1. What’s your background?
I have a background is accounting, tax and teaching. I am a Chartered Professional Accountant, Trust and Estate Practitioner and competent communicator with Toastmasters International. I particularly enjoy the teaching aspect of my professional life.

2. What keeps you busy outside the office?
My second career involves being a chauffeur to my three kids and fixing all the things they break.

3. What is your proudest professional accomplishment?
Helping my friend and colleague reinvent herself and work towards becoming an “enrolled agent,” taking on new responsibilities within our firm. My second proudest accomplishment was learning to relay complex tax legislation in easy-to-understand language.

4. What’s the best advice you ever received?
It came from my mother, Mona Oakey, who often said, “Where there is a will, there is a way.” I recall this piece of advice in everything I do. I always find a way to accomplish tasks, no matter how difficult they may appear.

5. What industry issues keep you up at night?
No industry issue keeps me up at night. What keeps me up is worrying about my family (wife, kids, parents and siblings) because they are my world. What keeps me awake in the daytime is the challenges of navigating the constantly changing tax world, as it is impossible to keep up to date on everything. That is why it’s extremely important to develop – and collaborate with – a solid network of skilled, knowledgeable tax professionals.

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