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BCBusiness + EY Canada There’s no question that entrepreneurship is in Geoff Chutter’s blood. His grandfather’s business, Wright’s Canadian Ropes Ltd., was founded in 1930 in the building that currently houses Granville Island Market. Fast forward nearly 90 years, and in 2019 Chutter became the first national EY Entrepreneur Of The...
Contactsforless.ca founder Paul W. Slusher runs a business that prides itself on being both innovative and grounded. The former is exemplified by his Surrey operation’s pledge to donate 51 percent of all net profits to the nonprofit of the buyer’s choosing.
Self-proclaimed digital marketing junkie Erica Hakonson founded Maven Collective Marketing after her side hustle became more than full-time and she needed more flexibility as a working mom. Now Hakonson runs a digital marketing agency with an international consulting team and...
A former professional dancer, Jessica Slonksi has been teaching Pilates in Vancouver since 2009, and doing it out of her own studio, Form Body Lab, for the past seven-and-a-half years. Slonski launched her business after spotting what she thought was a...
Born and raised on Vancouver Island, Jessica Schacht is co-founder of Ampersand Distilling Co., a family-owned small-batch distillery in Duncan. She and her husband, Jeremy (an engineer by trade), launched the business because they share a love of craft cocktails.
A graduate of Western’s Ivy Business School, Rosy Atwal worked as a brand manager for companies like Nature’s Path Foods and Sleeman Breweries before she founded wellness outfit Maple Organics in 2016. The Surrey-based business, which dubs itself Canada’s “first organic pharmaceutical...
A chartered professional accountant by trade, Suzanne Siemens founded Lunapads (since renamed Aisle) with fashion designer Madeleine Shaw in 2000 to produce and market a sustainable collection of menstrual products, including washable cloth menstrual pads and period underwear. The pair were far ahead...
After graduating from UBC, Matt Smith worked in IT before becoming something of a serial entrepreneur. He founded two companies based on hosting online scores in Alpha Score Seminars and then Thinkific, with his brother, Greg Smith. Greg is still CEO...
On March 4, the inaugural Business of Good Awards filled a ballroom at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver to recognize the organizations in our province that turn the principles of social responsibility into action. For the winners and finalists in this...
Greg Malpass's LinkedIn profile states that he went to the "School of hard knocks." And while that isn't literally true (the Nelson native did a BBA at SFU), he did learn hard and fast lessons while starting a company in...