Beedie alumni duo awarded CPABC honours

Beedie School of Business alumni C.Y. Tay (left) and Gordon Cummings (right). Photo credit: Alastair Bird (Gordon Cummings) and Kent Kallberg Studios (C.Y. Tay).

Two Beedie School of Business alumni have been awarded fellowship designations from the Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia (CPABC).

Gordon Cummings and C.Y. Tay, both graduates of the BBA program at the Beedie School of Business, have been bestowed fellowship (FCPA) designations.

The fellowship designation is awarded to chartered professional accountants who have rendered exceptional services to the profession or whose achievements in their careers or in the community have earned them distinction and brought honour to the profession.

Cummings is a principal and incorporated partner with D&H Group in Vancouver, where he is the lead partner in the firm’s regulatory group, and the partner in charge of standards. He has devoted over 1,000 hours of volunteer leadership to the CPA profession in audit and assurance, including during his seven years as a member of the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (AASB).

On the AASB board, he has represented small-and medium-sized firms during a time of immense change in auditing and assurance standards, including the adoption of 36 international standards on auditing as Canadian auditing standards. Additionally, he co-authored the Mid-Sized Firms Protocol and Practical Guide in 2003, which subsequently formed the basis for the Quality Assurance Manual published by CPA Canada, and which is used by small and medium-sized firms across Canada today.

Tay graduated from the BBA program in 1989 and is currently chief financial officer of PDG Investments, a real estate development firm specializing in medium and large retail and mixed-used projects. Previously, he was a director and executive vice president for Leisura Developments, a joint venture between Manulife Capital and Intrawest Corporation, developing condominium hotel properties in Canada.

He has contributed to the development and advancement of the profession as a member of the board of governors of CGA-BC from 2008 to 2013, and played a pivotal role in the unification of the three accounting bodies to establish CPABC. He has served on the audit committee of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver since 2012 and has been its chair since 2014.

For more information, visit the CPABC website.