Career Options
In a ledger of their ownWant to get off the beaten career path? An accountant’s designation can lead to the most glamorous industries imaginable. Find out how these three dynamic Quebeckers leveraged their accounting degrees to get the job of their dreams. By Elizabeth Johnston |
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 [ 2007-11-19 ] |
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Chris Marcofelas, CA, VP Operations at TouchTunes
Photo: Marie-Claude Hamel
Chris Marcofelas, CA
Chris Marcofelas, CA, could not have foreseen his current position as VP Operations at Touch Tunes, a company specializing in digital jukeboxes. But he took a creative approach to his career, however, and found a job that’s music to his ears.
“I never would have imagined the path I ended up taking. If you had asked me as an undergrad what my career path would be, I probably would have said I wanted to make partner at Ernst & Young or another large firm. But life just happened, and unusual opportunities just presented themselves!”
After graduating from Concordia with a BComm and a CA designation, Chris did in fact work as an auditor at Ernst & Young for three years. Then things got interesting. He next went to work for one of his firm’s clients, the National Bank of Greece in Canada. Marcofelas helped build a new branch from scratch. By the time he moved on five years later, the staff base had exploded from fewer than 10 people to nearly 200, and he had attracted large corporate clients like Hush Puppies Shoes, the National Hockey League and TouchTunes. The last of these would turn out to be Marcofelas’ next challenge.
“When I joined them in 1998, TouchTunes was an R&D company. They had zero sales and hadn’t finalized their ultimate product. Although they had closed their first round of financing, they went through it quickly, and we had to raise more money. In the end, we raised close to $60 million U.S. over 10 years.” Once their digital jukebox product was ready for sale, Marcofelas switched from raising capital to business development. He became responsible for developing new markets as well as new applications for their music technology. Two years later, he was appointed VP Operations, the position he still holds now.
“What I do today is far removed from traditional accounting. I don’t get involved in that aspect of the business anymore, but with my background, I understand what makes all the numbers tick.” In hindsight, Marcofelas now appreciates the rationale behind all the courses he was required to take outside the confines of pure accounting, like marketing and organizational behaviour.
“As a CA with exposure to courses in other aspects of business, you have the basic knowledge to take you to the next level,” explains Marcofelas. “From there, you can choose continuing education programs or professional seminars to give you a little more depth on subjects that come up in the course of your career.”
Marcofelas now recommends that students take even more non-accounting electives. In particular, he recommends catching up on computer technology and business communication skills. “No matter what business you’re in, everything revolves around networking and databases,” says Marcofelas. “The more you know about the fundamentals behind the technologies, the better prepared you are.”
With respect to communication skills, Marcofelas points out that “members of the board of directors don’t have time to wade through a 300-page report. Getting information across in the most useful and briefest way possible is crucial.”
The most difficult part of becoming a complete manager, according to Marcofelas, is developing first-class people skills. “It’s the most difficult area to deal with. You can’t learn it from a textbook — you almost have to reach deep down inside, since you deal with different people. You’ve got to be able to read everyone, and appreciate that we each have different needs, characteristics and emotions.”
Luc Richard, CMA, MBA
A CMA isn’t the first thing you associate with a military officer in Bosnia, but Luc Richard has been known to surprise. While in the armed forces, Richard earned a BComm from Carlton University, followed by a CMA in 1991 and an intensive MBA from HEC Montréal in 1999. Then, in 2004, Richard marched out of Her Majesty’s Service as a decorated 38-year-old Lieutenant-Colonel, determined to rise in the ranks of private-sector business. After only one year as a civilian, Richard landed a unique post at the Québec City office of Ubisoft, a multinational computer-gaming company.
Founded in France in 1986, Ubisoft is one of the world’s most celebrated game companies, publisher of hit titles like Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia. It also boasts the second-largest in-house development staff in the world, with 15 studios in 11 countries. The management team that Richard joined in 2005 was responsible for building the new Québec City studio from the ground up. Under his watch as Operations Officer, the office grew from just 10 employees to more than 160, working on five to nine titles at any given time.
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