New CFO at University Canada West

Dr. David Strong, President and Vice-Chancellor, University Canada West, is pleased to announce the appointment of Gregory Diemer as Chief Financial Officer at University Canada West, as of February 1, 2008.

Since August 2005, Greg has been Senior Financial Auditor, Thrifty Foods, where he managed and performed operational audits, also undertaking special management consulting projects and providing business advice where needed, including implementing Enterprise Risk Management and CEO/CFO Certification processes.

Prior to that, he worked for six years as a public accountant with local firms Green, Horwood, Munro & Tuckey, CAs, and Lee and Sharpe, CA’s. He mainly managed audit teams for a variety of medium sized business clients, and assisted those businesses with a variety of related financial services, including personal and corporate taxes, payroll, compliance, cash-flow analysis and business consulting.

Greg started his financial career at Investors Group developing financial plans for his clients and marketing IG’s products and services and those of its affiliated companies, including Estate and Tax Planning, Mortgages, Life and Disability Insurance, Mutual Funds, Annuities and Savings Bonds.

Greg’s academic background includes the C.A. Designation of the C.A. School of Business, B.C., an M.B.A. (Finance specialization) from the University of Victoria, and a B.A. in Economics (Computer Science minor) University of Victoria. Greg was awarded the Franc Joubin bursary by the University of Victoria School of Business as the most successful entrepreneurial entrant in the MBA program.

Greg also has an athletic background that will add to the extra dimension of UCW’s new campus in the Comox Valley with IMG, the world’s leading professional sports academy. He has been Racquet Sports Coordinator, Peninsula Recreation, where he managed the racquet sports facilities. He also helped establish the Island Tennis Academy, where he was co-owner and Head. The Academy was well respected due to the delivery of the largest School Tennis Program in Western Canada, and due to the many students that have obtained tennis scholarships in the USA. One student even represented Canada at the World Youth Cup. In earlier years Greg captained the 1994 Canadian N.T.T. Cup U14 Team at the World Junior Tennis Championships, Yamanakako, Japan, played on the University of Michigan NCAA Division-1 tennis team in 1986, was an All-American Honours player at the NJCAA Tennis Championships in 1985, was a world-ranked junior tennis player in 1984 and a National Touring Coach for Tennis Canada in 1998.

Greg has held numerous volunteer positions, including:

• Director, LearningWise Inc.;
• President, Vancouver Island Chapter of the Institute of Internal Auditors;
• Member of the Finance Committee, Pacific Christian School, Victoria BC;
• Elder, Victoria Christian Reformed Church, Victoria, BC;
• Vice-President of the V.I.T.A. (Vancouver Island Tennis Association);

He is fluent in Dutch and speaks some German and French, which will also be important as we continue to expand internationally.