Page 31 - Summit Brochure Final

WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP SUMMIT

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

@ b f a n n e t w o r k b f a n n e t w o r k . w o r d p r e s s . c o m