TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Sep 16, 2013) - The Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario is honouring two of its most distinguished members with the ICAO Award of Outstanding Merit, recognizing their professional accomplishments and invaluable service to the profession and the community.
The Award of Outstanding Merit is the highest honour that CPA Ontario can bestow upon its members. Established in 1984, the Award recognizes conspicuous and sustained service to, or on behalf of, the profession, including service to the community.
The Council of CPA Ontario has elected the following individuals as the year 2013 recipients of the Award:
Paul G. Cherry, FCPA, FCA
Thomas C. O'Neill, FCPA, FCA
Messrs. Cherry and O'Neill will be formally presented with the ICAO Award of Outstanding Merit at the September 19 Fellowship celebration dinner in Toronto.
Messrs. Cherry and O'Neill join an illustrious group of Chartered Professional Accountants who have been honoured with the Award of Outstanding Merit during the past 29 years. Seventy-five per cent majority votes of both a nominating committee, made up of the five most recent ICAO past-chairs, and of the Institute's governing Council are required for election to this prestigious award. Since its inception in 1984, there have been 49 ICAO Award of Outstanding Merit recipients and this is the first time the Award has been presented since 2011.
Paul Cherry earned a Bachelor of Commerce from Queen's University and qualified as a CA in 1974. He was elected to fellowship in 1991. He began his career with predecessor firms of PricewaterhouseCoopers where he was a Partner from 1981 to 1999.
In a varied and distinguished career, Paul has had a lasting influence on improving the state of financial reporting in Canada and internationally. Through his selfless commitment to excellence, he has served Canada proudly and is internationally recognized as an innovative, thoughtful and committed leader with remarkable foresight.
Sought after for his expert counsel, he is now on his second term as Chair of the International Financial Reporting Standards Advisory Council. He has demonstrated remarkable stable leadership qualities in turbulent economic times and has made many contributions to the development of Canadian and international accounting standards.
Paul has exemplified conspicuous and sustained service on behalf of the CPA profession through continual contributions at the highest levels over the past 25 years, and in so doing he has brought great credit to the accounting profession. He was awarded the Officer of the Order of Canada November 19, 2012 for his commitment to improving financial reporting, notably through his leadership in developing international accounting standards.