BCBusiness

April 2020 – Women of the Year

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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( quality time ) O FF T H E C LO C K COURTESY OF DANNY POPESCU APRIL 2020 BCBUSINESS 61 D anny Popescu attempted a 15-years- later revival of one of his life highlights this past January, and like Sylvester Stal- lone slipping back into Rocky Balboa's trunks or Bruce Willis finding John McClane's grin again, there were some grow- ing pains. Having had a great experi- ence climbing Mount Kili- manjaro for a BC Children's Hospital charity effort at the age of 30, Popescu thought he'd tackle the Western Hemi- sphere's highest peak: Mount Aconcagua in Argentina. It wasn't the first time he'd considered it. About three years earlier, he'd put togeth- er an expedition with a few friends. "Unfortunately, it fell apart," Popescu remembers. "Everybody who thought they might come decided against it, so it was just me who was left. I had flights booked, the whole thing. So I cancelled them." But the topic resurfaced among his buddies again around December 2018. And just over a year later, one day before he turned 45, he was on a plane to Argentina. The stakes were consider- ably, um, higher, this time. Not only was Popescu 15 years older, he had also pledged to match the charitable donations he raised for Har- bourfront Kids, the charity created by his investment firm, Harbourfront Wealth Management. That ended up being about $35,000, which Popescu happily matched. So he trained for about a year in advance of the two- week journey, everything from running to mountain Harbourfront Wealth Management president and CEO Danny Popescu has climbed two of the world's Seven Summits by Nathan Caddell W E E K E N D WA R R IOR WARRIOR SPOTLIGHT Danny Popescu founded Vancouver-based Harbour- front Wealth Management in 2013 and is president and CEO of the privately held firm, which has about 150 employees spread over 19 branches across Canada. Popescu credits Harbour- front's ability to scale up to its partnership model, which encourages collabora- tion. "Most investment advisers are unfortunately quite unhappy where they are–that's the nature of the industry right now," he says. "We have a very refresh- ing culture, we're agile, we make decisions quickly, and we're adviser-owned. Ad- visers at our firm get a seat at the table, help shape the company and get equity." He also maintains that Harbourfront specializes in alternative investments that give advisers the freedom to act in their clients' best interests: "We embrace it, whereas some of the big banks are afraid of the unknown." –N.C. TIME TO CLIMB Popescu faced some trials and tribulations on his recent South American expedition Peaking Late O FF T H E C LO C K

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