Marcos Souza was in his early 20s with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Finance when he moved to North America from Brazil. He lived in Chicago for a few years, working and learning English. He knew this wasn’t his destiny and wasn’t prepared to go back to Brazil. Deciding to start a new chapter in his life, he moved to Vancouver in 2011. While this was daunting, as Marcos noted, “If you work hard and invest the time to learn, you can make anything happen.”

He attended Vancouver Community College, then took accounting courses at the British Columbia Institute of Technology and Langara College in Vancouver. His original plan was to become a Certified General Accountant (now called Certified Professional Accountant). Then in 2013 he was hired to help the busy Corporate Restructuring practice team at EY-Parthenon (Ernst & Young).

“My background is Business Administration and Finance, but I was not familiar with the Insolvency practice at all,” Marcos recalls. “I started helping the team with potential client research, bookkeeping and other general administration work. I decided to invest my time in reading and learning about the corporate insolvency profession. After two years, my mentor inspired me to take the Canadian Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Professionals (CAIRP) program to become an Insolvency Administrator.”

By that time, Marcos knew he wanted to progress in the department and in a career in the corporate insolvency practice, so he left the accounting courses behind to concentrate on the program. The opportunity to already be working in the field helped him navigate through the program and he received his CAIRP Insolvency Administrator Associate designation in October 2016. Since then, Marcos has handled all the insolvency administrative work for the team.

“The field is complex and every day is a learning experience,” Marcos says. “Businesses are facing unexpected challenges and it is very satisfying to offer practical solutions that help them get results.”

Now that he’s part of the industry, Marcos has no hesitation in recommending it to others as a career choice.

“It can be challenging, but very rewarding as well,” he says. “I would definitely recommend that professionals already working in the field register for the course. Anyone interested in making a career as an insolvency administrator should connect with registered professionals and trustees, and a great place to start is to reach out to CAIRP.”