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Cousins Elaine Lee (BA ’03, pictured second) and Michelle Lam (BA ’01, MAcc ’01, pictured first)spent their university days together. Both were accepted into the Accounting and Financial Management (AFM) program and became roommates, supporting one other through their studies and university life. SAF caught up with the two to reminisce about their academic and career paths.

AFM and MAcc graduates, Annu Puri (MAcc ’19) and Jacqueline Sue (MAcc ’19) virtually meet with SAF to chat about their new venture, &Vision, and how they hope to change how prospective students research and select university business programs.

As the global pandemic enters its second year, research is showing women with children are spending significantly more time in caregiving and housework than their male counterparts. This is true in the corporate and service worlds as it is in academia. This is also true for dual-career couples in which women still bear the larger burden of what is traditionally accepted as “women’s work.” 

Christine Wiedman (MAcc ’88), professor with the School of Accounting and Finance (SAF), highlights the current disparity between genders as it specifically pertains to performance on the job.   

Two ambitious School of Accounting and Finance (SAF) alumni, Adnan Khan and Fineas Tatar, were bold enough to launch their social impact venture amid a tumultuous global economic environment.

Before his start at Waterloo, Chester Dawes (BMath ’99, PDAcc ’99) didn’t know what a high-powered career in finance could look like. To begin with, his parents emigrated from Jamaica in the early ‘70s to start a new life; Chester and his two brothers grew up going to schools in Canada where most kids did not look like them. As a child growing up in an immigrant family environment, Chester’s career goals were quite humble: “My measure of success was a career where I could go on a vacation and not worry about where the money came from.”  

A conversation with Shana Laurie de Hernandez (MAcc’98, PwC Audit Partner and Chair of the Supervisory Board of PwC Europe) sheds light on the impact that the pandemic has had on women’s participation in the workforce.

In the span of only a few months, a large number of women have lost their jobs, lost advancement opportunities, or have voluntarily dropped out of the workforce. According to a new study from the Royal Bank of Canada, women's participation in the labour force has reached its lowest level in 30 years due to COVID-19.

SAF grad Julia and Patrick Lann's love story started on campus.

"We first met at co-op interviews at Needles Hall during our second year.  Pat and I had not crossed paths much during our first year at UW.  During the co-op interview period, Pat had two conflicting interview times and needed to swap interviews with someone, and that’s how we met. We ended up spending quite a bit of time together throughout the interview period, and by the end of those two weeks, we both knew there was something special about the other. "

Sarah Cheng (BAFM ’08, MAcc ’09) stepped into the Dragons’ Den with her five-year-old daughter while eight months pregnant. The Waterloo Alumnus pitched her small business, Bluish, and ended up striking a deal from Canadian investor Arlene Dickinson.

Historically, roles within the finance industry have been dominated by men with very little representation from women. Lana Paton’s (BMath ’93, National Managing Partner, Business Units, PwC Canada), generous gift to establish the Lana Paton Women in Finance Scholarship hopes to bridge this gap.