Accounting students slay their dragons
A dragon’s den-style competition, organised by CPA Australia, was held for School of Accounting and Commercial Law students to determine who would get to experience a day at work with a busy public sector Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
A dragon’s den-style competition was held in May for School of Accounting and Commercial Law students to determine who would get to experience a day at work with a busy public sector Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
The Shadow a CFO competition, which was run by global accounting body CPA Australia, featured eight student finalists: Andrew Burt, Cory Dixon, Avril Gillan, Robert Holland, Michelle Knight, Ngahuia Leighton, Rohan Prasad, and Thomas Xiao.
Shadow A CFO saw the students pitching dragon’s den-style to a panel of judges which included partipating CFOs Michael Beever of Statistics New Zealand; Sara Brownlie of Central Agencies Shared Services, New Zealand Treasury; John Gill of Datacom; Paul Helm of NZTA; Kevin Martin of the New Zealand Customs and Scott Scoullar of Housing NZ.
The CFOs were so impressed by the standard of the pitches that every student finalist was selected to spend a day with one of the CFOs. “The candidates were all of a really high quality, and were really brave,” said dragon Sara Brownlie, CFO of Central Agencies Shared Services at New Zealand Treasury.
CPA Australia’s Country Manager for New Zealand, David Jenkins, says Shadow a CFO highlights the career opportunities available in the public sector to the country’s emerging finance professionals and future business leaders. “CPA Australia was delighted to offer this exclusive opportunity to Victoria’s commerce and accounting students,” says Mr Jenkins. “For the winners, it will give them the unique experience of spending one-on-one time with leading CFOs. It will expose them to the real world of business and open their eyes to the opportunities the public sector has to offer.”
The winning students will spend a day with their CFO during July 2013.