Finance for the Non-Financial Manager

The program is built around four themes:

Make Better Business Decisions

The program will provide you with an understanding of accounting and financial concepts, and the tools with which to make better business decisions. This will enhance your management effectiveness and increase your value to the organization.

• Improve your decision-making skills by integrating financial management concepts into your thinking
• Become conversant with financial statements to better understand how business decision outcomes are reflected in your organization’s financial reports
• Improve your communication with financial managers within your organization and learn how to ask the right questions
• Heighten your financial insights into many business issues such as investments, lease/buy options, investor relations, and financial risk management
• Learn how to go beyond accounting figures to demonstrate your unit’s real economic performance and potential
• Network with a group of experienced managers from a variety of industries and functions
• Learn how to lead a healthy and balanced life through the program's optional Lifestyle Component

Make a significant impact on your organization’s financial performance

• Use proven financial management tools to improve operating performance
• Improve the evaluation and justification process for capital spending proposals
• Increase managerial collaboration on business planning and decision-making
• Make more effective and profitable use of cash resources
• Use financial management tools to make more informed decisions on product discontinuations, product launches, outsourcing, and organizational restructuring

Outstanding Session Leaders

Session leaders include senior professors from Queen’s School of Business and knowledgeable experts from industry. These outstanding teachers are constantly in touch with today’s business world through real-world business experience, Board memberships and their own consulting practices.

Dr.  Tony Dimnik - Management Accounting and Control,
Queen's School of Business

Tony Dimnik is an authority on strategic control systems and the relationship between capital budgeting and strategy. He has contributed to the understanding and practice of Activity-Based Costing and the Balanced Scorecard and his current research is on Open Book Management. He was recently named one of the best university lecturers in Ontario and has served as the chair of the audit committee of several companies. One of his interests is cinema and he often writes and speaks on how accountants are portrayed in the movies. Past clients have included Microsoft, Financial Executives International, Alcan, VIA Rail, Canada Post, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., Royal Bank, and Cirque du Soleil.

Dr.  Clinton Free - Financial Management,
Queen's School of Business

Clinton Free is an expert on financial management, particularly in the areas of performance measurement, capital budgeting, strategic management control systems and supply chain management. He is a Rhodes Scholar and prior to joining Queen’s he spent several years teaching undergraduate and executive courses at the Saïd Business School at Oxford University and the University of New South Wales. He has consulted with firms including BMW Group Canada, Clarity Systems, Safeway, and Kingfisher.

Dr.  Louis Gagnon - Finance, Queen's School of Business

Louis Gagnon is an expert on capital markets and risk-management. His research has been published in several leading academic journals including the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis and the Journal of Empirical Finance. He is a seasoned practitioner who, during his stint in senior management at the Royal Bank of Canada, oversaw the bank’s global interest rate derivatives exposures and developed risk management methodologies and policies. He consults for a number of organizations, is actively involved in executive education in Canada and abroad, and has been quoted extensively in national media.

Mr.  John Moore - Financial Accounting,
Queen's School of Business

John Moore is an experienced and award-winning executive educator who is highly regarded in the accounting profession. He has conducted executive development seminars on financial tools for senior managers at Alcan, BMW, DuPont, Canon, Mitel, Shoppers Drug Mart, New Brunswick Power Corporation, Mountain Equipment Co-op, and Canada Post. He also works with members of senior management teams to integrate financial accounting concepts into strategic planning. He is a six-time winner of the MBA Teaching Excellence Award from Queen’s School of Business; a recipient of the Silver Medal from CMA Canada; Fellow of the Society of Management Accountants of Canada; and the author of five accounting textbooks, including a study guide for students preparing for the CA designation.

Dr.  Dan Thornton - Financial Accounting,
Queen's School of Business

Dan Thornton has a distinguished record in research, teaching, and service to the accounting profession. He recently finished a four-year stint as a voting member of the Accounting Standards Board, which sets Canada’s financial accounting standards. In 2000-2001 he was Canada’s first Professional Accounting Fellow at the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, DC. In Canada, he serves periodically as an expert accounting witness for the Department of Justice and recently for the Canadian Senate. He recently completed a three-year term as associate editor of The Accounting Review.

Session Leaders are subject to change.