A Tsawwassen businesswoman will be honoured next month by Business in Vancouver and the Chartered Professional Accountants of B.C. as one of the top CFOs in the province.
Mary Falconer, senior vice-president, CFO and corporate secretary for Westminster Savings Credit Union, will be recognized at the annual gala at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel in Vancouver on June 7 where the winners will share their leadership lessons to an audience of Vancouver's business community.
Falconer and her family have lived for the past eight years in South Delta with one year in Ladner and the last seven in Tsawwassen.
Spending the vast majority of her career in the financial services sector, she has been with Westminster Savings for the past five years. Before that she was with Van City Credit Union and previous to that worked overseas with Ernst and Young.
Falconer said she was surprised by the award, but is nevertheless honoured to be recognized.
“I’m not from Vancouver and have not been here very long, so it was a bit surprising when I found out,” she said. “It’s one of those things that you hope you are making a difference, but you really don’t know if you are outside of your organization. It’s always great to be recognized. It’s an honour really. You don’t expect this kind of recognition, so I’m very grateful for that.”
Falconer said her role at Westminster Savings is quite broad with a new challenge every day.
“Most people think of CFOs from the old school time of bean counters in the back room crunching numbers and pushing papers, but my role is really broad,” she added. “I love the work. I also think the people aspect is very important. Most people think of accountants as pretty introverted and quiet. I think the role has totally changed.”
She said being able to provide leadership and mentorship is also vitally important to not only her success, but the success of the company.
“My favourite part of my job is dealing with my staff. For me that is the best part of the job – having those interactions with my team and executing what we need to as a group,” she said. “It’s a team mentality. I think that is why our organization has such high engagement levels, a great culture and is such a great place to work.”
