Three graduates from Brock’s Goodman School of Business are listed on the national honour roll for the Common Final Examination, the qualifying exam for the Chartered Professional Accountant designation.

Dylan Green (BAcc ’17, MAcc ’17), David Lao (BAcc ’16) and Brittany Murphy (BAcc ’17, MAcc ’17) are among 29 other Ontarians on the prestigious honour roll in recognition of their outstanding performance on the three-day exam.

The results, released by CPA Ontario on Friday, Dec. 1, indicated that Green and Murphy are among 51 Goodman Master of Accountancy graduates from the class of 2017 who successfully passed the exam.

Of the 5,581 candidates who successfully wrote the exam across Canada in September, only 69 are named on the honour roll.

The exam represents an important milestone for CPA candidates, who face rigorous academic, practical and examination requirements before they can use the internationally recognized designation of Chartered Professional Accountant.

For Lao, becoming a CPA is a dream come true.

He’s had his eye on the designation since high school, and describes the choice to pursue a career in accounting as a natural progression for him, first because of his academic success in business and accounting courses, and then because he realized how many opportunities having the accounting designation would afford him.

Lao, who now works as a financial analyst at the Government of Canada’s Department of National Defence, also received the inaugural Kenneth Victor Chernick Award from CPA Ontario for his outstanding exam results and in recognition of his contributions as a federal government employee.

The Goodman School of Business provides three different pathways to the CPA designation. Lao completed the Bachelor of Accounting in 2016 and went on to complete the remainder of the coursework requirements through the CPA profession’s Professional Education Program, while Green and Murphy completed the requirements through Goodman’s Master of Accountancy degree.

Murphy, who works at Wormald Masse Keen Lopinski LLP in St. Catharines says the master’s degree experience, completed over a rigorous eight-month span immediately following the Bachelor of Accounting degree, prepared her well for the exam.

“We practiced case writing a lot in our last semester and I saw a big improvement throughout that course which ultimately played a big role in my success,” said Murphy, who was also a varsity athlete at Brock, competing on the Badgers cross country team for five years.

Green is working in public accounting at S+C Partners LLP in Mississauga, where he completed co-op work terms as a student.

The graduates’ exceptional accomplishment shows they have been set up for success through their studies at the Goodman School of Business, said Dean Andrew Gaudes.

“Goodman School is demonstrating its strength around accounting, and once more we see that we have graduates coming out of our School who excel on the CFE exam and are prepared to hit the ground running in the accounting profession.”