The 2016 CPA Board Governance Case Competition was held on March 17-18 at Hotel Arts in Calgary.   This competition is an annual event, organized and hosted by the Chartered Professional Accountants of Alberta, originally initiated by CMA Alberta.  In this competition students are given a case to analyze.  The case covers issues in accounting, board governance, and ethics. The case is kept secret until it is handed to the teams at the competition.  Teams are then given six hours to analyze the case and present their analysis, recommending solutions to a judging panel of business leaders. Only four teams are selected to advance to the final round and prizes are awarded to the top three teams.

A total of thirteen teams representing all the universities and post-secondary institutions in Alberta participated in this year’s competition, vying for the top prize of $10,000.00.  The Bissett School of Business from Mount Royal University had two teams participating.

Both teams from Mount Royal performed very well at this year’s competition. In particular, out of the thirteen teams that entered the competition, one of the Bissett teams not only made it to the final round, but finished first overall! This is a tremendous accomplishment!  The participants work under extreme pressure to come up with their solution to the case to present to the panel of judges.  They also have to be very strong technically in their accounting knowledge and other subject matter.  Another critical component for the winning team was their strong presentation skills.

The students from the winning Bissett team were:

• Ross Graham
• Melissa Kinzner
• Shaelynn (Shae) Prefontaine
• Corey Reinhardt
• Peter Serafini

The following faculty coached the Bissett teams:

• Rafik Kurji
• Shiraz Kurji
• Simon Magennis

A lunch has been organized on Friday April 8 at 12:30 pm in room EB2027 to celebrate our teams from Mount Royal.  The Dean, Associate Dean, and all Accounting faculty will be in attendance to celebrate the success of the students who participated in the 2016 CPA Board Governance Case Competition.

On behalf of the Bissett School of Business we would like to congratulate the winners on a job well done! Congratulations also goes out to the other participants. Thank you to our dedicated faculty members for providing coaching and mentoring to our students!