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/1498118
It's Alive B CBusiness has been owned by Canada Wide Media for almost as long as I've been alive. In 1991, Canada Wide CEO Peter Legge purchased the magazine from Jimmy Pattison. Since then, Legge has added other notable titles like Vancouver magazine and Western Living to the Canada Wide fam- ily while serving as the company's chair and CEO. Meanwhile, I have grown from a baby in diapers to a somewhat functioning baby-faced editor-in-chief of one of the most respected business titles in Canada. At the end of February, Peter and his daugh- ter, Canada Wide president Samantha Legge, announced that they sold the company to Alive Publishing Group. It's truly an end of an era, and my heartfelt thanks and congratulations go out to Peter and Samantha on what's been an amazing run. Forunately, the change in ownership has been quite smooth, and I'm excited for what's next as Ryan Benn, CEO and group publisher of Richmond- based Alive Publishing Group, has taken over the same roles at Canada Wide Media. I can tell that Ryan's vision for the maga- zine is dynamic, and I can't wait for you, the readers, to see what we have in store. Unlike many print-based publications these days, we've got some big plans for expansion. Ryan knows how valuable our Women of the Year (p.23) feature is, and I'm fortunate to be able to work on another edition of it with assistant edi- tor Rushmila Rahman. It's our fourth annual shot at crowning some of the province's most impressive women in seven dif- ferent categories. This year, I think we've done a good job unearthing some truly incredible stories that haven't been told in many other places. If you've heard of everyone on this list or aren't impressed by their stories, I invite you to call me up—I will buy you a coffee. Elsewhere in this issue, you'll find our Invest in BC Guide (p.67), a comprehensive look at what the communities in our province are doing to attract investment, and our Get- away Guide (p.35). Good luck planning out your summer trips without including the spots in both of those features. If you're like me and are having a hard time letting go of the Legge nostalgia, you have one more chance to celebrate the duo at this year's Top 100 event on June 14. Samantha will be MCing and interviewing Ian Gillespie, while we honour Peter (who will continue to live in our masthead) in a special presentation. I hope to see you there, coffee's on the house. Nathan Caddell, Editor-in-Chief bcb@canadawide.com / @BCBusiness ( editor's desk ) N E X T I S S U E Numbers everywhere—it's the Top 100 and 30 Under 30 all at once as we celebrate both old and new C ON T R I B U T OR S Melissa Edwards has been number-herding for various iterations of Go Figure since 2011. For this issue, she tips her bike helmet to the two-wheeled tourists and commuters who return to B.C.'s cycling routes like migrating birds each spring (p.12). "I live just off one of Vancouver's busiest bike lanes, so I was surprised to realize I hadn't covered the topic in the 12 years I've been doing these," she says. Ng Weng Hoong is a Vancouver journalist who's focused on China and the Sinophone world. He previously reported on the energy markets in Asia and the Middle East while based in Singapore. "As a journalist who has covered Asia for over four decades, I've watched Taiwan's rise as a rare and true success story in nation building," Hoong says. He documented Taiwan's growing ties with B.C. for "Taipei Personality" (p.11). PORTRAIT: ALAINA MICHELLE 8 BCBUSINESS.CA MAY/JUNE 2023