News

When Pratik Shah (MAcc ’09) came across the CFO role for the neo-biotech company Cyclica on a MaRS job board, it took him right back to his undergrad at the University of Waterloo. As a Biotech/CPA student, his long-term career goal was to work for high-growth startups making a social impact. Better yet, Shah wanted to leverage his scientific background, which aligned well with Cyclica’s bold mission to build the biotech pipeline of the future.

Waterloo alum, Carmen Chung (MAcc ’10, CPA – Hong Kong, Illinois, Ontario) leveraged the international exposure she’s gained from having worked in Toronto, New York and Hong Kong to build a career that has led to an exciting and unique career in investments, accounting, finance, and beyond. The School of Accounting and Finance (SAF) caught up with Chung to learn more about her career vision and how she’s navigated a dynamic global journey.

The Women in Accounting and Finance: Global Summit is an event that celebrates our female leaders and showcases their accomplishments in the field of accounting and finance. This year, though virtual, was a great opportunity to hear the unique and empowering stories of the panelists from around the globe.

Like International Women’s Day, the Women in Accounting and Finance Global Summit events serve to inspire current students and young alums in amplifying the importance of female leadership and perspectives in business. The 2021 Global Summit event for the Women in Accounting & Finance panel discussion brought together three School of Accounting and Finance (SAF) alums to share their career stories and answer questions from event attendees.

The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is #BreakTheBias, calling people to imagine a gender-equal world free of stereotypes, bias and discrimination. This is also a day to recognize and celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.

As one of the panelists of the 2021 Women in Accounting & Finance: Global Summit event, Carmen Chung (MAcc ’10) shared stories of her co-op experiences in accounting and early career opportunities in finance.

It doesn’t take long to realize that for alum, Jonathan Yu (MAcc ’07, CPA), people and talent are the most important assets for his work with RBC. The innovative nature and authentic work in equity, diversity and inclusion at the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) have made the last 12 years for Yu exciting and fresh. Yu returned to the Waterloo campus to chat with SAF about his career path and passion for helping RBC further its diversity and inclusion goals.

The American Taxation Association (ATA), in cooperation with PricewaterhouseCoopers, presented recent PhD graduate, Betty (Bin) Xing (BMath ’13, MTax ’15, PhD ’20), with the prestigious international ATA/PwC Outstanding Dissertation Award at the annual ATA mid-year meeting.

Every year we like to celebrate Valentine’s Day by sharing the stories of SAF alums that met and fell in love on the University of Waterloo campus. This year we are happy to share the story of two graduates of the Master of Accounting (MAcc) program whose love story began at a drama club audition of all places. Now, they are happily married and have two wonderful children. Read how Sarah Cheng (MAcc ’09), Founder of BLUISH, a venture not only known for selling tulle for women, moms and babies but also providing a platform for women to share stories of strength, resilience and growth., and Brian Cheng’s (MAcc ’09), a Partner at MNP, love story grew, like compound interest  — if the interview took place in person, we have no doubt that they would have finished each other’s sentences.

After Michael Leung (MAcc ’07) attained his CA designation in 2009, he returned to Hong Kong to pursue a career in finance. This was during the turbulent financial crisis, and it got Leung thinking about how he should develop a career in his true interests. Since he always had an interest in law, he began studying for his first law degree at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2012 on a part-time basis, and then once he began his Masters of Laws (L.L.M.) in Harvard Law School, he soon realized it was his natural calling.