BCBusiness

December 2019 - January 2020 Best Cities for Work in B.C.

With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.

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60 BCBUSINESS DECEMBER/JANUARY 2020 COURTESY OF CAPILANO SUSPENSION BRIDGE; INTERNATIONAL GUITAR NIGHT and each time he had to wait six weeks for the re- sult. He'd consulted books and an online chat room, and got pasteurized milk as fresh from the cow as possible, but eventually realized that what was missing was a cave with 92-percent humidity and a temperature of 10 C. "I needed to create France in my basement." So Wrinch bought a bar fridge and built a computer that controls its humidity and tempera- ture. He calls it the cheese factory. "In the cheese world, at 100-percent humidity you get black mould, which I think is deadly," Wrinch remarks. "At 90-percent humidity, you get the nice, white, fluffy mould." Lack of cleanliness or too high a temperature also produce the wrong type of mould. "If the humidity's too low, you get this horrible thing that happens to cheese," Wrinch says. "It rumples up and it looks all wrin- kly, like a disgusting animal of some kind." Thanks to such outcomes, he's learned that "mak- ing cheese is about risk management and being careful with how you plan and how you execute on things because if you don't, it doesn't turn out well." Born in Kamloops and raised in Victoria, Wrinch was introduced to manag- ing risk while at univer- sity. He fought forest fires during the summers— earning the nickname "Hedgehog" because he always had dirt on his face—and did cold ocean research on icebergs at Memorial University of Newfoundland. He has a bachelor's and MASc in electrical engineering from Memorial and com- pleted a PhD in power systems electrical engi- neering at UBC in 2008 as a project connected to his company, Hedgehog Technologies. The cheeses that have turned out best are brie, camembert and feta. "I can say, Hey, we're going to have a dinner party in six weeks, and I'll chef up some cheese in the basement and then it'll be ready," Wrinch points out. Cheddar takes a year, and he's never managed to make a good one. "I wouldn't serve it to you," he confesses. "It would just be me in secret eating it and crying." Another nemesis is cambozola, a blue cheese mixed with a type of brie. "It eludes me to this day," Wrinch admits. "You make your cheese, and you get this blue mould and you poke it into the cheese, and the blue mould and the white mould fight together. It's a very tricky thing. That's right up my alley. In engineering, I like hard problems." • A F T E R HO U R S Night Lights It's the darkest time of the year, but North Vancouver's Capilano Suspension Bridge Park is aglow until January 26. The Canyon Lights festival claims to have the tallest Christmas trees in the world: eight Douglas firs up to 110 feet high, lit from top to bottom and connected by seven illuminated suspension bridges. There's also a Snowy Owl Prowl, gingerbread cookie decorating and carol singalongs. 3735 Capilano Road 11 a.m.–9 p.m. daily; closed Christmas Day; holiday activities 4-9 p.m.; annual pass for B.C. residents with ID at time of purchase or per day for others from $16.95 (child) to $53.95 (adult), free for children under six String Quartet International Guitar Night's 20th anniversary winter tour of North America includes four stops in B.C. This year's cast of exceptional acoustic guitar players, assembled from around the world by event founder Brian Gore, are British fingerstyle master Mike Dawes, Turk- ish fretless guitarist Cenk Erdogan, Finnish jazz artist Olli Soikkeli and Hawaiian Slack key player Jim (Kimo) West. Cowichan Performing Arts Centre, Duncan, January 23; Port Theatre, Nanaimo, January 24; Massey Theatre, New Westminster, January 25; The Farquhar at UVic, Victoria, January 26; tickets $12.50-$40 depending on venue • Thank you to the 500 animal lovers who made our Fifth Anniversary Offleashed Gala in Vancouver an incredible success, including: To be part of our 2020 Offleashed Gala, please contact us at 604-681-7271 or offleashed@spca.bc.ca The Jack and Darlene Poole Foundation Wayne Deans and Leslie La Vie We grant wishes because wishes change lives. MAKE-A-WISH ® BC & YUKON www.makeawishbc.ca 604.688.7944 bcchapter@makeawish.ca I wish to go to Paris! Emily, 16, cys c fibrosis Leave a legacy of HOPE!

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