BCBusiness

T H E K I C K O F F : "I can't work in the cannabis industry, you've got to be nuts." That's what Margaret Brodie was saying to herself when she agreed—reluctantly—to do some part-time work for a brand-new can- nabis producer called Rubicon Organ- ics back in 2015. A CPA by training, Brodie says her resume was "fairly blue chip" prior to going green. She was intrigued by stories of the health benefits of cannabis, but the social stigma was still high (and not the fun kind of high). "There were people that told me, 'This is absolutely horrible, you'll never work again,'" she recalls. Despite the naysayers, she decided to roll with Rubicon and come on board as CFO. A C T I O N P L A N : According to Brodie, the industry lacked focus. "People were chasing the next opportunity, looking left, looking right," she says, "and I'm fairly pragmatic and consis- tent." Instead of being distracted by the buzz, she zeroed in on building a sustainable supply chain, deliver- ing a premium product and building trust with consumers. "Everything we do, we do with quality," says Brodie. As weed was legalized and cannabis stores started sprouting up everywhere, Rubicon supplied to F I N A L I S T Margaret Brodie C E O , R U B I C O N O R G A N I C S provincial distributors and consis- tently ranked highly with customers; in turn, it scored more product list- ings. The company's house of brands steadily expanded, and now includes Simply Bare Organic, 1964 Supply Co., Homestead Cannabis Supply and Wildflower CBD products. C L O S I N G S T A T E M E N T: Brodie was appointed interim CEO in January of 2023 and took the full-time job about a year later. Rubicon, which has an office in Vancouver and a facility in Delta, is the number one premium cannabis company in the country and is growing rapidly (a new vape product launched this past spring reached 40-percent national distribution—meaning it's available in 40 percent of Canada's cannabis stores—in under two months). In a male-dominated industry that has always leaned "a little bit more cowboy," as she describes it, Brodie leads her 185 employees with laser focus and often dedicates her time to mentoring young women who are new to the biz. Women make up four out of six spots on the Rubicon execu- tive team, "which is highly unusual in cannabis," she says. "But we just operate with integrity and do what we do."–A.H. n W H AT ' S T HE BE S T L E A DE R S HIP A D V ICE Y OU ' V E E V E R R E CE I V E D ? Leadership is about making decisions despite imperfect information. Q+A T H E K I C K O F F : Bulgarian immigrants Gueorgui Anguelov and Roumen Petkov had been telecom engineers for decades before they founded Burnaby-based SMPC Technologies in 2015. "We saw the electric vehicle evolution coming, so we decided to try our luck," explains Anguelov. Since they had previously worked in an adjacent industry, "it was a really easy transition to EV," adds Petkov. A C T I O N P L A N : SMPC is a B2B platform, but the designs it creates for its consumer-facing customers (which include both off- and on-road EVs) are wide-ranging. To put it simply, says Anguelov: "It's a design firm— we design battery chargers." Anguelov and Petkov credit their passion for competition as their driver for success. "We're mostly immigrants [at SMPC]... when you immigrate to this country with knowledge and nothing else, if you're not competitive there's no way you can succeed." With that drive, they managed to acquire a niche market share that they saw as having been overlooked by competitors. Namely, they focused on the North American market, which, in the EV industry, is comparatively small. Anguelov explains that delivering information and knowledge on the company's complicated projects in an accessible way has been key. "We talk to the customers first, an EV manufacturer or user, and determine the specifications," Anguelov explains. After that, SMPC designs, prototypes and manufactures to meet those specific parameters. C L O S I N G S T A T E M E N T: "Becoming a successful designer takes time and coaching people is a big part of our activities," notes Anguelov. That coaching has seemingly paid off: supported by a team of 21 employees, SMPC has doubled its revenue every year for the past four years. "When you catch the wave, you ride it," he says.–D.W. n F I N A L I S T Roumen Petkov and Gueorgui Anguelov C T O + P R E S I D E N T A N D C E O , S M P C T E C H N O L O G I E S W H AT ' S Y OUR MO S T-U S E D A P P ? RP: YouTube. A F T E R W OR K W E C A N F IND Y OU. . . GA: Working. Q+A 37 B C B U S I N E S S . C A N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 24 A d a m B l a s b e r g

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