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
W I N N E R LIVLEEN VESLEMES C E O , B I O L Y T I C A L L A B O R A T O R I E S AS A TEENAGER in Quesnel, where she was born to Indian immigrants, Livleen Veslemes used to watch The Oprah Win- frey Show with her dad, a shift worker at the plywood plant. "I remember watching her and thinking, I'm destined for greatness," says Veslemes, who spoke only Punjabi until she started kindergarten. "Those words have stuck with me since I was 16." Graduating from UNBC as a certified management accountant, Veslemes worked in a variety of financial roles, becoming CFO of Vancouver- headquartered Response Biomedical Corp. in 2009. Two years later, Luvo founder Stephen Sidwell asked her to join his healthy frozen-food startup, where she became one of the first employees, as head of finance and operations. I thought, Wow, this is going to be it," Veslemes recalls. "This is what I've been preparing for all of my life, to make a huge impact on this world." As it turns out, there was more to come. Soon Luvo's products were in thousands of stores across the U.S., and when the Vancouver com- pany was handed off to new CEO Christine Day, Veslemes answered an ad for the CFO post at a small family operation called BioLytical Laboratories. Knowing little about the scale of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, she met chair Rob- ert Mackie and was intrigued by the company's Insti rapid self-test for HIV, the only such product with all five major regulatory approvals. "It really needed to be taken to that next level," she says of Richmond- based BioLytical. Given the grim statistics— 32 million people had died from HIV/AIDs-related illnesses as of 2018, according to the World Health Organization— Veslemes saw an opportunity to empower those who are unsure of their HIV status. "The only way that we're going to end this epidemic is if we test people, we get those who are negative to remain negative and those who are positive to be on treatment." Since joining BioLytical five years ago, Veslemes, who quickly became COO and was promoted to CEO and board member in 2017, has grown it to more than 100 employees. To date, the company has sold 17 million of its tests in about 60 countries. BioLytical, whose payroll will reach 140 this year, pulled off its expan- sion without any financing, Veslemes notes. "While we've been doing good for the world, we've also built a business that is very prof- itable and is generating cash," she says. "We're contributing to the local community like we never have before." —N.R. 34 BCBUSINESS APRIL 2020 PETER HOLST