Sandra Sproule

In high school I liked science and math. After I graduated high school, I entered Memorial University planning to do a bachelor of science. I also liked participating in sports and learned about, what was then, a new area called kinesiology. As Memorial did not have a kinesiology program then, I started to look elsewhere. While I was in university, I worked with the naval reserves. I met my husband while on summer program and then transferred to UBC, which did have a kinesiology program.

I really enjoyed the kinesiology program and worked on some interesting projects including one where we used a hyperbaric chamber with high performance athletes. When I graduated, there was not a lot of work in this area. So I took some time to figure out what to do. I went back to school to get some computer background as that was a skill I did not have and computers were becoming very common in the workplace. One of the courses I took was accounting. I liked working with numbers and figuring out things to solve problems. I really loved the course and thought this would be a more flexible career if I had a family later.

I enrolled in Camosun College in Victoria, BC. While there, I took the prerequisite courses for the Chartered Accounting program. When I completed those courses, I applied to KPMG (chartered accounting firm) in Victoria. I worked with them while doing the rest of my program. Then I transferred to Vancouver and later to the Cayman Island with KPMG. While there we got hit with category 5 hurricane. I came home because the islands were devastated. Eventually I went back to the Caymans but with a new company, Deloitte and Touche. Here I was a senior manager with the internal financial accounting team working on the partnership accounts. 

I really enjoyed working there but the policy in Cayman Islands is that non-residents have to leave after 7 years unless have key employee status. Since my kids were ready to start school, my husband and I decided to return to Holyrood. I did some contract work from there. Then, out of the blue I got a call from Hibernia. I had an interview and started work in revenue royalty role (e.g. figure out payments to government). The work was challenging and involved a lot of analytical calculations ensuring compliance with our regulatory and joint venture agreements. Then I moved into this project management role with the Hebron project. We are almost at the end of the project now and then I will likely get another project but not sure what it will be or where.