This month, we spotlight Michael Chui CPA, CMA, Chair of the Alberta Community Ambassadors. Michael leads a team dedicated to enhancing the volunteer experience for CPAs and candidates, with a focus on how volunteerism can build skills, reveal strengths, and create lasting community impact.
The Calgary Community Ambassador’s team is kicking off their events calendar with Fireside Chat: Accelerate Your CPA Career Through Volunteerism on May 15—an inspiring session featuring William O’Yeung and Deanna Louth, who will share how volunteering has shaped their careers and personal growth.
What volunteer work do you currently do for CPA Alberta and/or the profession?
I currently serve as the Chair of the Alberta Community Ambassadors, an affiliate of CPA Alberta. Our mission is to enhance the volunteer experience for CPAs and CPA candidates through community events and educational initiatives. Currently, we are focused on helping early-career CPAs and candidates recognize how volunteerism can strengthen their skill sets and identify their unique strengths to create meaningful impact in their communities.
We are re-launching our events calendar with Fireside Chat- Accelerate Your CPA Career Through Volunteerism on May 15. The event will be a unique platform to understand how volunteer experiences can serve as a catalyst for career development and align your professional goals with community service. My team is grateful to have two distinguished CPAs, William O’Yeung and Deanna Louth, to share their volunteer experiences and advice with us.
What motivates you to volunteer?
I’ve always enjoyed developing ideas, iterating through collaborative efforts with like-minded individuals, and being part of solutions. Even though not every solution survives, I enjoy learning from our failures.
What do you enjoy most about your volunteer work?
Early in my career, I became involved with a Calgary-based triathlon club dedicated to athlete development. At a challenging time, the club was reduced to three board members, limited resources, and a dwindling athlete base. I recall scrambling to enroll in an NCCP coaching course to ensure we had a trained coach on record, allowing the club to “keep the lights on.”
Over the next decade, through continuous pivots and a focus on creating long-term value for athletes, we transformed the organization into a parent-run, governance-driven, and self-sustaining entity. Today, the club’s alumni consistently compete at the highest levels of triathlon, including the Paralympics. Although I am no longer directly involved, it brings smiles seeing our club logo at major events across Canada and internationally.
What is the biggest benefit you derive from volunteering?
Beyond the emotional fulfillment of contributing to a lasting legacy, volunteering has significantly enhanced my career versatility. The strategic and entrepreneurial thinking, focus on operational excellence, and risk management skills I developed have been instrumental in growing my finance career and enabling my pivot into the startup world as a technologist.
What is one of the most significant life lessons you have learned from volunteering?
The power of storytelling. One of my favorite movie quotes is from Inception: “Once an idea has taken hold of the brain, it’s almost impossible to eradicate.” In today’s era of information overload, a story that resonates with audiences is crucial.
This skill is particularly vital in fields like finance, where data and numbers prevail, and even more so in impact-driven (volunteering) endeavours where value isn’t always quantified in dollars and cents.
