Rachel Wicks

Operations Manager

Rachel joined the Clearline Chartered Professional Accountants team in 2010 as a staff accountant. She received her Bachelor of Arts from UBC in 2007. Rachel joined Clearline because of the opportunity to work with a great, knowledgeable, dynamic team environment. She brings her outstanding organizational skills, creativity, and enthusiasm to the office. Rachel loves being outdoors and in her free time can be found at the park playing grass or beach volleyball till sun down.

Baljit Duhra-Johal

CPA, CGA, Senior Manager – Surrey

A Senior Manager at Clearline Chartered Professional Accountants, Baljit has over 15 years of public practice experience with a focus on and a passion for serving owner-managed businesses. She provides all aspects of accounting and tax services to her clients including payroll, HST and personal tax services. She has extensive experience in a variety of industries ranging from construction to incorporated professionals to investment holding companies. Her emphasis has always been on ensuring that a client’s needs are being met. When Baljit is not in the office you can find her driving her two wonderful sons from one activity to the next.

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Bilal Kathrada

CPA, CA, Partner – Surrey

Bilal, a Partner at Clearline Chartered Professional Accountants, primarily focuses on income tax and succession planning for Canadian owner-managed businesses in various industries. Bilal received his Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Victoria and obtained his CA designation in 2005. Prior to Clearline, he worked in the tax group of a large international accounting firm in Vancouver and a mid-sized accounting firm located in the Fraser Valley. An active proponent of community involvement, Bilal volunteers as the treasurer for the Surrey Cares Community Foundation. Outside of the office, he enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter. He enjoys outdoor activities such as golf and spending time with his family and friends.

John B. Hale

CPA, CA, Partner Emeritus – North Vancouver

John graduated from the University of Montana’s School of Business in 1972. He obtained his CPA (US) designation in 1980 and his CA designation in 1983. He spent more than 11 years with the international firm of PriceWaterhouse (now PriceWaterhouseCoopers), in three different countries before establishing his own firm in 1989.

Jeff Block

CPA, CA, Partner – North Vancouver

Jeff has worked in public practice since 2002, providing accounting and tax advice to business owners, professionals and private companies. He has provided audit and assurance services to private companies, not-for-profit organizations and charities, in addition to acting as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of public and private companies. Jeff completed his Bachelors of Business Administration (BBA) from Trinity Western University and went on to article at Staley, Okada & Partners, which later merged with PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he earned his Chartered Accountant (CA) designation. In 2009, Jeff, along with his business partner Grant T. Smith, founded Clearline Chartered Professional Accountants. The company started with just two staff in North Vancouver and has since grown to include a third partner, Bilal Kathrada, three office locations – North Vancouver, downtown Vancouver, and Surrey central – and a team of 20+ professionals.

Jeff was born and raised on a 52-acre working farm in South Surrey. He spends as much time outdoors as possible and loves living in Vancouver’s temperate climate; after all it is as close to California as he can get in Canada.

Grant T. Smith

CPA, CA, Partner – Vancouver

Now I am a CPA and mom and dad are so proud! But it was not always so, my youth was misspent earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts at York University in Toronto. My efforts were focused on revitalizing the theatre and, so I thought, improving mankind through art. That phase, known as the “arts years”, ended when I met Joanne Betzler on the best day of my life and started the “garden years”. For the next decade or so I worked with my mentor, John Zaplatynsky, at GardenWorks, where I learned how to run a business.

I left GardenWorks in 2001 to begin the “CPA years” and went off to work for Staley, Okada and partners, the prestigious chartered accountant firm that taught me my profession. I got to work with some of the finest professionals in the industry in Canada and was privileged to do so. It was not always great though, because there I met Jeff Block, my business partner.

It’s hard to imagine just how important your children can be and I am privileged to have the best four, all of whom have found marvellous partners and in one case have given Joanne and I two amazing grandchildren.

As a CPA I primarily focus on relieving my clients’ stress by helping to build a plan and implement a strategy that allows my client to focus on the things that matter most to them, like raising children almost as great as mine.