PRACTICAL PD
Courses for Accountants
Stephen Priddle, CPA, CA, CMA, President & Founder
Stephen Priddle, CPA, CA, CMA is the President and Founder of Practical PD. He has created all of Practical PD's courses and also presents them, except for certain licensed courses.
An engaging and experienced seminar leader, Stephen Priddle weaves practical tips together with stories from his business experience and input from participants. Seasoning the mix with a dose of accounting humour, he serves up useful and dynamic seminars. When speaking, he is candid about errors he has made in his career and the lessons that can be learned from them. Someone said: “humans are hard-wired to learn from stories” – Stephen is in part a business/accounting story-teller, who draws out the lessons from the stories.
Stephen’s teaching experience includes presenting courses, in -person, webinar and video for over 70 accounting bodies and organizations in Canada and abroad, with total attendance of of nearly 28,000. He has been a Session Leader in the new CPA Professional Education Program, and has taught at the University of Toronto and Carleton University. He has moderated in the legacy Canadian CMA Strategic Leadership Program, and taught in the CA program and the CGA program. Stephen is a prolific author. His published business, accounting and finance cases are used by many organizations.
Stephen is a Board member, Corporate Secretary and co-owner of the SureWx Inc. group of companies (Canada, USA, UK, Netherlands) SureWx is a global aviation business, an industry leader in the area of assisting airlines optimizing winter operations. He was the CFO of the business from 2012-2024. He will announce his next CFO role in due course.
Stephen has nearly 40 years of varied business experience. After working with KPMG for five years, he moved into industry, where he has worked for public and private companies. He has gained a wide range of experience in financial reporting, treasury management, merger & acquisition and other business matters. Through his courses, he interacts with hundreds of financial leaders a year and thus stays on the leading edge in terms of best practices and hot topics.
He advises a number of businesses and not-for-profit organizations and does some consulting. He sat on the Advisory Board of Valydate Corporation until its 2017 acquisition by Mentor Graphics, a Siemens company.
Stephen obtained his CPA, CA and CMA designations following graduation from Carleton University with an Honours Bachelor of Commerce degree, accounting major.
Stephen Priddle is sometimes asked if he is available for additional consulting. He does not have time for any major consulting assignments. However, he does have a limited amount of time for work of the following nature. Many accountants would like to pick the brain of a corporate veteran from time to time, on issues or for mentoring. If you are interested, reach out to him at contact@practicalpd.com
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Steve's experience and his methods of getting his lessons across are second to none. He combines practicality and humour while at the same time generating discussion amongst the class. His real life experience shines through and makes every point that much more meaningful
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Knowledgeable, well-prepared, highly engaged. Stayed on schedule. Enjoyable style
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Stephen Priddle is amazing. I could listen to him for a week. There is a CFO/controller role model
if I ever saw one -
The perfect blend of education with comedic relief that kept me engaged
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Even though I had to drive from (city), I would make the trip again for other courses taught by Stephen. He is very knowledgeable and would love to learn more from him
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Great presentation, very informative and loved the experiences you shared
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I have taken many courses with CPA Quebec and your course was the one that I both most enjoyed and found most useful
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Just wanted to tell you that it was such a pleasure being in your seminar the other day. I learnt lots and enjoyed it a great deal. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for your future seminars
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Amusing and useable
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I left the seminar with a long to do list
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I will highly recommend your future courses to people in my network
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He is extremely entertaining. Has the ability to draw the crowd and keep them focused
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Stephen's self deprecating style, measured cadence and wealth of experience kept me interested the whole day; very funny, prizes, engaging
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You are a great story teller
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Much more likely to retain learnings when they are based on real life experience, as this course was
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I have already mentioned to some colleagues and friends how amazing your course was
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I have rarely been to a CPA course that has been so engaging and passed as quickly
