Matt O'Grady
Recent Posts on BCBusiness
In the early 1970s, a Montana professor by the name of Jess Lair published a book, I Ain’t Much, Baby—But I’m All I’ve Got, considered one of the forerunners of the self-help movement. Among the quotable quotes attributed to Lair: “If you love something, set it free.” Jeff Kroeker isn’t much of...
When Dave Curtis calls in early February, it’s the seventh time our interview has been rescheduled over the course of three months. The CEO of Viking Air has been a very busy man—and, if truth be told, a bit worried about talking to the media in the wake of his...
Back in the spring of 2009, Karn Manhas was doing what law students do best: argue. His latest venture, a tech consulting firm named Karyon Group, had recently folded in the wake of the 2008-09 economic crisis, and the Port...
When Brenda Irwin was invited by a friend to a Vancouver pitch event in the summer of 2013, she had no intention of investing in anything. The native of Mount Elgin, Ontario, had only left her job with Business Development...
When Stephanie Bertels walks into the fourth-floor boardroom of SFU’s Segal Graduate School of Business in downtown Vancouver, the diminutive scholar is in full outdoor apparel, wearing a tuque and winter jacket, and seemingly shrinking into her woollen cowl. It’s...
Vancouver is a city that enjoys basking in its own press. Each year, when the Economist or Mercer puts out its “best” or “most livable” list, Lotusland regularly cracks the top five. But every so often, a contrarian report puts Vancouver in...
In the past few years, Atlanta—gateway to the New South—has had a bit of a reboot in the popular imagination. For the longest of times, many people’s familiarity with the city might have been limited to connecting through its sprawling...
The moment that Teri Nicholas’s six years as president and CEO of BC Children’s Hospital Foundation has been building toward is almost here. On October 29, the first children will enter the Teck Acute Care Centre: a 640,000-square-foot, eight-storey facility...
When I reach John Anderson at the Coquitlam offices of the Oppenheimer Group—also known, after a recent rebranding, simply as Oppy—he’s been back in the country for less than a day. “Apparently we haven’t had a lot of sunshine around...
In the ’70s, B.C. gets two new sports franchises: the Vancouver Canucks (entering the NHL in 1970) and the Vancouver Whitecaps (originally of the North American Soccer League, in 1974, and, since 2011, Major League Soccer). Both teams fare better than the NBA’s ill-fated Vancouver Grizzlies, who crash and burn 25 years...
Karen Flavelle’s approach to succession at Purdys Chocolates is coloured by the approach her own father took with her. Twice he refused to let her join the firm, forcing her to work as a marketing executive with firms including General...
In the 2014 provincial budget, Premier Christy Clark promised a fundamental overhaul of B.C.’s post-secondary education system—with more emphasis on graduating students who meet the needs of the private sector. “I think we should be making sure we are providing programming in our post-secondary institutions that provides people, young and...