Short Bio

Shirley Tom operates as Shirley Tom Professional Corporation in public accounting since 2005 and served as a three-term elected director for legacy CGAO. Shirley is a CPA Ontario Fellow Chartered Professional Accountant (FCPA - 2014) and a Licensed Public Accountant (LPA). She received her CGA in 1989 (CPA 2014) and FCGA in 2011, including the Chartered Director designation (C.Dir.) in 2012. Shirley is a member of CPA Ontario’s Small and Medium Size Practices Advisory Committee (SMPAC) and Past-President of the Estate Planners Council of Halton (EPCOH). Additionally, Shirley is a Certified Executor Advisor (CEA) and a board director for the Brampton Golf Club.

Detailed Bio

Voluntary work with CPA Ontario or other professional bodies:

• Small and Medium Practitioners Advisory Committee (SMPAC) (2018-Present)
• Three-term elected Governor/Director of CGAO Board (2007-2014)
• CGAO Committee Chair for Admissions Standards, Professional Standards & Competency, Discipline, Public Accounting Licensing Review, Practice Inspection Oversight
• CGAO Committee Member on Small Practice Advisory, Corporate Governance & Nominations, Audit-Finance, Professional Standards & Competency, Discipline, Appeals, Government Relations & Advocacy
• CGAO Peel Chapter: Chapter Chair, Public Practice Director

Career achievements:

After many years of working in the public practice domain for other firms, my most significant career changer was establishing my practice in 2005 and what followed. The challenges were daunting with the realization that only with hard work and perseverance can one meet the large costs, both operational and standard compliance, of being both a self-employed entrepreneur and a lone public practitioner. This led me to engage with other practitioners and eventual involvement with my accounting body as an advocate for the betterment of our profession.

As part of this journey, I was an ardent advocate for equal public practice rights for all accounting bodies at the time and contributed to the successful lobbying and recognition of equal rights by the Ontario government.

As part of the CGAO board, I was part of, and witnessed the changes, during the historical amalgamation of the CAs, CGAs and CMAs forming the new CPA Ontario that we know today.

Other professional accomplishments:

• Licenced Public Accountant – CPA Ontario (2014-Present)
• Certified Estate Advisor – CICEA (2016)
• Chartered Director – McMaster University / Directors College (2013)
• CGAO Ontario Distinguished Service Award (2004)
• Bachelor of Commerce – York University (1982)

Other voluntary service and recognition:

• Brampton Golf Club
  
  • Director of Membership (2025)
  • Board Director, Treasurer/Vice-President (2019 –2024)
• Dynamic Networking Associates
  
  • Member & Current VP – Membership (2022-Present)
• Estates Planners Council of Halton
  
  • Member & Past President (2006-Present)
• Board Director and Executive Member for various non-profit organizations (Scouts Canada, daycares, other business networking groups)

Candidate statement

Why are you interested in joining Council?

My interest in joining Council is to give voice to the many independent small accounting firms and sole practitioners regarding our concerns and issues related to our profession. Since amalgamation, there has been no significant active engagement by CPA Ontario with its local practitioners. According to a 2024 survey, 10% of active CPAs (representing more than 7,800 members) work for small and medium sized practices. A 2024 Government of Canada small business stats report indicates Ontario SMPs work with approximately 407,000 small businesses (1-99 employees), whose output contribute 34.7% of our gross GDP.

Although we are the public face of the profession, we lack visibility on Council and are therefore unable make contributions from our perspective. Current Council members are overwhelmingly from the larger national accounting and consulting firms.

As a member of the CPA Ontario Small and Medium Practitioners Advisory Committee (SMPAC), it is my observation that our constituent base lacks representation on Council. Although SMPAC provides comments on many accounting standards initiatives for the various CPA Ontario workgroups, the Committee is not consulted by Council on important matters affecting the many small and medium practitioners.

How do your experiences align with the following skills, attributes and experiences that have been prioritized for incoming members of Council?

• Strategic and Transformational Leadership
• Emerging Technologies
• Future of Learning and Work
• Business Acumen

In today’s ever-changing data driven landscape, the accounting profession is quickly evolving from historical number crunching to real-time analysis to predict future trends, issues and profitability. AI is being integrated into our daily lives whether it be chatbots, research tools and how we perform work. The tech industry is focused on driving the new frontier to monetize the revolution, but it faces challenges with the release of many open-sourced AI models such as DeepSeek. Robotics is being increasingly used to replace costly manual labour and ensure best quality production. CEOs of today need to understand and support new strategies to be at the forefront of this transformation to maintain competitiveness. Harnessing emerging technologies (e.g. AI, blockchain and algorithms) to automate bookkeeping and audit processes, monitor supply chain efficiencies, analysis of data patterns, generation of reliable audit trails and verification of financial transactions, will be key to participating in the global economy. Over time, we have witnessed many SMP practices move from compliance reporting to value-added advisory services for their clients.

What is the greatest opportunity and challenge facing the accounting profession and CPA Ontario?

CPA Ontario is well positioned to take the lead in setting standards for the responsible use of AI and emerging technologies. This is the primary challenge of our profession to remain relevant in a complex world. In recent years, interest in public accounting has dwindled resulting in fewer CPAs choosing this career path. The traditional model of training junior accountants to rise through the ranks in a firm is fading, as most of these mundane tasks can be performed with AI and automation. CPA Ontario must deliver new ways of educating our current CPAs with new skills and knowledge to cope with the changes. CPA Ontario must also support its smaller firms and sole practitioners, who mostly lack the resources to adopt new technologies or business models.