Current Opportunities

Chief Financial Officer | Aquatera Utilities Inc.

The Region

Home to beautiful skies and opportunities, Grande Prairie is a city with a population of just over 67,000. The community offers the small city feel with big city amenities and lots of growing potential. For those outdoor adventure seeking individuals, Grand Prairie is a close to the mountains and is a city known to be a great place to raise a family.

The city’s advantage in attracting businesses, jobs, and people comes from its agricultural industry, easily accessed location, and diverse wealth of natural resources— such as oil, natural gas, coal, and lumber.

Known for its blend of urban and historical pride, Grande Prairie’s downtown is a center for dining, shopping, health and wellness, arts, business, and entertainment! Here are some quick facts and interesting landmarks the city has to offer:

• More than 1,100 acres of parkland including nearly 30 kilometers of asphalt, gravel, and wilderness trails;
• Global cuisine from locally owned eateries to renowned chain restaurants;
• 450,000 square foot modern health and fitness facility (Eastlink Centre);
• Festivals, fun runs, rodeo’s, golf courses, performing arts, hockey & concert venues;
• Close to mountains, hiking opportunities, dirt biking, and camping;
• Young community with the median age of 34;
• Northwest Polytechnic – post secondary institute right in the city;
• Average rent is below provincial average, home price $100,000 lower than provincial average;
• 33 schools in 4 school districts; and
• Variety of cultural and neighborhood associations, and indoor and outdoor recreational activities for youth and adults including competitive sports for youth such as hockey, football, skiing, gymnastics, etc.

 

The Organization

Aquatera Utilities Inc. (“Aquatera Utilities”) is a full-service utility corporation and a provider of choice for governments, businesses, and communities. An essential service provider that serves a growing number of cities and communities by providing and distributing safe, reliable drinking water and collecting sewer as well as providing solid waste services.

In 2021 and 2022, Aquatera Utilities was listed as a Top 100 Employer in Alberta. Aquatera provides high quality, environmentally sustainable utility services and optimized value to customers and shareholders. As an exemplary employer with a keen growth-oriented mindset, we look for collaborative people who can live our values, and are committed to high quality work and great customer service.

Core Purpose: Growing Healthy Communities

Core Values: Safety, Teamwork, Quality, and Respect

Vision: Trusted experts delivering ideal solutions and services essential to growing healthy communities.

Mission: We provide high quality, environmentally sustainable utility services and optimize value to customers and shareholders.

Brand Promise: Trusted Quality, Valued Service, and Peace of Mind

For more information, please visit: https://www.aquatera.ca.

 

The Opportunity

The successful candidate will have the opportunity to be part of a small, very collaborative team running a $500 million (assets) business that serves the essential needs of its communities. While the internal team reporting into the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is presently small, the CFO drives the business using a number of top-quality, long-term external providers which includes financial institutions, investment advisors, insurance advisors and brokers, internal and external auditors/consultants, and financial modelling/planning experts who assist the organization in the development and execution of its mission.

Reports to:	Chief Executive Officer
Direct Reports:	4: Controller, Assistant Controller, and two junior accounting positions
Location:	Grande Prairie, AB

 

Mandate

Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and a key member of the executive leadership team, the CFO will provide strategic direction to the long-term financial prosperity of the organization while ensuring fulfillment of the Organization’s mission to provide high quality, reliable, and sustainable services. The CFO will lead the development and implementation of corporate plans and a sound financial strategy that supports the organization’s profitable growth. As a member of the leadership team, the CFO will contribute to a culture of continuous improvement, innovation, and accountability.

 

Key Accountabilities

The position will include the following responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership

• Collaborate with peers across leadership team to achieve corporate vision and goals;
• Foster corporate growth by providing expertise and advice to the CEO and Board with respect to acquisitions, due diligence, tax structuring, financing, financial modelling, and etc.;
• Develop and lead the execution of the organization’s long term financial strategy; and
• Oversee corporate risk management, including insurance coverage, and other risk mitigation strategies.

 

Governance

• Ensure the highest standards of corporate governance with respect to all financial functions within the organization; and
• Become a trusted source of knowledge and wisdom and provide quality recommendations to the Board, the CEO and the Management Team related to all strategic and financial matters.

 

Financial Leadership

• Provide overall financial management to all functions, services, processes, and internal controls and lead business planning and budgeting processes;
• Develop and execute a finance strategy that will achieve the organizations growth objectives;
• Ensure quality in all aspects of corporate finance including financial statements, banking processes, borrowing processes, cash flow management, financial forecasting, and reporting;
• Foster a culture of accountability across the organization through supporting all operational budgeting and reporting activities;
• Evaluate and advise on the Revenue Rate impacts of the long-term capital plans;
• Secure financing or lending required to achieve corporate goals by demonstrating innovation seeking funding;
• Lead corporate accountability processes, measures, and key performance indicators (KPIs) including defined value for money and service; and
• Demonstrate a continuous improvement mindset with respect to financial practices and process.

 

People Leadership

• Demonstrate leadership through modeling the corporate values;
• Mentor and lead a cohesive team and inspire people to work at their best to attain exceptional levels of achievement; and
• Foster positive and effective external relationships with shareholders, bankers, lenders, auditors, service providers, and customers.

 

Attractions

• Join an established and growing organization that values their employees as their greatest strength and asset;
• Work with an executive team that is focused on progressive and innovative thinking;
• An opportunity to lead the growth and development of the Finance department; and
• Join an Alberta’s Top Employer and be part of its continued success.

 

Measures of Success

Success in the first year will be determined by the candidate’s ability to:

• Build strong relationships and establish credibility with the organization’s leadership and the Board as well as Shareholders and service providers;
• Build strong, trusting, and collaborative relationships with the Finance Team and help lead the team in its development and execution of its process enhancements and optimization;
• Drive organizational cultures and values that align and support the performance of the organization; and
• Become a leader in the Executive Management Team’s strategic planning processes.

 

Candidate Profile

The successful candidate will have the following:

Education:

• Bachelor’s Degree and a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) designation; and
• A Certified Financial Analyst (CFA) designation or Masters in Business Administration (MBA) would be considered an asset.

 

Experience:

• Minimum five (5) years of experience in a senior financial role, experience as a CFO is considered an asset;
• Previous exposure to financial modeling, investment, treasury, and cash management is desired;
• Experience with insurance, M&A activity, and accessing capital is considered an asset; and
• Experience managing external service providers.

 

Competencies and Attributes:

• Strategic Agility: Intellectually sharp and clearly capable of thinking on their feet while demonstrating outstanding business judgment. Possess the analytical skills to drive the long-range planning initiatives, improve productivity, elevate performance, and transform and elevate the financial organization. Leverage the collective smarts of the finance team to be a valuable advisor on acquisitions.
• Results Orientation: Performance-driven and able to provide measurable results. Resourceful and action oriented with a proactive sense of urgency. Able to overcome obstacles to produce results in a timely fashion. Operationally minded with the ability to think and act strategically, and plan thoughtfully.
• Communication: Possess very strong communication skills with the ability to influence and inspire confidence and trust from others, and truly partner with the leadership team and board. Comfortable, articulate, compelling and dynamic with colleagues and stakeholders. Direct and candid with strong conflict resolution skills.
• Perspective: Provide a broad perspective of macro and industry influences to assist in supporting the company’s endeavors. Provide outside perspective to aid in the collective leadership team’s understanding and acceptance of trends, insights, changing business perspective and management strategies.
• Approach and Style: Well organized and structured without rigidity. Possess the personal heft necessary to drive change and implement the needed transformative efforts. Unquestionable professional ethics and personal integrity. A sense of humor and a self-managed ego, comfortable in a servant leadership role.

 

Equal Opportunity

Aquatera Utilities is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion and recognizes that a diverse team benefits and enriches our work and is essential to operational excellence. We welcome applications from all qualified individuals and encourage women, members of racialized communities, Indigenous persons, persons with disabilities, and persons of any sexual orientation or gender identity to confidentially self-identify at time of application. In accordance with provincial legislation, accommodation will be provided by Gallagher and Aquatera Utilities throughout the recruitment, selection and/or assessment process, upon request, to applicants with disabilities. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply.

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How to Apply:

Please send your resume in Word or PDF format to: HRCCCanada.GBS.EdmontonES@ajg.com. Copy and Paste the following job title and code and place it in the subject line of your email so we can identify the job and confirm receipt of your application:
AXVL-366205 Chief Financial Officer | Aquatera Utilities Inc. - AB - Grande Prairie (OTIAPPLY)

Please note that only those candidates meeting the selection criteria, established by our client, will be contacted further. Although we may not contact you directly for this particular role, all applications will be reviewed as we would like to consider you for future opportunities that may be appropriate. We encourage you to continue to visit our website at optimumtalent.com as our opportunities are updated on a regular basis.