Meet the judges

Allison Hawkins

Co-founder, Hawkins & Co. Accounting

Fifty percent super accountant, 50% design maven, Allison is the woman behind the Hawkins & Co brand and the talent that make up this firm’s winning profile. With solid experience at PWC, Prudential Life and Pensions UK, Ernst and Young, (UK and Toronto) and Direct Energy, she has built business models to help clients obtain financing, as well as reviewed business processes across a wide range of companies.

Since 2007, she has focused on start-ups and owner managed businesses across Canada, helping them develop and finance their business plans, and set up their accounting and POS systems.

Gerald “Kep” Kepner Jr.

Managing Partner / CPA and CEPA (Certified Exit Planning Advisor), KepnerCPA

2024 Xero Partner Award Winner: Advisory Innovator

Kep is the founder and namesake managing partner of KepnerCPA. He came into the accounting profession in an unusual way with a background in sales and marketing from his stint at IBM and other computer companies. His marketing background allowed him to become the partner in charge of the management consulting practice of Alford Meroney & Company, a regional CPA firm. When Alford Meroney merged, Kep became a Management Consulting Partner at Arthur Young.

Kep has an accounting degree from “can’t wait until basketball season” Kansas University (Rock Chalk Jayhawk) and an MBA in finance from the University of California – Berkeley. But his education wasn’t complete until he cashed in his corner office at Arthur Young to acquire a company that built bank buildings. When that business tanked in the financial debacle of the 1980s (Kep calls that a learning experience), he started KepnerCPA in his spare bedroom.

Through his own experiences and those of his many clients, Kep has identified the factors that separate highly successful companies from also-rans. He has defined those strategic factors in two books and consults regularly with his clients to help them grow and prosper.

He is more content climbing Aconcogua and Kilimanjero, swimming in the Arctic Ocean, or taking a horseback trek in outer Mongolia…not the typical life of a CPA. He is happily married to Kim and has two adult sons Peter and Kyle…who have survived his entrepreneurial efforts without too many scars.

Kellie Parks, CPB

Cloud Accounting Specialist, Calmwaters

Kellie is on a mission to help every accounting professional love cloud accounting as much as she does—through speaking, writing, and sharing real-world tools that make tech feel less overwhelming and more empowering. She is a runner, water/snow skier and live-music fan.

Certified or partnered in over two dozen cloud applications

Rachel Fisch

Accounting Technology Expert

Rachel Fisch is a Canadian entrepreneur and prehistoric adopter of cloud accounting. She empowers accountants and bookkeepers to scale and automate their firms with AI-based tools. Rachel has 30 years of experience in bookkeeping and accounting. She previously served as General Manager North America for Dext, National Bookkeeping Lead for Deloitte Canada, was the Accountants Group Leader for Sage Software, and led growth at a US based firm. Rachel is known for predicting where the market is heading, taking a strategic approach to accounting software and applications, and understanding how to position their features for a global market.

Richard Franklin

Business Development Director - Tech Sector

Richard is a global business development executive, with over 15 years of advisory experience in international market expansion, foreign direct investment and partner-enabled growth, with a recent focus on B2B SaaS technologies.

He currently helps ambitious Kiwi technology companies - like Xero - grow internationally, bigger, better and faster, for the good of New Zealand.

Sara Tweedie

Professor

Sara brings extensive experience in education, public accounting, regulatory compliance and policy development. Her public accounting experience encompasses both large multinational accounting firms and a regional single office practice.

Sara worked on the introduction of the new CPA certification program in Ontario and the development and coordination of regulatory policies andprocedures resulting from the unification of Ontario’s three professional accounting bodies into CPA Ontario.

With experience both developing cases and teaching using the case method, Sara has taught at Ivey Business School, Western University and at Humber Polytechnic. As a current faculty member at Humber, she is focused on classroom excellence and curriculum development.

Sara completed her MBA at the University of Liverpool. She also holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration, Ivey Business School, Western University and the CPA, CA professional designation.

Ryan Lazanis

CEO, Future Firm Inc.

Ryan Lazanis, CPA founded Xen Accounting, a 100% cloud-based accounting firm, in 2013. Following its acquisition in 2018, Ryan started Future Firm which provides coaching, community and training to help accountants quickly scale a systematic firm of their own that improves their lifestyle. Ryan currently educates close to 10,000 firm leaders globally via his free weekly newsletter and coaches hundreds of successful accounting firms through his Future Firm Accelerate online coaching program.

Meet our Xero judges

Short-from rules

Apply for your chance to win one (1)three (3) day, two (2) night trip for the winner and one (1) guest from October 22, 2025-October 24, 2025, to Chattahoochee Hills, GA. No purchase required. A purchase or payment will not affect your chances of winning. Winner selected at random. One entry per person, per event. You have not yet won. You must apply for Canada’s Xero Partner Awards 2025 and the winner will be announced on or around August 14th, 2025 around 2:00pm EST. Open only to residents of Canada, excluding Quebec. There is one (1) prize per category available to be won: three (3) day, two (2) night trip for the winner and one (1) guest from October 22, 2025-October 24, 2025, to Chattahoochee Hills, GA valued at approximately $2,500 CAD per winner. One (1) winner for each category will be selected by judges. The odds of winning a prize depends on the number of eligible entries received by Xero and the creativity of those submissions, as determined by the judges. See the official rules at xero.com/ca/events/xero-awards/2025/terms-conditions