Amanda joined First Ascent Ventures in November 2021 as Vice President. She is an experienced finance leader and operator, having spent years working closely with private and public companies in professional services and managing in-house finance for several technology companies in Canada and the UK.
Prior to joining First Ascent Ventures, Amanda spent almost a decade working in assurance services and the start-up community. She started her career at EY LLP where she worked in the assurance practice progressing from associate to an experienced manager and specialized in working with small to medium Canadian companies in the technology and media/entertainment sectors. Most notably, she led the 2016 audit over the $2.65 billion acquisition of Shaw Media Inc. by Corus Entertainment Inc. Following her time at EY, Amanda spent 2 years working in London, UK, where she held various roles establishing reporting and operational finance processes at growing start-up companies including Elvie and Photobox.
Amanda joined Upchain Inc., a Fund I portfolio company, as the VP Finance in September 2020 and developed the finance function from the ground up, overseeing all financial accounting and tax reporting and compliance, treasury, FP&A, payroll operations, and establishing financial and operational controls. As the finance leader, her role was instrumental in closing the Upchain sale to Autodesk (NASDAQ:ADSK) in May 2021, one of the few successful Canadian exits to a global public company to occur in the last few years. Following the transaction, Amanda joined First Ascent Ventures, bringing an experienced financial operating lens to the team. Currently, she serves as a board observer for Thentia and Shinydocs.
Amanda is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA) and holds a Master of Accounting and Honours Bachelor of Accounting and Finance degrees from the University of Waterloo.