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.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1222419
BCBUSINESS.CA F I N A L I S T MARGARET BRODIE C F O + D I R E C T O R , R U B I C O N O R G A N I C S THRIVING IN uncer- tainty is key to success in the cannabis industry, says Margaret Brodie: "It's an environment with constant change." In 2015, the Vancouver native was the first hire at organic cannabis pro- ducer Rubicon, which has since grown to 65 people. Previously a CPA and CA with KPMG after studying at what is now UBC Sauder School of Business, Brodie worked in her hometown and London with companies such as BHP, Diageo and Honda Europe. Rubicon sells its Delta- grown flower under the Simply Bare brand, which hit B.C. and Saskatche- wan in February. "We are gunning to be Canada's preeminent certified organic craft cannabis," Brodie says. —J.N.W. F I N A L I S T BRIDGITTE ALOMES F O U N D E R + C E O , N A T U R A L P O D APRIL 2020 BCBUSINESS 25 BRIDGITTE ALOMES got the idea for Natural Pod when she couldn't find products for her kids that clearly indicated their origin and what they were made of. Founded in 2006, the company moved from toys into environmen- tally responsible furniture for edu- cational spaces. Its recyclable, compostable pieces, designed and manufactured in B.C., are made with Forest Stew- ardship Council– certified materials. Burnaby-based Natural Pod, which offers about 250 furniture items that clients can combine to create their ideal layout, has created some 15,000 spaces in Canada, the U.S., Asia, Dubai and Australia. Alomes, who studied at Univer- sity of South Aus- tralia, worked in software market- ing after moving to Vancouver in 2000. "I always had this drive, this passion to do something more creative and impactful," she says. "[Natural Pod] could not have grown with- out our community and without inspir- ing others to think about their learning environment differ- ently." –J.N.W. F I N A L I S T SHANNON BYRNE SUSKO F O U N D E R + C E O , M E T R O N O M E U N I T E D AFTER FOUNDING, LEADING and selling two technology com- panies six years apart, Shannon Byrne Susko was persuaded by a fellow CEO to come out of retirement and coach him. From that first client grew Byrne Susko's latest venture, Metronome United, a Whistler-based firm founded in 2011 to support entre- preneurs and leaders of small to billion-dollar enterprises. The Halifax native, who has master's degrees in computer science and business dynamics, advises clients using the busi- ness growth strategy that guided her to success, a methodology she developed with two employees. Those two joined her in launching a parallel company, Metronome Growth Systems, offering cloud-based software to implement the approach. It has been licensed to more than 1,000 businesses with a total of 10,000 users. In 2018, Metronome United expanded to certify others; 60 people from around the world have begun certification, and there's a wait-list of 170. "These coaches give us an exponential reach," says Byrne Susko, who has also published two books to further extend the reach of the Metronome system. "We want to give back to others to make it easier to grow their companies with speed and confidence." —J.N.W. F I N A L I S T ASHLEY RAMSAY C O - F O U N D E R + C E O , B E N S A Y I N N O V A T I V E , d b a Y E T I F A R M C R E A T I V E PETE THE CAT AND HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA are big names in children's animated series, and they were created in Kelowna at Yeti Farm Creative, founded in 2012 by Ashley Ramsay and her husband, Todd. The company has produced content for Amazon Studios, Corus Media, Surfer Jack Productions and WildBrain. • Previously, Victoria-born Ramsay earned a BFA from UBC and worked as a producer at a Vancouver ani- mation house. "You have to decide at different milestones whether you're going to grow or not," she says of running a business. • Yeti Farm, now developing its own series, employs 170 people in its 11,000 square- foot studio; by 2022, Ramsay expects to add 55 more staff and move to a facility double the size. —J.N.W.