Speakers

Fiona MacFarlane

Managing Partner, British Columbia | Chief Inclusiveness Officer, Ernst & Young

• Currently EY’s Managing Partner of the British Columbia practice and the firm’s Chief Inclusiveness Officer.
  Prior to her current role, Fiona was the Canadian Managing Partner, People and Ernst & Young’s Americas Chief Operating Officer, Tax.
• Fiona has previously held the role of Ernst & Young’s Tax Managing Partner for the Canadian Tax practice, a team of more than 800 tax practitioners. Fiona is the first woman among the Big Four accounting firms to have held such a position.
• Fiona is a member of the Board of Governors of the Business Council of British Columbia and serves on the organization’s Executive Committee. She was appointed by the British Columbia Minister of Finance to the province’s Expert Panel on Business Taxation. Fiona was previously a member of the Aboriginal Business Investment Council (a provincially established council) and currently sits on the Executive Board of the Immigrant Employment Council of British Columbia. Additionally, she is Governor of the Board of UBC as well as Shawnigan Lake School. She is also a member of the Presidents Group.
• Before joining Ernst & Young’s South African firm in 1983, Fiona trained as a lawyer in Cape Town, where she was admitted to the bar. She joined the Canadian firm’s Calgary Tax practice in 1987 and relocated to Vancouver two years later to build a commodity tax practice in Western Canada. She was admitted to the partnership in 1991 and became the Tax leader for the western region of Canada in 2001.
• Before relocating back to Vancouver, Fiona was on the cabinet of Pathways to Education, an organization that provides access to education for youth in disadvantaged areas. Fiona was previously a Director on the Canadian Board of the International Women’s Forum (IWF), an organization dedicated to advancing women’s leadership across careers, cultures and continents by connecting the world’s most pre-eminent women. She currently co-chairs the IWF Canada Committee on Sponsorship of Women to Leadership roles.
• Fiona’s efforts in the immigrant community have been recognized with two awards, the TRIEC CBC Business Leader Award in 2008 and York University’s makeMORE Ontario Connections Award for Immigrants in 2010. Fiona’s professional achievements and volunteer commitments garnered her a place among “Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100,” in 2011 and 2012. She is a regular speaker and writer on the topics of diversity and inclusiveness and leadership.
• In 2011 Fiona was awarded an Honorary CA. Fiona holds a bachelor of arts, commerce and law degree from the University of Cape Town. She also earned a master of law degree from Cambridge University.
• Fiona has been recognized as one of Women of Influence’s 2012 Canadian Diversity Champions.
• WXN Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award Winner in 2011, 2012 and 2014
• Award winner “IWF Woman Who Makes a Difference” – October 2013
• Winner of the 2015 Influential Women in Business Awards presented by Business in Vancouver.
• Top 25 Women of Influence, Professional Services, 2015