBC News the tax changes related to housing are the ones to watch.

The federal government indexes personal income tax brackets and many tax benefits to inflation. They'll increase by 6.3 per cent this year, says the Canada Revenue Agency.

What do robo-investors, cryptocurrency, and your bank app have in common? These, plus dozens of other technology-based financial management software platforms all fall under the category and growing industry of FinTech.

Philip Mayers (MAcc '86) brings over 25 years of finance and general management experience in financial services businesses to his role as senior vice president and chief financial officer at Sagen - Canada's largest private default mortgage insurance provider.  The School of Accounting and Finance (SAF) caught up with Mayers to discuss his career, the importance of building confidence and competence to make financial decisions for a healthy financial future and why it’s important to him to give back to Waterloo and SAF.

Fall 2022 Velocity $5K winners share desire to innovate

Excitement permeated the 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’s $5K pitch competition.  

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’ve 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 ’19), attributes his current success to Waterloo’s entrepreneurial spirit and the experiences and mentors he’s had throughout his academic career. Calling Waterloo 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, &Vision, with the School of Accounting and Finance (SAF).

Erica La’s (MAcc ’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’s next career move brought her to RealStar, a past audit client from