We Believe People Should
Live Great Lives
About Pinnacle
From our humble beginnings as guerrilla accountants, we imagined a firm where we could empower business owners to make better decisions. This vision fuelled our desire to build something better, brighter, and infinitely more useful to our clients (and more life-affirming for ourselves).
Our passion at Pinnacle PAC is helping people succeed. Our clients tell us they value our relationship because we translate technical matters into plain English they can understand and use. We believe the accountant should be a coach, cheerleader, and peer rather than simply the scorekeeper. We believe professionals should charge a fair price for the value provided to the client and that value is not a function of time spent. We believe an accounting office can be a fun and creative place for team members and an open and non-threatening environment for clients.
We empower business owners to help themselves – to understand their business, understand their financial position, measure their growth, interpret their financial results, build their operating systems, improve their teams and make themselves better leaders and community members. And ultimately, to live great lives.
Chris Brien, CPA, CA
Managing Partner
Chris is a Partner at Pinnacle. He is a bicycle disciple and a lover of all things outdoorsy. He loves skiing, hanging out at the lake, and going on long, painful multi day/week/month bike/camp trips with Doug and Angus (fellow Pinnacle team members). Chris and Doug are the founding (and only) members of the bike group “Ride or Die” which was started when they rode their bicycles from Castlegar to Tijuana. They didn’t die.
Chris likes spending time with his unruly stepchildren and getting away from the office to travel. He does not like doing anything in the morning before he has a coffee at his desk.
Chris Brien, CPA, CA
Managing Partner
Chris is a Partner at Pinnacle. He is a bicycle disciple and a lover of all things outdoorsy. He loves skiing, hanging out at the lake, and going on long, painful multi day/week/month bike/camp trips with Doug and Angus (fellow Pinnacle team members). Chris and Doug are the founding (and only) members of the bike group “Ride or Die” which was started when they rode their bicycles from Castlegar to Tijuana. They didn’t die.
Chris likes spending time with his unruly stepchildren and getting away from the office to travel. He does not like doing anything in the morning before he has a coffee at his desk.
Willow Enewold, CPA, CGA
Culture & Strategy Leader
Willow is a Partner at Pinnacle. She loves systemizing, organizing, experimenting, and bringing order and consistency to chaos. A visionary with one foot always in the future, she is a champion of change, even if it means constant bruises on her shins from compulsive rearranging of furniture. Nurturer of people and plants, artist, interior designer, cook, computer technician, and team coach, Willow (usually) finds great joy in working with her team members and clients.
She also prefers hanging out with animals rather than eating them.
Doug Johnstone, CPA, CA
Operations & Mentorship Leader
Doug is a Mentor and Consultant at Pinnacle. He is an adventure cyclist and curious traveller (often these things go hand in hand; cycling to Tijuana and taking a shot at the Great Divide trail are a couple of his more ambitious cycle tours to date). Doug is a believer in “early to bed, early to rise” (he blames a 4:00am paper route as a boy for the early to rise habit), and is also a believer in the more colourful the shirt, the better (some days you can see him from space).
Dichotomously a people-pleaser and a rebel, Doug loves to help clients, friends and strangers, but can’t abide being told he “should” do anything. Though he is a self-proclaimed morning person, don’t bother trying to talk to him before he gets a couple cups of coffee in.
Doug Johnstone, CPA, CA
Operations & Mentorship Leader
Doug is a Mentor and Consultant at Pinnacle. He is an adventure cyclist and curious traveller (often these things go hand in hand; cycling to Tijuana and taking a shot at the Great Divide trail are a couple of his more ambitious cycle tours to date). Doug is a believer in “early to bed, early to rise” (he blames a 4:00am paper route as a boy for the early to rise habit), and is also a believer in the more colourful the shirt, the better (some days you can see him from space).
Dichotomously a people-pleaser and a rebel, Doug loves to help clients, friends and strangers, but can’t abide being told he “should” do anything. Though he is a self-proclaimed morning person, don’t bother trying to talk to him before he gets a couple cups of coffee in.
Rob Fahie
Accounting Student
Rob is an Accounting Student at Pinnacle. He is also a professional musician (hello dual musical Masters degrees, hello two-time Carnegie Hall performer). He loves caring for animals, (but not eating them) and is a fan of all things outdoorsish — especially sailing and, recently, gardening.
A few more things Rob digs and does: positivity, organization, fairness, and accepting responsibility. Things Rob doesn’t do: worry, blame, and avoid Facebook.
Karen Boland
Office Manager
Karen is the Office Manager at Pinnacle. Which means she looks after all the things that make our practice actually work. Greeter of clients, organizer of team, Karen is the machine behind the scene. Karen loves hiking and nature walks and she loves everything about animals (though not necessarily the big-toothed kind you hopefully don’t run into on those nature walks). Travelling, seeing new things, eating new food, hanging on the beach, and chilling with a good margarita and/or ice cold beer on a patio on a warm summer night are a few of her other favourite things.
Karen is a learner, a problem solver, a people person, and…an aspiring musician. She bought a guitar and once it’s restrung to accommodate a leftie (yes, she’s one of those), she will learn to play it.
Karen Boland
Office Manager
Karen is the Office Manager at Pinnacle. Which means she looks after all the things that make our practice actually work. Greeter of clients, organizer of team, Karen is the machine behind the scene. Karen loves hiking and nature walks and she loves everything about animals (though not necessarily the big-toothed kind you hopefully don’t run into on those nature walks). Travelling, seeing new things, eating new food, hanging on the beach, and chilling with a good margarita and/or ice cold beer on a patio on a warm summer night are a few of her other favourite things.
Karen is a learner, a problem solver, a people person, and…an aspiring musician. She bought a guitar and once it’s restrung to accommodate a leftie (yes, she’s one of those), she will learn to play it.
Melissa McCready
Accounting Technician
Melissa is an Accounting Technician at Pinnacle. She is a super-geek at heart and takes great joy and pride in researching stuff, running spreadsheets and solving problems. Melissa loves playing and writing music, hanging out with friends and family, goofing around with her daughter Juni, and cooking and eating plant based meals.
Handy-girl extraordinaire, Melissa is equally competent wielding power tools and calculators; she can put a file (or a piece of furniture) together like a seasoned pro.
Angus Lynch
Accounting Student
Angus is an Accounting Student at Pinnacle. After a few bike-packing trips, he has been made an occasional auxiliary member of Doug and Chris’ “Ride or Die” group (see above).
Angus values humour above all other qualities, along with fairness and "being real" (no one is sure what he means by that). Being homeless in Cuba on Christmas Eve and struggling for a bathroom on long, straight stretches of highway are two things he could live without. All told, someone has to brew the coffee, and that photocopier doesn't run itself.
Angus Lynch
Accounting Student
Angus is an Accounting Student at Pinnacle. After a few bike-packing trips, he has been made an occasional auxiliary member of Doug and Chris’ “Ride or Die” group (see above).
Angus values humour above all other qualities, along with fairness and "being real" (no one is sure what he means by that). Being homeless in Cuba on Christmas Eve and struggling for a bathroom on long, straight stretches of highway are two things he could live without. All told, someone has to brew the coffee, and that photocopier doesn't run itself.