Faces of Play MPE: Sandra Boenisch
This month’s ode to MPE-er is to a CFO-er, Sandra Boenisch. As a word girl myself, I’m always doubly impressed by numbers folks, and hope some of those applicable skills will seep through osmotically…Gave it a shot here and learned there’s more to Mz. Sandra than numbas!
Now in the role of CFO, Sandra shared with us a bit about her background. Having come from a financial services- inclined family (dad and sister are both accountants), Sandra left the auditing world five years ago, setting out as a consultant to public companies, before ultimately putting roots down with Destiny. “In my consulting role I was only focused on doing the financial reporting, but now I’ll be getting more into how the rest of the business world works. There’s still been a lot to learn, even though I had some familiarity in the past with Destiny as a consultant. I technically have been CFO of another company before, but I wasn’t even in the same city. It’s a New York company. So this is the first time where I feel like I’m actually part of a team. In a lot of ways, it’s a first time.”
We spoke of Play MPE’s enviable atmosphere, one which is part of a mix that continues to ensure longevity and low turnover. “Everyone is very nice and works hard because it’s a smaller company. And I like that the company has a very diverse culture. I have enjoyed so far the social events and company lunches.”
Sandra makes time for those social events around her busy schedule as a mom of 3 kids, ages 10, 8, and 5. Time on weekends can include time at the gym, time outdoors/gardening and skiing. “We’re just teaching our kids. We just went to Big White for spring break and our youngest, who’s five finally learned to ski, so now we can all ski together, which is very exciting.” Sandra will be ready for the slopes as a regular Cross -fitter. Myself, being more of a spectator, I ask for some color commentary for those less in the know.
“It’s a fitness class where each day you go it’s something different. So they’ll put the workout of the day on the board, called the WOD. There’s maybe 30 different movements used. Some of it is Olympic weight lifting-type stuff, some of it’s gymnastics, like pull-ups and that sort of thing. It’ll be some sort of mash-up of those exercises that everyone does together. So it’s competitive, and never boring.” It’s all about confusing the muscles, right?
It’s quite a different schedule from the pre-parenthood days, of course, when Sandra spent time as a model. “After high school I didn’t know what I wanted to do yet and I got invited to do some modeling. So I went to first to Toronto, then Chicago and over to Europe for a bit. It was fun for a time, but it wasn’t for me. I didn’t particularly like traveling as much I thought I would, and I’m not fashionably inclined. So, it wasn’t really for me, but it was a good experience for sure.
After about a year I decided to move back home and do the CGA program. I had always enjoyed finance and numbers, and this was good because I could do it while working. I really enjoyed the program and the work.”
And the rest is history. From modeling to auditing, Sandra is now surrounded by music geeks. (Sandra gives a shout-out to one of her favorite artists, Hillsong, from Australia.) In fact, Sandra’s family even schedules “music video nights,” during which they each take a few turns picking a music video to share and enjoy, often in themes of rock, or 80s, 90s, or Christian music. They have the chops to create their own group too! Sandra and her son play piano, while her daughter sings and husband plays guitar.
Sandra’s humble, though, and quick to note “My music knowledge is terrible. But I really like listening to all kinds of music.” We’ll let everyone else duke it out what year Scritti Politti released “Perfect Way,” sleeping soundly knowing Sandra’s got the books covered.
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