Walter Ross, FCPA, FCA
Retired Partner of Ernst & Young, and former Director, Laidlaw Foundation
Walter is a fellow of the Ontario Institute of Chartered Accountants and a retired partner of Ernst & Young. He is past president of the Laidlaw Foundation and the Family Service Association of Toronto.
He has extensive experience in both the financial and philanthropic communities. Walter was a founding Director of the Temagami Community Foundation. This organization was created by Indigenous and non-Indigenous community members with the common goal of creating a mutually created charitable foundation with a dedicated focus on the well being of the Temagami region. Since 2012 Walter has Chaired the Finance and Audit Committee of the Temagami First Nation.
Walter is particularly interested in exploring the social and environmental dimensions of economic activity. He aims to better understand the connections between these often separate realms, and seeks approaches to problem solving that overcome inertia in the face of societal need. He believes we need stronger and better, but often less, public regulation. In addition, he thinks that good financial reporting is a necessary prerequisite for public accountability, in both for-profit and not-for-profit entities.
Walter’s activities are influenced by but cannot be blamed on his immediate family; his wife and three children forming the unlikely group of social worker, artist/activist, Buddhist/carpenter and mathematician. He reads widely, with strong preferences for history, biography, and particularly fiction, and accounting and business texts when absolutely necessary.
