In my own words.
A career with more than one shape.
I grew up believing a career was something you chose once. My parents spent about 30 years at the same workplace, and I assumed I would follow a similar path. I decided to study accounting almost by chance, but when an instructor explained double-entry bookkeeping, I was fascinated. Everything connected; everything had a clear solution. Looking back, I’m glad I chose accounting; its principles travel well, and that foundation helped me when I moved to another country. I thought I was choosing one profession for life. As it turned out, I was just getting started.
The entrepreneur was there all along.
While I was in college, the Soviet Union was falling apart, and I thought it was a good time to start a business. My plan was simple: buy low, sell higher. I bought Russian cosmetics in one city and took them to another to sell, only to discover the people around me didn’t have much money to spend on cosmetics. That business didn’t exactly take off, but the idea of having something of my own never left me. I kept working full-time as an accountant, but what I enjoyed most was taking ownership, improving things, bringing people together and building teams. Apparently, I’ve always been more interested in building something than in doing the same thing just because I’m good at it.
A new country, a new chapter.
Life sometimes takes you places you hadn’t planned. When I met my future husband, he had already applied to immigrate to Canada, and I followed him. After arriving in 2002, I spent a year studying English at an ESL school, then spent the next couple of years putting several pieces together at once: running a home daycare, studying accounting in college, and working toward confirming my professional qualifications. Eventually, I returned to accounting and worked another 15 years in Canada. Those years taught me that settling into a new country takes more than finding a job or learning the language. It means continually discovering how things work, finding your professional footing and figuring out where you belong.
The next chapter is mine to build.
After those 15 years in accounting, I began wondering what else I wanted from my professional life. At 46, I went back to university to explore HR and open up new possibilities for myself. Four years later, at 50, I graduated from Seneca and earned my CHRP designation. Somewhere along the way, I discovered that I didn’t have to leave my accounting background behind. I understood numbers, processes and business operations, and I was equally interested in people and how organizations develop. When recruiters ask, “So, are you an accountant or an HR professional?”, my answer is simple: I’m both. We don’t always have to choose one identity and leave the others behind.
In June 2026, I made another decision: I started building my own business full-time. Today, I’m building a business school and a community for women 45+ who are thinking about changing careers, starting a business, or simply exploring what else might be possible. My goal is to help them turn their experience into something they can build on. Having changed countries, professions and directions myself, I understand that process. I’m still learning and experimenting with AI, digital products and new systems. A new direction doesn’t mean starting from zero, it means building on what I’ve already learned, bringing my experience into new spaces, and creating opportunities that weren’t there for me before.
I never started from zero. And you’re not starting from zero today.
