March 2019
In this issue
Digital agency veterans John Ounpuu, Nathan Paziuk and Randy Siu formed Vancouver-based Modern Craft in 2014 to help other firms’ marketing departments navigate a new world of changing technology. The 15-member team recently moved from Gastown to the 17th floor of a ’60s office tower overlooking Coal Harbour. Asked for lighthearted luxury, Vancouver’s MāK Interiors designed the 3,000-square-foot space to...
Royal Roads University, School of Business TUITION: $25,730-$42,680 (program-dependent) NEXT APPLICATION DEADLINE: MAY 5 Royal Roads University offers an MBA in executive management with a variety of experiential learning opportunities, combining in-class and online teaching to keep things flexible. The curriculum includes specializations such as international business–Asia Pacific trade and investment, which sees students do an eight-day residency in Asia. For the...
With backgrounds in, respectively, fine art and the skateboard industry, four years ago Christine Breakell-Lee and Matt Kelly launched XS Helmets for urban cycling. When retailers asked for non-biking items, the Vancouver pair began producing soft goods like socks, knits and caps to expand the XS Unified look to boutiques and gift shops. Strathcona Stockings, launched in 2010 as a collection of limited...
When Anita Cheung was a teenager growing up on Vancouver’s east side, she suffered from anorexia. As a result, much of what she’s done in her adult life has involved the pursuit of wellness for herself and others. In what Cheung calls a “weird and winding path,” a BSc specializing in international nutrition from UBC (“I thought I was going...
Justus Parmar is the Vancouver-based managing director of Fortuna Investments, a venture capital firm that has raised more than $300 million for 125 early-stage companies. With a home in Los Angeles, offices from Toronto to Barbados and business in far-flung places, from Israel to Argentina and Tanzania, he finds “bleisure” balance in combining work and play. “I do try to travel...
BASED: Vancouver FOUNDER: Charlsy Dobell LAUNCHED: 2015 EMPLOYEES: 11 THE DL: Collects information from more than 125 property databases and collates them, allowing developers and realtors to see the newest stats in real time and analyze how neighbourhoods and communities are shifting IT’S KINDA LIKE: Google Maps BASED: Vancouver FOUNDER: Chris and Rebecca Troelstra LAUNCHED: 2013 (as RealtyButler, rebranded in 2018) EMPLOYEES: 90 THE DL: Helps agents manage their website, social media and marketing efforts IT’S...
Two days before unveiling the brand-new Velvet Restaurant and Lounge, in Rossland’s Josie hotel, executive chef Marc André Choquette seems pretty relaxed. Mind you, it’s not his first launch. Choquette was involved in opening Cactus Club Cafe’s King Taps in Toronto, plus two Vancouver eateries: the Homer Street St. Café and Bar, and the Loden Hotel’s Voya, which he relaunched...
Every so often, Steve Easterbrook’s roosters, who act as sentinels for his thousands of brown hens, mistake a plane descending into nearby Vancouver International Airport for a predatory hawk or eagle. The warning squawks send the hens scurrying back into the barn, their dainty clawed feet clicking like rain on the hard ground. Once the perceived danger is past, the chickens...
Fake news may or may not be a thing, but interest in the authenticity of brands, products and experiences shows no signs of cooling. Expedia Group’s 2016 Millennial Traveller Report found that experiencing authentic culture was most important to 76 percent of baby boomers, 62 percent of gen-Xers and 52 percent of millennials. And its Multinational Travel Trends, published last...
In my Vancouver office you’ll find a 2007 iMac, a couple of guitars, an impressive dustball collection and one gram of high-potency marijuana (total THC: 18.5 percent), purchased online through BC Cannabis Stores. The process—once called scoring, if I’m not mistaken—was surprisingly efficient, and had the added advantage of not involving a bus trip to East Hastings Street to meet...