BCBusiness

29 B C B U S I N E S S . C A A P R I L 2 0 24 BRIGITTE LEONG-CHUNG Age: 28 Operations director and instructor, Culturally Defined L I F E S T O R Y : Brigitte Leong-Chung found her rhythm at an early age: she did tap, jazz and ballet growing up in Vancouver and attended the Richmond Academy of Dance in high school. She picked up hip-hop later in life, around the same time she met her life and business partner, Chris Wong. "In Vancouver," says Leong- Chung, "you've got these two worlds: street dance, that's where it all originated—you've got popping, locking, house, waacking, hip-hop. And then you've got commercial dance, which is more choreogra- phy—you'll see it in music videos; it's a bit more of a street jazz influ- ence... What Chris wanted to do, and what we still want to do today, is merge these two together." In the spirit of celebrating diversity in the city, Wong founded Culturally Defined (CD), a dance studio, in 2013. Leong-Chung joined as operations manager in 2018, after graduating from SFU with a bachelor of arts degree. She saw CD through its pandemic pivot, when it started producing online and video content, and became operations director in 2023—the same year the company found a permanent brick-and-mortar home in Mount Pleasant. "It's been a very proud accom- plishment of ours," says Leong- Chung. Understandably, being tied to a space after 10 years of renting around the city feels like a big move, but also a good one: "We're very, very happy with the result and how the community has rallied for us." B O T T O M L I N E : In addition to offering a monthly membership ($39), drop-in and private sessions, CD specializes in a four-month training and performance program for adults. "Our age range is between 25 and 40," says Leong-Chung. The company currently has 275 active dancers on board, and in the nine months after opening its physical studio, grew from two to 10 employees and crossed $300,000 in gross revenue. –R.R. SEAN FOX Age: 29 Founder, Fox Group; co- founder and COO, Ovis Group L I F E S T O R Y : You've seen some version of Sean Fox's life in movies and on TV. Kid grows up in a poor part of Calgary. He doesn't know what to do after high school—so he starts working days at Olive Garden and nights at the Keg. His father, who faced racism growing up Chinese in the '50s and '60, tells him to go to school. So he enrols at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and earns a diploma in business administration and management. Meanwhile, he gets a gig at a notorious Calgary establishment called Cowboys and starts working the bar and doing some promoting. "I knew a lot of people through that industry—got to meet a bunch of NHL and WHL players, and partied at their places," Fox recalls. "One guy I met was a realtor. He had just sold two homes and made, like, $14,000. I asked him, 'Do you think I'd do well in real estate?' He said, 'Sean, I think you'd make millions.'" Fox got his real estate licence, but ended up leaving his hometown shortly after his father passed away from cancer. "It hit me hard. I got depressed and had a lot of anxiety for the first time in my life," he recalls. "I needed to leave. Everyone in Calgary thought I was crazy because I didn't know any- one in Vancouver. But I just needed a change. I believed in my social ability, perseverance and working hard." It didn't take Fox long to make connections in the real estate indus- try. He sold over 100 homes in his first year and was named a Rising Star by Concord Pacific. A couple of years later, he founded his own real estate company, Fox Group, and co-founded a development firm, Ovis Group. B O T T O M L I N E : Fox Group has a team of six, while some 10 people work at Ovis. The latter firm is currently working on three develop- ments, including Ovis One, which is poised to become Langford's tallest concrete rental building. "I know how intimidating it can be when you don't come from that [wealthy] back- ground," says Fox. "You hear about these people and say, 'How do I compete?' But if you don't come from money, you'll have skills that those people will never have. That stands out to a lot of people." –N.C. CHLOE GOODISON Age: 22 Founder and executive director, NaloxHome Society L I F E S T O R Y : In 2016, high school student Chloe Goodison was com- muting home to Port Moody when she saw a girl her age overdosing on the SkyTrain. "I never thought people my age did drugs," she admits, "and I didn't think people in my community did drugs. I was very naive." By then, B.C. had already declared a public health emergency regarding the overdose crisis, yet nobody on the train knew how to help this person. After that experience, Goodison started volunteering with the Tri- Cities Community Action Team—a group of stakeholders advocating for decreased stigma and increased drug awareness. At 19 years old, she was appointed to the Port Moody Police Board for her passion and efforts toward the cause. Her educational workshops— which touch on B.C.'s poisoned drug supply and training around the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone— resonated so well with recipients that in her first year as a health sciences student at SFU, Goodison launched her very own tri-cities-focused nonprofit: NaloxHome. "When we go into high schools to talk to youth, it's from youth, for youth," she says. "Other drug educa- tion programs are led by parents or teachers or police officers, which is still important, but youth learn best from their peers. So that's what makes us different." B O T T O M L I N E : Port Moody- based NaloxHome delivers free destigmatizing drug education with information backed by Fraser Health and language reviewed by social services organization Share Family & Community Services. Its naloxone training can save a life, says execu- tive director Goodison, who leads a team of 60 youth volunteers. Mazda Canada named Goodison a Rising Legend in 2023 and awarded her $50,000 to continue the good work. "We've reached over 7,500 students," she says. "There's a need—every single health author- ity and school district in B.C. has reached out to me and said, 'Can you bring NaloxHome to us?'" –R.R. MANVIR DEOL Age: 29 Managing partner, Plan Your Space L I F E S T O R Y : Manny Deol says he's always been passionate about design—he started his own marketing company before he'd even finished his degree at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Deep in the world of branding and graphic design, he figured his skills would

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