Richard Fontaine

Richard Fontaine is an FCPA, FCMA and earned his PhD from the Montreal Joint PhD program (made up of McGill, HEC, UQÀM and Concordia).

 

Richard is a full time professor at UQÀM and teaches Management Accounting and Research Methods to undergraduate and Master's students. He is also the coordinator and coach of the Capstone 1 course of the CPA program.

 

For his PhD thesis, Richard surveyed financial executives across Canada to better understand their relationships with external auditors using a marketing perspective. The results of this research were published in a European marketing journal. Richard has continued research looking at the role of audit committees and audit committee chairs. The results of a recent study on the perspective of audit committees on audit firm rotation was published in a top tier governance journal.

 

Richard has ongoing research projects with audit committees, and his most recent project is being funded by the Quebec Securities Commission (AMF). His research has allowed him privileged access to audit committee chairs across the country, giving him specialized perspectives into the behavioural aspects of audit committees and their chairs.

 

Prior to his academic career, Richard worked for multinationals such as FedEx and the Royal Bank. He also held strategic positions in emerging companies such as VP Finance for the Cora's breakfast chain, where he still remains an active member of the Cora's advisory committee.