Shirley Smith joined SelfDesign® Learning Foundation in February as our chief financial officer. She brings to her role more than 20 years of experience as an executive in the finance sector.

Most recently, she was Vice President of Finance and Information Technology with the YMCA of Simcoe/Muskoka, Ontario, a $50-million organization with 1,250 staff. As a transformational senior leader with the organization, she was instrumental in helping guide the YMCA through the pandemic, drawing on her understanding of the business and its financial position, as well as her expertise in cash management during crises.

Shirley holds a Bachelor of Mathematics degree from the University of Waterloo and is a licensed chartered professional accountant (CPA). Based in Barrie, Ontario, she is a member of the Kempenfelt Rotary Club and volunteers with Barrie Victims Services.

When she’s not working, she enjoys hiking local forest trails, exploring lakes by paddleboard, playing tennis and spending time with her family.

We caught up with Shirley shortly after she started with SelfDesign. The following conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.

 

▶️ SelfDesign (SD): How would you describe your job as Chief Financial Officer (CFO)?

Shirley: I do cool things with numbers. I create financial reporting and I assist the Chief Executive Officer (CEO),the Board of Directors and the Leadership team understand the numbers better. I’ll create cash forecasts to help SelfDesign determine the best use for our money, which can include short-term investments rather than letting it just sit in a bank account.

Basically, it’s financial reporting, the key performance indicators and the graphs that help our organization make informed decisions.

 

▶️ SD: You have a team who reports to you.

Shirley: My team includes four other people. They make the day-to-day decisions, based on historical patterns, and take care of the daily financial tasks. They support SelfDesign’s contractors and other departments whenever there are questions. They pay the bills and make the journal entries. They do all the heavy lifting in Finance and make things work well.

 

▶️ SD: How did you come to work with SelfDesign?

Shirley: When the lead Finance role opened up, Amber Papou [SelfDesign Learning Foundation President and CEO] and Sandy Steward [SelfDesign’s Chief Operating Officer] approached BDO Canada, one of the top four top five accounting firms in the country, for support to help them determine how best to structure the position and identify what was needed.

I was on the BDO team that provides that kind of support. The BDO partners knew I had a background in not-for-profit finance. For 13 years, I was the CFO at our local YMCA here in Barrie. So BDO knew that I understood not-for-profits, and they matched me with SelfDesign for a three-month project to just come in and take a look at everything and then provide some advice.

Amber and Sandy liked what I was doing and how I work so when the contract came to an end, they offered me the role of CFO.

 

▶️ SD: You’re based in Ontario, and SelfDesign is both a B.C. organization and fully remote. How does that affect what you do?

Shirley: Well, the rules and processes governing not-for-profits apply across Canada, and I’m very familiar with those. If there are nuances with B.C.–specific funding, I can consult with a whole team of experts at BDO.

 

▶️ SD: What projects or initiatives are you working on?

Shirley: SelfDesign’s budget season starts in March, so that’s pretty big.

I’m also working with the Board of Directors to enhance our financial reporting to the Board so that they have a clearer picture of where the organization stands from month to month.

 

▶️ SD: What made you realize that doing this kind of work was what you wanted to do?

Shirley: It’s when I realized that I could explain things to people about a business that they didn’t understand, and that I could explain it so they could decide to improve the business or make the business stronger. That’s what got me hooked into doing what I do.

 

▶️ SD: What are some of your interests and passions?

Shirley: I really love working with numbers. I love it. I love helping businesses better understand their numbers. Not a lot of people like to do that, but I do.

But that’s not something you say at a party unless you want to be left alone for the rest of the evening. So, at parties, I talk about my other passions: I really love to travel. I’ve been to many, most recently to Jamaica and Rome, and I’ll be visiting Florida and New York this year, and maybe Scotland, where my granny grew up. I’d like to see the house she was born in.

I have been surfing in Tofino, as well. I got up on my knees on the board and then started laughing, and didn’t get up on my feet, but it was great.

I also love being outdoors. There are forests five minutes from where I live here in Barrie, and  I go hiking with my friends and kids all the time. It’s beautiful. It clears the head. And I can go out into the woods on a lunch break and make it back, refreshed and energized. I love it!

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