CPFO Spotlight: Catherine Latimer

Why did you want to become a CPFO?

I started in budget and finance and my background was primarily just budget development. I really wanted to deepen my knowledge across all of the disciplines and I also have a finance team in my current role and I wanted to show them a commitment to lifelong learning, which is already panned out because one of my team members signed up for the CPFO process and she is about halfway through.

What did you learn going through the process?

It really helped me connect the dots across each of the different disciplines, which broadens my overall perspective when I'm having these conversations in my current role.

How has becoming a CPFO made an impact on you in your profession or how do you hope it will make an impact?

I hope it'll give me opportunities to mentor others. Recruiting, in general, across all types of different agencies has been a struggle and this can really help some folks who don't have the formal education, like a CPA or something like that. It's a different path. It's not as heavy on accounting focus, but to me carries the same weight.

What would you say to others thinking about becoming a CPFO?

Just do it. I was worried that I didn't have the understanding that I needed to pass something like the accounting and the financial reporting piece. But all of the resources are there. You just have to dedicate the time to dig into the stuff that's on the learning dashboard.