Ivey Leadership Certification for CPAs
Elevate your impact with the Ivey Leadership Certification for CPAs, designed to help you shift from technical expert to strategic leader.
Price
4,990 CA$
Fall Session
4,990 CA$
November 9 - Wednesday, November 11, 2026
3 days
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
At a certain point in your career, the work changes. You are no longer responsible only for getting the numbers right. You are expected to shape decisions, influence others, and take ownership for outcomes that extend well beyond your technical expertise. Most CPAs are not formally prepared for this shift.
The Ivey Leadership Certification for CPAs is designed to support this transition. The program focuses on three critical leadership challenges: how you show up as a leader, how you lead teams through complexity and conflict, and how you lead within the broader organization to shape decisions and outcomes.
Over three focused days, you will strengthen your executive presence, develop practical enterprise-level decision-making skills, and build practical skills in collaboration and leadership. The learning is grounded in real situations CPAs face, using Ivey’s case method to keep it practical and applied.
You will leave with a clearer toolkit to operate at the next level and the mindset to take on greater responsibility in your organization.
Who Should Attend
Who should pursue the Ivey Leadership Certification for CPAs?
This program is for CPAs whose roles have expanded beyond pure technical work.
You may be leading projects without formal authority, managing people for the first time, or being pulled into conversations where the answer is not just in the numbers. You are expected to contribute to decisions, work across functions, and communicate with greater influence.
You might be a manager, senior manager, or director. Or you may be on the path there and starting to feel the shift in expectations. Your title matters less than the evolving scope of your role. If you are being asked to think more broadly, take on more responsibility, and operate with greater leadership presence, this program is designed for you.
What You Learn
What will CPAs gain from this Certification?
Participants in the Ivey Leadership Certification for CPAs will be better prepared to:
- Show up with greater leadership presence by understanding how you are perceived, communicating with clarity, and operating with confidence in higher-stakes situations
- Make better decisions in ambiguous environments by expanding how you think about organizations, trade-offs, and the role of systems and technology, including AI
- Influence without relying on authority by navigating differing perspectives, building alignment, and communicating in a way that moves conversations forward
- Work through others to get results by strengthening your approach to collaboration, managing tension, and leading more effective team interaction
How You Learn
The program is delivered using Ivey’s case method, built around real situations that require judgment, discussion, and decision-making. You will learn alongside a cohort of CPA peers who are facing similar shifts in their roles. The conversation is grounded, practical, and shaped by shared experience. The focus is on active participation. You will test ideas, challenge perspectives, and apply what you learn to the kinds of situations you are already navigating.
Learn more about the Ivey Experience
Ivey Case Method
Peer Learning Teams
Simulations And Role Play
Assessment Tools
Expert Faculty Led Sessions
Field Site Visits
Industry Guests
Return on Investment
- Career Advancement: Position yourself as a key player in your organization’s leadership team, ready to take on executive roles.
- Professional Development: Gain a competitive edge with leadership skills specifically tailored for financial professionals, enhancing both personal and professional growth.
- Networking Opportunities: Connect with a network of like-minded professionals and industry leaders, expanding your professional circle and gaining new perspectives.
- Advanced Leadership within Finance: Cultivate leaders who can merge financial acumen with strategic leadership to enhance decision-making and organizational growth.
- Improved Business Outcomes: Empower your CPA leaders to contribute to business strategy and operations, directly impacting bottom-line results.
Participant Testimonials
As a CPA in a leadership role, I think I was really looking for guidance to help make the jump from management to leadership. I’ve taken an MBA before, but they didn’t address a lot of leadership. There’s a bit of a knowledge gap I felt I needed to address.
Darren Rotsch, Managing Partner at Murphy & Chung Professional CorporationThe professors, their experience really opened my eyes to another level of excellence. The whole design is to accelerate learning to give people the opportunity to grow and grow quickly. Experiment, learn, practice, refine and do it again.
Jane Wei, Director of Pension Accounting at Health Care of Ontario Pension PlanFees
4,990 CA$
Program fees cover program materials, breakfast, and lunch; participants are responsible for accommodations and meals outside of program hours. Program fees are tax-exempt.
Applications must be submitted no later than 14 days before the start of the program.
FAQs
This program is built specifically for CPAs and the roles they step into as their responsibilities expand. The content is grounded in situations you will recognize. Contributing to decisions without full authority, working across functions, and balancing technical expertise with broader business judgment.
It is also structured around how CPAs learn best. Practical, discussion-based, and rooted in real cases, with a cohort of peers who are navigating similar challenges. The focus is not on general leadership theory, but on helping you operate more effectively in the role you are already moving into.
At Ivey, we embrace learning as an interactive experience. Rather than lecturing, your faculty facilitators will guide the group through hands-on activities, discussions, cases, simulations, and more. To get the most value from your learning experience, you should expect to be present and engaged in class sessions. To learn more, click here to visit our Learning Experience page.
Our program managers will contact all registered participants prior to the program start date with instructions to join our online Learning Management System. Once logged in, you will be able to create a class profile, view other participants' profiles, and access a list of assigned pre-reading, cases, and activities. Plan to review and complete preparation work in advance of each class session.
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