10 P o r t r ai t : A l ai n a M i c h e ll e
B C B U S I N E S S . C A
J U N E 2 0 24
WORKING AWAY
Back in 2023, managing editor Alyssa Hirose and I agreed that
she would take on a feature about the way people dress in today's
business landscape. Hirose, who also works for our sister publi-
cations Vancouver magazine and Western Living, has a wealth of
experience writing about all kinds of topics and I knew she'd have no
problem merging fashion and business for the piece.
The resulting feature, "Style and Substance" (p.34), is a wide-
ranging look at the ways that dressing for the office (or your com-
puter screen) has changed in a post-pandemic world. It's filled with
well-researched and impeccable choices, as well as Hirose's signature
wit. That's no surprise.
No, the surprise came earlier this year, when Hirose told the team
here that she would be stepping back from full-time editorial work to
become a freelancer at the end of May.
This will not be a big deal for you, the reader, as her work will
continue to be featured in this magazine. But because this is the Way
We Work issue, it did make me think about the way I work. Hirose
and I have worked together for almost five years now. It hasn't always been easy—the print media
industry, as you might know, wasn't doing great before
COVID and got much worse after. On one
particular day, she turned to me and said, "How do we still have jobs?"
But when I think back on her time at the magazine, what comes to mind first isn't the hard-
ships or even her excellent work. Instead, I think about racing to make the same joke, saying a
paragraph through a glance and how a true friend can make a great job feel like a perfect one.
That's clearly the case for our cover subjects, Zoe Tisshaw and Brooke Johansen, who are co-
owners of Vancouver-based fashion retailer Park & Fifth. When I met with Tisshaw and Johansen,
their story of raising young children while running a company that employs dozens of people
("Crib Notes," p.24) resonated with me. The pair have undoubtedly benefited from being able to
go through that experience together.
Veteran writers Michael Harris and Steve Burgess round out our Way We Work package. Harris
looks into how AI is finding its way into the modern workplace ("The Answer Engine at Work,"
p.28), while Burgess asks if the four-day workweek is viable for B.C. in "Should B.C. Have a Perma-
nent Long Weekend?" (p.31).
And, in honour of EY's Pacific Region Entrepreneur of the Year competition turning 30 later this
year, we profile a few past winners and look at what they're up to now. That includes, obviously, "
EOY
at 30" (p.46) and its features on John DeHart, John Volken and Diane Johnson, but there are also many
other
EOY honourees sprinkled throughout the magazine. Bonus points if you can catch 'em all.
As Hirose embarks on her own entrepreneurial journey, I invite you to join me in congratulat-
ing her for going out in style. (Yes, I had to.)
DESK
DITOR'S
e
Our annual Top 100 issue
ranks B.C.'s biggest compa-
nies by revenue and takes
stock of the risers and fall-
ers from the year that was
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NATHAN CADDELL Editor-in-Chief
bcb@canadawide.com | @bcbusiness | Follow BCBusiness on
