David Garofalo, senior vp, finance and CFO of Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd., has been chosen as Canada’s CFO of the Year for 2009. Garofalo will be honoured at a gala dinner on April 14 in Toronto.

Canada’s CFO of the Year Award is presented annually by Financial Executives International Canada (FEI Canada), PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and The Caldwell Partners International. The award honours and recognizes the quality, insight, direction and leadership of Canada’s senior financial executives.

“This award recognizes financial executive leaders, like David Garofalo, who have demonstrated excellence to help guide their business, especially through these challenging times.” says Michael Conway, CEO & national president of FEI Canada.

Garofalo was named Canada’s CFO of the Year by an independent committee, chaired by Peter Dey, and composed of some of Canada’s most prominent business leaders. The criteria by which nominees were judged are: vision and leadership; corporate reporting and performance; social responsibility; innovation; and business complexity. Award candidates were nominated in all business sectors by CEOs, members of boards of directors, financial analysts and other senior executives.

Garofalo has been with the Agnico since 1998. Before joining Agnico, he served as treasurer of Inmet Mining Corp., an international mining company. Garofalo serves on the boards of directors of Agnico and Stornoway Diamond Corp. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto (B.Comm.) and a Chartered Accountant.

Previous recipients of the award include:

2008: Bruce Waterman, senior vp, finance and CFO of Agrium Inc.;

2007: Marvin Romanow, exec. vp and CFO of Nexen Inc.;

2006: Karen Maidment, CFO and chief administrative officer of Bank of Montreal;

2005: Claude Mongeau, executive vp and CFO of CN;

2004: Peter Rubenovitch, senior exec. vp and CFO of Manulife Financial; and

2003: Peter Currie, vice chairman and CFO of Royal Bank of Canada.

IE