The 2014 BC CFO Awards, presented by Business in Vancouver, recognized top executives who have achieved excellence in finance for their respective organizations. More importantly, the awards recognized how the entirety of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) role is evolving from the traditionalist view of implementing financial controls and managing risk of a corporation.
Jas Boparai, one of the award recipients, said it best in his analogy. The CEO was traditionally viewed as the organization’s gas pedal and the CFO as the complimenting break; however, the role has adapted in such a way as to becoming the clutch – the gear for change in an organization. CFOs now play a large hand in the overall strategic direction of a company by challenging their CEOs and acting as trusted advisors.
With this idea in mind, the CFO of the Year Awards were presented to six winners under the following five categories: emerging leader, public company, private company, non-profit and transformation agent. Jas Boparai, CFO of Glentel Inc., won under the emerging leader category with his strategically planned international expansion of his company’s operations that resulted in tripled revenues over a three year period. The award for top public company CFO went to Lindsay Hall (Goldcorp Inc.), who still managed to create shareholder value while commodity prices plummeted in 2013. Brian Irving took home the private company award as a result of the financial impact made through his strict focus on increasing Golden Boy Foods Ltd.’s cash flows and reducing its working capital. As CFO of the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, Gordon Schwark was awarded the Non-Profit Award for developing his company’s reputation and providing the B.C. government peace-of-mind in providing future project funding. Finally, Cheryl Yaremko (BC Hydro) and Michael Kreuger (SilverBirch Hotels & Resorts) shared the transformation agent’s award for finding innovative ways to improve efficiencies in their companies.
Overall, the Beedie Ambassador Program provided me with yet another opportunity at gaining exposure to Vancouver’s growing business community. The sheer atmosphere of the event and being in the presence of such successful leaders was a truly humbling and enlightening experience.
Manraj is a fourth year student at the Beedie School of Business, concentrating in Finance and Accounting while pursuing an Economics Minor. His most notable experiences within SFU involve various leadership roles including: President of SFU Finance Club, Executive on Punjabi Student Association and Leader on BASS FROSH. Manraj has taken advantage of the multitude of opportunities that the school has provided, especially serving as an Analyst with Beedie Endowment Asset Management (BEAM). He hopes to continue this trend with involvement in case competitions in order to become a competitive business professional upon graduation. Manraj is excited to start his internship with KPMG, but more importantly, share his Beedie experiences through representation as an Ambassador.