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
R U N N E R - U P Janel Casey F R A S E R H E A L T H R E G I O N A L D I V I S I O N H E A D F O R A D U L T P S Y C H I A T R Y & R O Y A L C O L U M B I A N H O S P I T A L H E A D O F P S Y C H I A T R Y JANEL CASEY grew up in the rural Nova Scotia town of Digby and its population of around 2,000. "It was easier to be naturally given leadership roles and responsibilities, like coaching sports, teaching something," she recalls. So it was something of a huge adjustment when Casey moved to Vancouver to attend UBC at the age of 18. "The dorm I was in was over half the population of my whole town," she says. "It took me a little time to adjust." But adjust she did. Casey eventually got into medical school and was in the psychiatry residency program before making her way to New Westminster, where she both lives and works as both the regional head for adult psychiatry at Fraser Health and the head of psychiatry at Royal Columbian. Casey has been heavily involved in the redevelopment plans for Royal Columbian (the oldest hospital in B.C.), specifically in regard to its mental health building. "I got to design and develop models of care," she says. "We more than doubled capacity in trying to keep up with the needs of the community." In her role, about 200 psychiatrists report to Casey, or, you know, about 10 percent the amount of people who lived in her hometown. "When you work on the front lines, you have to understand work-life balance," Casey says. "I want to be a good role model. I have three young daughters and part of my mis- sion is to raise them to be confident and independent women." —N.C. MAY/JUNE 2023 BCBUSINESS.CA 29 "T hink of a rocket ship," says Maninder Dhaliwal. "It launches from Cape Canaveral, but going to Mars and going to the moon, there's a one- degree difference in where the ship is pointed. It ends up in a completely different place. And that's what early-stage startups are like—all you have to do is push it one degree more and they end up on a completely different trajectory." An engineer by trade, Dhali- wal co-founded Lions Gate International, a venture capital and business advisory firm spe- cializing in international venture projects, in 2014. She added a sister company to that in 2021 with Startup Studio, an accelera- tor and early stage venture fund. She's also a founding chair of TiE Vancouver's Incubation Lab. Dhaliwal says her back- ground—she has a master's in electrical engineering—has helped her tremendously when it comes to understanding the advances in technology that new startups are using to their advantage. "I actually know what people are talking about with AI—we knew what we had to do back then, we just didn't have the computing power," she says about graduating in 2002. It was a recession, and instead of jumping into the tech workforce, Dhaliwal decided to do consulting work and wait for the economy to get better. In the end, "not getting into tech was a blessing," she says. Of course, she's used the VC world to keep up interest in that sector, but her interest in creating community goes C O M M U N I T Y B U I L D E R beyond tech and investing. In 2012, she became executive director of Tradeworks Train- ing Society, a nonprofit that offers skill training and coun- selling geared toward women looking for work. "These women didn't have resumes and were looking for jobs," Dhaliwal says. "They were having mental health is- sues or were in an abusive mar- riage and just got out." Through the program, Dhaliwal says, they were able to build a skill and get into the construction industry. "When they figured out how to make something, they were so proud." When it comes to being charitable, she says, there are two things you can do: "Raise the floor for some, or lift the ceiling for others. Tradeworks was the raising the floor part; the second part, with TiE Van- couver, is lifting the ceiling." TiE is a global organization with 62 chapters around the world that focuses on help- ing entrepreneurs. "The way people give 10 percent of their income to charity, I give 10 percent of my time to charity," says Dhaliwal. "Well, my assis- tant tells me it's a lot more than 10, but I say, Okay, don't tell anybody." —N.C. W I N N E R Maninder Dhaliwal C O - F O U N D E R , L I O N S G A T E I N T E R N A T I O N A L A N D S T A R T U P S T U D I O