BCBusiness

29 B C B U S I N E S S . C A M AY 2 0 24 A r c h a n a S i n g h : J uli a M e y e r P eople don't like to talk about death, so the field of body identification hasn't seen much innovation, according to foren- sic anthropologist Megan Bassendale. During her 10 years with the Inter- national Red Cross, the Vancouverite travelled all over the world to help identify human remains in conflict zones. And she encountered the same problem every- where: "You lack tools, you lack informa- tion and you lack this ability to bring them together in a way that makes for cost- effective and faster identifications." She saw firsthand how a sudden surge of bodies can overwhelm local capacities: the work to track and manage bodies is done by hand so there ends up being a huge missing persons problem, and families are left desperate for answers. To bridge gaps in the process, Bas- sendale returned to Vancouver in 2017 and launched Forensic Guardians International in 2018. With four employees and six advisors, the fatality and identification management company provides consult- ing, advisory and training services. It also ships products like body recovery kits, gravesite markers and body tags to areas of conflict like Libya, Ukraine and Gaza. No other organization does it all under one umbrella, insists Bassendale. And FGI leverages technology in a unique way as well: Castlegar-based Selkirk Innovates helped Bassendale develop an app that collects information more efficiently and helps make faster connections between postmortem and antemortem data. "We're testing it in Ukraine... and we're trying to get it into Gaza," she says.–R.R. MEGAN BASSENDALE FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR, FORENSIC GUARDIANS INTERNATIONAL A rchana Singh's first job after an MBA from Chandigarh's Panjab University was at HDFC, India's top bank by market cap. She then joined Reliance Communications, a subsidiary of India's largest company. But three years in, she craved work/life balance: "I used to come home at 11 p.m., and I started to think, how am I going to have kids?" Singh made the move to Vancouver in 2005. She arrived on a Saturday and secured a position with Richmond's Nor- sat International by Monday. Since then, she has served several roles in B.C., including director of HR at Teldon Media Group and VP of HR at Fraserway RV. In 2021, Singh became executive VP of corporate services and risk at the Langley-based Vehicle Sales Autho- rity of BC. The nonprofit ensures that industry players like dealerships comply with government regulations, and Singh oversees important functions such as risk, strategy, marketing, HR and tech. One of her first projects was rebranding VSA's website and social media—the implementation of a dispute resolution portal, for example, reduced months-long wait periods to 14 days, she says. Singh also worked on company culture by helping each employee understand how their role plays into VSA's overall strategic direction: "When I joined, we were at a 47-percent employee happiness score," she says, "and for the past two years, 100 percent of our employees would recommend VSA as a place to work."–R.R. ARCHANA SINGH EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF CORPORATE SERVICES AND RISK, VEHICLE SALES AUTHORITY OF BC "I knew I couldn't be the only one struggling with this problem," says Brauer. In 2015, she and high school friends Dhruv Sood and Husein Rahemtulla came up with the idea to start a meal- kit service. It felt like a no-brainer: customers pick recipes and get pre-measured ingredients delivered to their doors. No more grocery shopping, no more food waste at the end of the week. It worked: today, Vancouver-based Fresh Prep offers 16 meal options per week and collaborates with the chefs behind local restaurants like Vij's and Maenam for special menus. It sources from B.C. vendors like Intercity Packers (a meat whole- saler in Richmond) and donates leftover food to Vancouver Food Runners. In 2023 and 2024, the company acquired two businesses—Vancouver's Peko Produce and Montreal's Cook It, respectively—to expand its services. Staff, as a result, has grown to over 500. "We knew from the beginning that packaging waste was going to be a big concern, not only for us as business owners but for our consumers as well," notes co- CEO Brauer, who shares the top job with Sood. While Sood focuses on finance and fundrais- ing, Brauer handles the "people and product" side of things, leading projects related to partnerships, menu expansion and product innovations—includ- ing zero-waste solutions. "We did all sorts of crazy things," she remem- bers with a laugh. "We tried packaging our meal kits in individual little mason jars, so we'd have 15 different mason jars as a part of one cooking expe- rience going to a customer, which was obviously not very scalable or sustainable." Soft plastic became a temporary fix (and Fresh Prep partnered with Urban Impact to recycle those) but Brauer wanted to eliminate waste altogether. After three years of development with a team of engineers, Fresh Prep revealed its Zero Waste Kit in 2021: a tray with cups and compartments that can be changed depending on the menu. The container arrives in a cooler bag, customers return it, and Fresh Prep washes and reuses it each week. In 2023, over 1.2 million meal kits were delivered using these kits, which the company's East Vancouver facility now produces with an automated line for B.C. clients. It worked because the solution fit the product, not the other way around, says Brauer. "Our big innovation project now is bringing this zero-waste technology to the East Coast [through meal-kit service Cook It] and transforming how they're doing their packaging and production with our technology."–R.R. R U N N E R S - U P

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