New CASB executives bring customer service focus to CA learning

The board of directors for the new CA School of Business (CASB) recently appointed well-known University of Saskatchewan professor John Brennan, PhD., FCA, as Chief Executive Officer, and Don Carter, PhD, FCA, as Vice President, Learning. Carter has been the acting academic head of CASB as well as Principal, School of Chartered Accountancy and Director of Professional Education with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia (ICABC).

Brennan says, "I am looking forward to this exciting opportunity. The benefits of CASB to the profession will be terrific. I will particularly enjoy bringing a truly learnercentered education to the CA student professional. Moving from an examination and instructor-centered approach to a student-centered one is consistent with modern customer service attitudes of the business world"

Carter has been leading the development of the CASB curriculum over the past several months. He says, "The case study approach has even greater application for auditing- which is itself essentially a case study - because it allows the students to see businesses being audited in a more comprehensive way, thereby enhancing the students' value to the firms they work for and the public they are protecting."

Brennan also recognizes that a key challenge is to build awareness and support for CASB with a variety of stakeholders, both within the profession and in the business and educational communities: "There are delicate relationships involved and they need to be carefully fostered and maintained."

Recently retired as the Chuck and Norma Childers Professor in Saskatchewan Enterprise at the College of Commerce, University of Saskatchewan, Brennan was a member of faculty, department head, and dean of the College over his 3o-year term there. He provided leadership to several boards and numerous national and international academic committees. Becoming a member of the Quebec Ordre in 1964 and of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Saskatchewan (ICAS) in 1970, he has served in leadership positions for ICAS and CICA. He was a founding member and then chairman of the International Qualifications Appraisal Board and served as a member of the national committee advising the CICA Board of Governors on the appropriate organization of the accountancy profession in Canada.

Brennan will relocate to Edmonton to set up the CASB administration centre there. The learning centre will reside in Vancouver. He says, "As with the actual educational delivery, CASB is not quite 'virtual' but represents a logical pooling of interests from six Western Canadian jurisdictions that reflects the proliferation of business partnerships globally."

Carter has fifteen years' experience as a faculty member at universities across Canada, the U.S., and overseas, and twenty years' experience in developing and administering professional education programs. A B.Com. graduate from the University of British Columbia, Carter became a member of ICABC in 1966, the Manitoba Institute in 1974 and Yukon Institute in 1995. He earned his PhD from the University of California in 1977, and was made a Fellow of the BC Institute in 1991. He has served on several CICA committees and was a research consultant for the Education Reengineering Task Force. He is also significantly involved in community activities.

Details about CASB's curriculum, pre-requisites, and module scheduling are now available at www.calearn.com. For automatic updates on new developments at CASB, subscribe to the Update feature on the web site.

Copyright Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia Oct 2000
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved