And the gold goes to...

By Yvette Trancoso
Illustration: Seth

Mentors, a supportive firm and family — that was the winning combination for Jennifer Hayton of Waterloo, Ont., who achieved the highest standing in Canada for the 2006 Uniform Evaluation (UFE).

“I was just thrilled to have passed,” says the 25-year-old winner of the Governor General’s Gold Medal and the Chartered Accountants of Canada’s cash prize of $5,000. “To have done so well in a field where the candidates are of such high caliber and to be considered the best — it’s such an amazing feeling. I’m still overwhelmed.”

A senior accountant at KPMG, Hayton credits the company and colleagues for her success. “Just working at a big firm where they have so much experience in preparing students is a big ad-vantage,” she says. KPMG also lent support by sending its students to Densmore Consulting Inc. to practice doing cases before they began studying. “Then, we were given five weeks off, where Monday to Friday it was your full-time job to study,” says Hayton.

And she had mentors among her colleagues. One was a study buddy who had already written the UFE. “She was a big help,” Hayton says. “And the UFE coordinator for our office is just amazing. I also stayed in touch with the coordinator from the year before and she was always available to help me.” Help meant a lot to this UFE candidate, who was challenged by unusual circumstances for a UFE student — she is married and has a little girl. She says it wasn’t easy to be away for training, and she put the exam on the back burner for a year because of her now three-year-old daughter.

Pulling down the top spots for the rest of Canada are Sarah Crocker, St. John’s, Nfld., highest standing for Eastern Canada; Krishan Wirk, Vancouver, highest standing in Western Canada; and David Charles Nayer of Montreal and Simon Poirier of Chicoutimi, Que., who tied for highest standing in that province. Each earned a Chartered Accountants of Canada Gold Medal and $2,500 in cash.