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When Vanessa Kanu is asked to provide some professional advice to her younger self she responds quickly and without hesitation: \u201cBe more patient.\u201d

It\u2019s advice Kanu says she summons even today as she passes the 18th month mark of her CFO tour of duty with technology services company Telus International.

\u201cI\u2019m perpetually impatient and I drive myself bananas,\u201d says Kanu, who stepped into her first CFO role at Mitel Networks Corporation, after a steady 15-year climb inside the company she first joined as a financial reporting manager. \xa0\xa0

\u201cAs the company grew, it gave me an opportunity to learn and stretch myself through various roles. Whether it was external reporting, complex technical accounting, FP&A, or M&A and other planning functions, all these things combined kept me with the organization,\u201d says Kanu, whose career climb at Mitel spanned a period during which the company grew from $400 million to $1.3 billion.

\u201cI had a great mentor at Mitel, who was the previous CFO Steve Spooner,\u201d comments Kanu, who would join Mitel\u2019s reporting team shortly after Spooner was appointed CFO and would ultimately succeed him as Mitel\u2019s finance chief.

Along the way, Mitel management would execute an IPO and multiple strategic acquisitions before transitioning back to a private company. \xa0

\u201cMy thinking was as long as I'm learning and growing, there was no need to leave and that\u2019s what culminated in a 16-year (career) tenure at that organization,\u201d says Kanu, whose CFO appointment by Telus in 2020 upended her 18-month CFO tenure at Mitel \u2013 a chapter shortened perhaps by the same appetite for learning and stretching she has always relied on to propel herself forward. - Jack Sweeney