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Confirmed Panelists and Moderator

Scott Munro, CPA, CA, CAFM

Scott Munro, CPA, CA, CAFM

Panelist

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Scott Munro is the Director, Standards and Certification at the First Nations Financial Management Board (“the FMB”). The FMB is Canada’s only legislated body that develops and publishes Financial Administration, Financial Performance, Financial Management System and Local Revenue Reporting Standards tailored specifically for first nations. The FMB is an indigenous institution that provides a suite of financial management tools and services to first nation governments seeking to strengthen their financial stewardship and accountability regime and develop necessary capacity to meet their expanding fiscal and financial management requirements. 

Scott is from the Liard First Nation in the Yukon Territory, one of the Kaska Nations. During his earlier career as a Chartered Professional Accountant working with a global accounting and advisory firm Scott acquired over 10 years of experience serving a broad range of clients in both Canada and the United Kingdom. Now living and working in Vancouver Scott is keen to bring his diverse skill sets and work with first nations from across the country who are interested in becoming Certified by the FMB. 

For more information please visit www.fnfmb.com or contact Scott at scott_munro@fnfmb.com.

Bill Cox, FCPA, FCA

Bill Cox, FCPA, FCA

Panelist

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Bill leads the Public Sector Group of the BDO Vancouver office and is the BDO Western Canada lead in regard to public sector engagements.  He is personally in charge of over 30 major public sector audit engagements in British Columbia which include crown corporations and agencies, municipalities, First Nations, universities, community colleges, hospitals and school districts. Bill is also a member of the Public Sector Accounting Board (PSAB). His areas of expertise include: 

  • Local government, First Nation and public sector audit and finance 
  • Internal control review and consulting services for local government organizations and public sector organizations 
  • Private/public partnership consulting
Michael Puskaric

Michael Puskaric, CPA, CMA

Panelist

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Michael is the Director, Public Sector Accounting Standards for the Public Sector Accounting Board. His role is to be the champion for improving public sector accounting practices across Canada by sharing knowledge, encouraging collaboration and leading the development of standards. Michael has a broad base of experience based on more than 15 years working in public, private and not-for-profit sector organizations. Michael is a Chartered Professional Accountant and a Certified Management Accountant and holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto Canada.

Helen Bobiwash, CPA, CMA, CAFM

Helen Bobiwash, CPA, CMA, CAFM

Panelist

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Helen is an independent accountant who is based on the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek near Sudbury, Ontario.  She’s been working directly with First Nations and Aboriginal not-for-profit organizations for almost 25 years. Helen’s services focus on financial building capacity within Aboriginal communities. She works with the First Nations and Aboriginal organization to improve efficiencies in their financial administration, to aid in financial reporting within the community and to government funders, and to facilitate strategic and operational planning. Helen is proud to have been on the negotiating team for the education fiscal transfer agreement supporting the Anishinabek Nation Education Agreement, the largest education self-government agreement in Canada involving twenty-three First Nations in Ontario.

Helen is a contributor to AFOA Canada, the national organization established to help Indigenous people better manage and govern their communities and organizations. She has written articles for their Journal of Aboriginal Management on business continuity planning, using a framework of standards to achieve objectives and building financial literacy within Aboriginal communities.   She completed a needs assessment study and framework on Aboriginal financial literacy in Canada. 

Helen is Anishinabe Kwe from the Thessalon First Nation near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. She is proud to be a mother to her 14-year old son.

Sari Graben, PhD, Assistant Professor, Ted Rogers School of Management, Toronto Metropolitan University
Sari Graben, PhD

Moderator

Sari Graben is Associate professor, Law & Business, Toronto Metropolitan University. Professor Graben’s primary theoretical interests are in the field of Indigenous rights and development, with a special focus on regulatory institutions, emergent property systems and governance. Her research analyzes key challenges that arise from the regulation of Indigenous rights and engages with critical theories that deepen comparative frameworks used for pragmatic experimentation. Her published works on contemporary treaties address their legal interpretation as constitutional documents but also as frameworks that regulate resource use through co-management, contract, and property ownership. She publishes widely in the field and is currently co-editing a book (with Angela Cameron and Val Napoleon) entitled Indigenous Peoples and Real Property: Beyond Privatization. Professor Graben obtained her doctorate from Osgoode Hall Law School, held a SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship at University of California – Berkeley Law and held the Canada-US Fulbright Visiting Research Chair at the University of Washington (Seattle). Her teaching areas are business law, aboriginal law, natural resource law, and international law.