
The 21st annual EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards is a unique chance to peek under the hood of B.C.'s finest businesses. Some of the 30 entrepreneurs featured here are self-made; others are inheritors of a family business; and still others have taken another person’s enterprise and made it their own. What unites them all is a willingness to take risks—and succeed. Below, we've grouped 2014's finalists by industry. Winners, who were announced September 30, are in purple
BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS // CLICK HERE >>
Tom Leavitt (OVERALL WINNER)
President and CEO, Leavitt Machinery
Rick Gibbs
President, Neutron Factory Works
Scott Edmonds
President and CEO, Webtech Wireless Inc.
BUSINESS-TO-CONSUMER // CLICK HERE >>
Charles Chang
President and founder, Sequel Naturals Ltd.
Natacha Beim
President, Neutron Factory Works
Brad, Mike + Mitch Trotman
Trotman Automotive Group
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY // CLICK HERE >>
Ho Kim
President and CEO, CAMACC Systems Inc.
Stephane Bourque
President and CEO, Incognito Software Inc.
Jack Newton
CEO, Clio
Lisa Tuningley
President, T-Rail Products
Vern Brownell
CEO, D-Wave
Franck Point
Owner, Faubourg Paris
Mark O’Dea
Founder and chair, Oxygen Capital Corp.
Bradford Cooke
CEO, Endeavour Silver Corp.
Devinder Randhawa + Ross McElroy
Fission Uranium Corp.
MANUFACTURING // CLICK HERE >>
Jake Fry
Founder and president, Smallworks
Steve Curtis
Founder and CEO, Zag Global
Dan Eisenhardt + Hamid Abdollahi
CEO; CTO, Recon Instruments Inc.
HOSPITALITY / ENTERTAINMENT // CLICK HERE >>
Sacha + Jason McLean
The McLean Group of Companies
Thomas Haas
Owner, Thomas Haas Chocolates and Patisserie
Sergio Cocchia + Wendy Lisogar-Cocchia
President; CEO, Crew Management Ltd.
Aaron Rokstad
CEO, Rokstad Power Corp.
Larrie York
President, Frontier Power Products Ltd.
Carlos Villavicencio
CEO, Natural Trade Ltd.
PHOTOS: THE GALA // CLICK HERE >>
VIDEO: THOUGHT LEADERSHIP EVENT // CLICK HERE >>
How the winners are chosen
The EY Entrepreneur of the Year is an annual global competition administered by Ernst & Young (EY). Canada’s Pacific Region competition is overseen by the Ernst & Young LLP Vancouver office, which selects judges from among business leaders and past EOY winners. Judges look for a number of factors, including vision, leadership, financial performance and social responsibility. The Pacific Region winner is among five finalists for Canada’s EY Entrepreneur of the Year; the Canadian winner advances to the World Entrepreneur of the Year with 50 country finalists, this year held in Monte Carlo. Details of the nomination process and judging criteria are available here.