Donna Zoretich, PCP
WELL Health Technologies Corp. – Vancouver, BC
Donna Zoretich is a payroll professional with multiple designations, including being a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) — but payroll is her passion.
“I prefer working with people and payroll brings numbers and people together,” Donna says. “In accounting, you can get stuck in just dealing with numbers. In payroll, everything has still got to balance, but I get to enjoy the interpersonal aspects as well. That’s what drew me in.”
About 20 years ago, Donna was working towards attaining her CPA and was in an accounting position with responsibility for payroll.
A few years later, while between full-time jobs, she took a contract position doing reconciliations. “They didn’t tell me what kind of reconciliations,” she recalls. “But it wasn’t financial. I was reconciling between systems, comparing the old benefits administration system with a new one. This was not what I expected, but it ended up being really cool!”
Donna is now the Payroll Manager for WELL Health Technologies Corp. in Vancouver, B.C. Her current responsibilities include payroll day-to-day implementation across the WELL group of companies as well as integrating WELL Health’s acquisitions and amalgamations. She also uses her payroll lens to identify potential issues that might impact the business; this includes data analysis and reporting for strategic planning. “I keep up to date on new technology, which helps the company reduce costs, adapt plans and increase efficiency,” she says.
Adjusting to new situations has been a hallmark of Donna’s life. Born in Trinidad and Tobago, her family moved to Winnipeg when she was a child. Winnipeg’s frozen, snow-covered winter was, to put it mildly, a shock. “All I knew was that we were cold now,” recalls Donna.
After her family moved to Vancouver, she grew up a city girl. When she later married and moved to the more rural Langley, Donna adapted again. More change came when her daughter started riding horses. “As a new person never involved in an equestrian climate, it was a whole other level of ‘I don’t know,’” laughs Donna. But now, she loves to watch her daughter compete in dressage, show jumping and cross country.
Although embracing change is integral to her nature, Donna does find one transition tough to take. “When I visit the Caribbean now, I can’t tolerate heat as well as I used to.”
