Who from your past can change your future?

Holli Fernando has made a few calculated risks in her career before landing her latest role as controller of Mountain Equipment Company. She’s not typically comfortable with risk, laughing “I am an accountant after all,” but says her time at EY has given her the tools and confidence to embrace new opportunities.

“I think how they've done that is by giving not just myself, but everyone else, the opportunities to explore things that they are either really passionate about, or some things that they aren't sure about, and to equip them with the tools to learn,” she says.

That support has given Holli the confidence to leave the EY organization not once - but twice. Each time, she reached out to EY colleagues who gave her the advice she needed to try new things. The first time Holli left the EY organization, she had just received her Certified Public Accountant designation and felt her next move should be in industry. She worked for a retail company for just under a year, before realizing she wanted to return to EY.

“I left because I thought I was ready, and then I realized I was not ready to leave. And so, the reason I re-joined the EY organization was because I felt like I had unfinished business, that I still had a lot to learn, and that I was fairly confident that they would have me back,” Holli remembers.

She returned to the EY organization and learned more of the soft skills she needed to succeed, including managerial and project management skills. After three years, Holli felt it was time to leave once again: “This opportunity at MEC came along, and it was going through some change, and it sounded really interesting to me, and it sounded like an opportunity I really couldn't pass up.”