KenGrondin

School of Accounting and Finance Fellowship Honourees

Ken Grondin, MAcc 1986, CA, CMA, CBV

Ken graduated from the University of Waterloo in 1986 with a Master of Accounting and a Bachelor of Arts, Honours Chartered Accountancy Studies and a minor in Mathematics. After graduation from Waterloo, Ken articled with Clarkson Gordon and Price Waterhouse and specialized in tax and transaction advisory services.

Ken was admitted to partnership at Price Waterhouse in 1995 after transferring to the Winnipeg, Manitoba office to focus on combining Tax, Valuation and Business Advisory services for growth oriented companies.

During 1996 and 1997 Ken worked with a Price Waterhouse client Optx Group of Companies as EVP and CFO. Optx was focussed on the development and commercialization of specialized medical management solutions for treating cancer and other complex diseases.

From 1997 to 2001, Ken was a partner with Arthur Andersen in Winnipeg where he served as Head of the Tax Division and was a member of the Canadian Tax Leadership team for Arthur Andersen. Ken’s area of specialization continued to be Tax and Transaction Advisory services for growth oriented companies in the manufacturing, real estate development, consumer goods and transportation industries.

From 2001 to 2009, Ken was CFO, Executive lead for the Shared Services division, and a member of the Board of Directors for Nygard International, Canada’s leading designer, wholesaler and retailer of ladies’ fashion. Ken’s role was to lead the finance function for the Company plus manage the non-product support functions including IT and logistics to deliver industry leading supply-chain solutions that started with North American fashion design flowing to Orient and Middle-Ease manufacturing and finished with product distribution across North American wholesale, retail networks and e-commerce networks.

In 2009 Ken joined Parkland Income Fund (TSX: PKI.un) as Senior Vice President and CFO. Parkland is Canada’s largest independent fuel distributor and marketer supporting over 600 Retail stations, 77 Commercial Branches with complete supply-chain solutions for the “downstream” fuel marketing industry. Since joining Parkland, Ken has co-led successful refinancings, acquisitions and an ERP implementation.

Ken is married to Denise and they have two children that are both currently enrolled at the University of Waterloo, Mark (Physics) and Renee (AFM).

2009 Fellow: Varun Bhambhani