Janine Rogan CPA is a Finance Writer, Speaker, Tax Specialist, and financial literacy advocate. She answers the question, "Why is money important to you?" and discusses financial literacy, debt, and entrepreneurship. She also shares advice to help students, working professionals, those nearing retirement, and even impulsive buyers stay on budget.

Sam Weerasekera CPA is Operations Accountant for Harry's in London, England, and a 2019 CPA Alberta Early Achievement Award recipient. Sam answers the question, "What is the best advice you've ever received?" and discusses grooming trends, starting her own cosmetics line, and how the CPA designation helped her succeed overseas. She also shares the importance of volunteering and advice on how to become a leader early in your career

Robert Andrews CPA, CMA is Executive Director of the Aboriginal Financial Officers Association of Alberta(AFOA)and a passionate advocate for bringing professional skills back to improve Indigenous communities. Robert answers the question “What do you think are the most overrated and underrated leadership qualities?” and also discusses his work with the AFOA, barriers Indigenous individuals face in pursuing the accounting designation, and how the profession can help.

This special episode is an employer panel discussion recorded in May 2019 at the CPA Education Foundation’s 2019 Conference for Academics. Hear a panel of experts share the skills, characteristics, and personal/professional qualities they look for when hiring CPA candidates. Our panelists are Jeannette Blumentrath, Director of HR and Partnership Governance at KRP; Salina Dharamsi, Senior Manager - Campus Talent Acquisition at PwC Canada; Steve Fedorchuk, Executive Director, People & Culture at the Office of the Auditor General of Alberta; and Cynthia Kumar, Supervisor of Internal Audit and ATCO CPA Program Manager at ATCO Group. The panel was moderated by Gordon Turtle, SVP of Communications & Recruitment at CPA Alberta.

Joe Gagliardi FCPA, FCMA is Managing Partner at Recruitment Partners and a dedicated volunteer and mentor in the CPA profession. Joe answers the question “what have you learned from failure?” and discusses recent trends in finance and business recruitment. He also shares the impact of robotics on the accounting profession, how CPAs and future CPAs can keep their skills relevant in a changing world, and why he never refuses a student connection on LinkedIn.

Erin Schwartz CPA, MPAcc is Manager of Employer Relations at CPA Alberta. Erin answers the question “how often you ask yourself if there’s a better way of doing things?” She also talks about her unconventional path to accounting through the Master of Professional Accounting (MPAcc) program, becoming an expert in the profession’s practical experience requirements, and her newest role in Communications.

Self-described on Twitter as “just a middle aged man trying his best,” Ross Wilson CPA, CA is a Paralympic silver medalist, a world champion in cycling, and the Director of Internal Audit at NAIT. He answers the question “what is the most innovative idea to date?” and shares the highs and lows of competitive cycling. Ross also talks about his injuries, how his articling experience helped prepare him to cross the finish line, and how he uses excel to be a better cyclist.

Brian Hesje FCPA, FCA, MBA is an accomplished Alberta business leader, writer, and community builder. Simran Sandhu is a 4th year accounting student at the University of Alberta. We talk to Simran about the perception of the accounting profession on post-secondary campuses and what students want to know from Alberta CPAs, and Brian shares his leadership philosophy, the value of asking good questions, and why he made an unprecedented donation to the CPA Education Foundation to create the Hesje CPA Knowledge Centre.