Kickstarting Your Professional Accounting Career

Kickstarting Your Professional Accounting Career is a one‑hour interactive workshop featuring a panel of three newly designated CPAs. Each panelist will share their personal career journey, highlighting where they started and the key experiences that shaped their path to designation.

The discussion will dive deeper into three common career pathways faced by aspiring CPAs:

• Newcomers to Canada: How to leverage international accounting education and experience to successfully enter the Canadian accounting profession.
• Career Changers: Insights for those transitioning into accounting from other fields, such as science or healthcare, and navigating the CPA pathway later in their careers.
• Business Graduates in Industry: Motivating experiences from a CPA candidate who started their career with a business degree and advanced within industry roles by embracing challenges, maintaining a growth mindset, and showing resilience and determination on their path to designation.

This session offers practical advice, candid insights, and encouragement for anyone at the early stages of their accounting career.

Representing Newcomers to Canada: Edgar Valaguez Moreno

Edgar Valaguez Moreno, CPA, MBA is a Risk and Compliance Manager based in Vancouver with over 8 years of experience in internal controls, SOX/ICFR, and risk advisory. Originally from Mexico, Edgar successfully navigated the process of becoming a CPA in Canada while building an international career across public accounting and industry roles.

He currently leads ICFR and SOX programs for publicly listed and high-growth organizations, working closely with cross-functional teams to strengthen control environments. Prior to his current role, Edgar gained experience at firms such as KPMG and within the financial services industry.

Through his own journey, Edgar has developed a practical understanding of the challenges foreign-trained professionals face when pursuing the CPA designation in Canada. In this session, he will share insights, lessons learned, and actionable guidance to help others successfully navigate the process and accelerate their careers.

Representing Career Changers: Aditi Sharma

Aditi Sharma, CPA is a Finance Manager at Semios Technologies in Vancouver, where she leads finance transformation, process optimization, and systems implementation across global operations. She brings nearly a decade of cross-sector experience that began far outside the accounting world with a Bachelor of Science in Biology from UBC and a career that included teaching First Aid and CPR before she made a deliberate pivot into finance and accounting.

That unconventional path took her through audit at KPMG, industry experience in people management and executive-level financial reporting while building process optimizations throughout. Today, her work sits at the intersection of finance operations and emerging technology, with a particular focus on leveraging AI to drive efficiency and meaningful change in finance functions.

As a volunteer Marketing Director for the CPABC Vancouver Chapter, Aditi is passionate about making the accounting profession more accessible, especially for those, like herself, who found their way to it through a non-traditional route.

In this session, she will speak candidly about what it takes to cross over from a completely different field, navigate the CPA pathway with purpose, and build a career that evolves with oneself.

Representing Business Graduates in Industry: Elizabeth Cadello

Elizabeth Cedillo, CPAis an accounting professional based in New Westminster, British Columbia, with over 15 years of experience in finance and accounting across financial services and industry sectors. She began her career with HSBC in Mexico, where she built a strong foundation in accounting and financial operations.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Administration from Universidad Regiomontana in Mexico. She later moved independently to Canada to further her education, completing a Post-Baccalaureate Diploma at Okanagan College.

She currently serve as Accounting Manager at Heritage Food Service Group, where she oversees financial processes and supports strategic decision-making. Prior to this role, she was a Finance Team Lead at Trinity Power contributing to financial reporting and operational improvements.