Page 26 - Summit Brochure 2019 Final
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the story behind our network
The idea for the Black Female Accountants Network came about in June
of 2016 when our network founder Jenny Okonkwo had a “light bulb”
moment. She had just attended the Canadian International Black Women
Event (CIBWE) which honoured Black Women who strengthened their
families, communities and corporations when an idea took hold in her
thoughts. After being in Canada for several years she knew there were
other black females in finance, but they were not aware of each other
and not crossing paths and there had to be something that could done to
address this. She had the vision to try to fill this gap in networking and
got to work at making it happen.
In July of 2016, Jenny invited a small group of women to discuss and
brainstorm her idea of creating a network for black female accountants.
Between July of 2016 and September of 2016 this small group developed
the concept for the network and by October of 2016 the network’s first
newsletter was issued and the network launched its LinkedIn page. By
the end of the year the network had attended its first initial events such
as the CGMA conference Diversity and Inclusion as a Source of
Competitive Advantage and held its first Round Table. At the beginning
of 2017 the Black Female Accountants network joined The Toronto
Region Immigrant Employment Council’s (TRIEC) Professional Immigrants
Networks (PINs). Newcomers to Canada looking for a network are able to
find out about the Black Female Accountants Network via its PINs
directory.
It is from these initial roots the network has grown to what it is today.
B l a c k F e m a l e A c c o u n t a n t s N e t w o r k
w w w . b f a n n e t w o r k . w o r d p r e s s . c o m
