From the Front Desk to a CCP: Jennifer Clark’s 8-Year Climb at Van Kam

In 2018, Jennifer Clark walked into Van Kam to start a job as a receptionist. Eight years later, she’s the company’s Credit Manager, with one of the toughest credentials in Canadian credit to her name. The path between those two points didn’t come easy. Ask her how it happened, and she’ll tell you it came down to a series of doors, and the choice, every time, to walk through them.

A Door, and the Choice to Walk Through It

For the first six months, the receptionist role was exactly what Jen wanted. She liked the people, the pace, and the work. Then a job in Accounts Receivable opened up, and she put her name in. She got it and spent another six months as an AR collector before moving into the senior AR seat. Not long after, our Credit Supervisor retired, and Van Kam asked her to step up again. A year later, the role became Credit Manager. Four moves in under three years, none of them planned at the start.

“The amount of trust Van Kam puts in me is humbling,” she says. “Sometimes I sit back and think, I can’t believe this is being entrusted to me.”

That trust goes both ways. Jen describes Van Kam as a place where willingness gets noticed. Raise your hand. Step outside your standard duties. Say yes when asked to try something new, and the doors open. “If you have the willingness to learn and try new things,” she says, “it’s appreciated at every level.”

Two and a Half Years of Nights

Once Jen settled into the Credit Manager role, a suggestion came her way to take on the Certified Credit Professional (CCP) designation. Awarded by the Credit Institute of Canada, the CCP is the top credential in Canadian credit, covering financial statement analysis, corporate law, and advanced risk management across eight courses. Most people take the full seven years allowed to finish it. Jen took it on with a different timeline in mind.

For two and a half years, she put in full days at Van Kam and full nights at the books. 20 to 30 hours of study a week, after work, on top of a job that already asks plenty of her. She had been out of school for two decades. Going back meant trading evenings, weekends, and much of the personal time she had built into her life outside work. She did not slow down, take the longer timeline, or step back when the work got heavy. “It was hard, and I’m not just saying that,” she says. “But it was a short-term sacrifice for long-term gain.”

A Culture That Backs Its People

The CCP wasn’t something Jen took on alone. Van Kam reimburses employees for passing grades, which helped on the practical side, but the real support came from the people around her. When she went looking for guidance, she found it. “I’d go to Lenore (Lenore Henry, Director, Credit & Collections). I went to Jason (Jason Rostas, VP, Finance). I went to Monika (Monika Panjabi, Controller). I went to Crystal (Crystal Holek, Director, Talent and Culture),” she says. “The help and encouragement I got was incredible. It was always, you’ve got this, Jen,” she says. “There was no pressure put on me to finish it as fast as I did.”

That kind of backing is part of how Van Kam works. The company invests in the people who invest in the work. “It was never forced upon me,” Jen says. “It was never, you get this job if you do this. It was – this could be beneficial to you and to the company.”

A Different Way of Seeing the Work

Ask Jen what the CCP changed for her, and the answer comes back fast. “It changed my mindset from just a collector to a financial partner,” she says. Before the CCP, the focus was on getting the invoice paid. Now Jen treats every account as a risk-mitigation project. She reads financial statements, runs ratios, and looks at cash flows and legal protections to head off problems before they start.

That shift matters in freight. Expenses go out weekly, but customers typically don’t pay for 30 to 60 days, and a single bad account can hit the bottom line. Jen’s job is to protect Van Kam’s cash flow while supporting sales as we grow the business, and the CCP gave her the tools to do both with greater depth and confidence. “I look at things with a different light now,” she says. “I’m able to understand the leadership team in a whole new way.”

Just Get Going!

Jenifer could have stayed where she was; she wanted better for herself and for Van Kam. Eight years, four roles, and one of the toughest credentials in Canadian credit under her belt, she’s proof that the climb is there for anyone willing to take it. Her last words to those who are thinking about moving forward, “If you want something, go for it. Don’t let people stand in your way, and don’t let your doubts in yourself stand in your way.”

Congratulations, Jen, on earning your CCP!

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