Generate New Knowledge
A Generation of Engagement
CPA Canada Accounting and Governance Research Centre director Walid Ben Amar says engagement remains at the heart of the organization’s work.
Walid Ben Amar
Everything we do at the Telfer School’s CPA Canada Accounting and Governance Research Centre pivots on engagement, as it has throughout our organization’s 20-year history—an entire generation. Currently made up of 18 Telfer School researchers and six researchers from other schools in Canada, Europe and North Africa, the centre establishes a variety of meaningful connections to uncover knowledge in many aspects of accounting and corporate governance. We take advantage of our professional networks to extend these collaborations further, partnering with experts in corporate strategy, finance and management, as well as with leaders of organizations in the public and private sectors, to make sure our research is relevant and useful to academia and the business world.
Our devotion to engagement has never been greater than right now. The CPA Canada Accounting and Governance Research Centre sponsors 12 diverse research teams that give rise to new knowledge. One team is delving into the consequences of tax avoidance—an especially hot topic in light of the release of the so-called Panama Papers. Another team is studying gender diversity on corporate boards—new work that supports recent regulatory changes introduced by the Ontario Securities Commission regarding gender-diversity disclosure requirements. Additional teams are deep into studies of other relevant and useful aspects of corporate finance, sustainability reporting, non-profit organizations and family-owned enterprises.
We use events to enhance our engagement further. Our distinguished speakers series, which we held five times this academic year, enables our members and guests to hear directly from some of the sharpest research minds. This year’s edition of the annual Telfer Accounting and Finance Conference brought together some 120 academics from across North America to share new knowledge and cultivate relationships for further research. And in the year to come, we’ll work with top graduate students from the accounting stream of our school’s new PhD program to integrate them into our work—and, in doing so, nurture a new generation of researchers in accounting and corporate governance.
