Have CA, will travel

Kathleen Blom, CA's passport has gotten quite a workout over the years, thanks in part to her CA designation.

In the mid-to-late nineties, Blom did a two-and-a-half year international secondment in Russia which included two years in Moscow, three months in the Ukraine, and three months in St. Petersburg. During that period, she also taught courses in Paris and Spain, attended conferences in Brussels, Vienna, and Scandinavia, visited family in Holland, and visited virtually every European country on business or short vacations. According to Blom, it was "a great opportunity and a wonderful learning experience."

"I did a lot of travel through my work in Russia, primarily in the telecommunications and forestry industries," she explains. "But my education was not limited to business issues. I learned a great deal about history, art, culture, and international issues from other members of the ex-patriot community. When I traveled across Siberia to paper mills, I was often the only foreigner in many of the villages I visited. It was so interesting to see people's reaction to me."

Blom says she was struck by the beauty of Russia and its architecture, and by the contrast between this same beauty and the sad state of disrepair and hardship the Russians endure on a daily basis.

"The kindness of the Russian people was wonderful. I was in Siberia, and it was amazing how little is available to the people living there," she says. "However, the locals often made an extra effort to ensure that I was well taken care of and saw the local sites."

The firm arranged for a language tutor for Blom, and she now has a "conversational ability" in Russian. Though she and her colleagues usually worked a six-day week, they tried to reserve Sundays to absorb some of the Russian culture. That way, Blom saw performances of the famed Kirov ballet, visited the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, and viewed Lenin's Tomb, the Kremlin, and Red Square. She also saw the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow.

While in Moscow, she lived in an apartment that was one of a series of seven tall buildings built by prisoners of war during the Stalin regime in the mid-- 1950s, known locally as "Stalin's Seven Sisters."

"It was not considered an 'ex-pat' building," Blom explains. "The firm renovated it for me; I furnished it almost entirely through the Ikea catalogue, and it was very comfortable."

A 1993 CA graduate, Blom has been with Arthur Andersen LLP's Vancouver office since 1989 when she did a stint as a summer student. She graduated from the University of British Columbia with an undergraduate degree in commerce in 1991 and carried on at Arthur Andersen for her articling. Unlike many of her colleagues, she didn't immediately leave the auditing department for other specialties after completing her designation. In fact, she's still in audit today and says she enjoys its constantly changing challenges.

"It suits the way I think, as does the CA designation, and that's what attracted me to this profession in the first place," Blom explains. "The CA program really does offer the best training, the broadest business experience, and the most exposure to many types of businesses."

Blom says she remembers her articling period as busy but rewarding.

'A lot of my closest friends today are from that period of my life," she points out. "In addition to the people, I enjoyed the rate of change and the fact that every day of my articling - and still today - I am learning something new."

Since her Russian experience, Blom has dusted off her passport several times, but the trips have been strictly for pleasure.

"I went to Egypt and Turkey three years ago. A year ago I was in Israel and Jordan, and this fall I'm going to Thailand," she says.

When she's home in Vancouver, Blom is an avid golfer, playing at least weekly with a regular foursome at courses around the Lower Mainland.

BY DEBORAH FOLKA, MA, APR

Copyright Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia Feb/Mar 2001
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