CM Autumn Template - Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario

Celebrating the Profession’s 75 New FCAs, Outstanding
Leadership and Achievement
The Institute’s Council recently elected 75 new Fellows.
Fellowship, the highest designation that the Institute confers,
recognizes outstanding career achievements and leadership
contributions to the community and the profession.
FCA elections are held triennially, and any Institute member
may submit a nomination, which culminates in a secret
ballot vote by the Council. Rigorous criteria make the FCA
designation a special honour. To receive this prestigious
designation, a Chartered Accountant is required to have
brought distinction to our profession through significant
accomplishments.
The new FCAs come from all areas of the province and
span all areas of public practice, industry, the public
sector, and education. Including those just elected,
Ontario’s total of 918 Fellows now comprises almost three
per cent of the Institute’s membership.
The presentation ceremony and dinner were held on
September 24 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. In
attendance were the honourees, their family and friends, as
well as special guests: Kevin Dancey, President and CEO
of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants; Doug
Baker, CICA’s Chair; Bill MacKinnon, CICA’s Vice-Chair;
and the CEOs of the Manitoba, Alberta and Bermuda
Institutes, Gary Hannaford, Jane Halford and Annarita
Marion, respectively.
At the ceremony, Institute Chair Gerry Mills spoke of the
significance of the celebration, “If to become a CA is to
scale the heights of personal and professional
achievement, then to be recognized this evening is to
transcend even those benchmarks.”
In addition to the FCAs, eight ICAO Award of Distinction
recipients were recognized at the ceremony. This award
Institute President and CEO Rod Barr (left) and Chair Gerry Mills (right)
present past-Chair Keith Farlinger (centre) with a commemorative plaque to
formally recognize Keith’s enormous contributions to the profession during
his two-year term.
16 CheckMark • Autumn 2009
recognizes CAs under the age of 40 who bring distinction
to themselves and to the profession. Also presented this
year, for the first time, was the Christine E. Sinclair
Community Leadership Award to Michael Gottlieb. (See the
article on page 27 for more details.)
Another highlight of the evening was the presentation of
the 2009 ICAO Award of Outstanding Merit to Sheila
Fraser, James Goodfellow and Donald Wray.
To conclude the evening, Institute President and CEO Rod
Barr joined Chair Gerry Mills on stage to formally recognize
immediate past-Chair, Keith Farlinger.
Rod Barr said, “This profession most certainly thrives
because of the dedication of all of its volunteers. But I have
to say, from first-hand experience, that past-Chair Keith
Farlinger has served this profession above and beyond the
call of duty.
“You may not be aware that the Institute Chair now serves
a two-year term. Recognizing that this is a volunteer role
and that the Chair continues to have full-time business and
family commitments, the idea was to spread some of the
Chair’s duties over the two-year term. However, I’m not sure
that Keith was listening, as he went full throttle throughout
both of his years!”
After the formal part of the evening concluded, the new
FCAs and Award of Distinction recipients, along with their
family and friends, mingled at a dessert buffet for further
celebration.
An announcement appeared in The Globe and Mail on
September 22 saluting the recipients of the ICAO Award of
Distinction and on September 24 honouring the new FCAs.
An atmosphere of excitement and anticipation filled the Metro Toronto
Convention Centre as the new Fellows accepted their awards on stage.