BCBusiness

March 2025 – 30 Under 30

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.

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32 B C B U S I N E S S . C A M A R C H 2 0 2 5 Madness's expansion through the Lower Mainland into Squamish, Whistler, Victoria and Vancouver Island.—D.W. MADHINI VIGNESWARAN Age: 23 Co-founder, MEDIC Foundation T H E J O U R N E Y >> Growing up in Sri Lanka, Cameroon and Nigeria, Madhini Vigneswaran saw the kind of health care disparities under- served communities face around the world. She began volunteering at medical camps from a young age, and her grandfather—now a retired doctor—also ran a private clinic in Sri Lanka. Watching him work with limited resources is what inspired her to study biomedi- cal engineering at UBC. There, she met Anjali Menon, a fellow engineering student. The pair bonded over their passion for improving access to health care and, in 2020, they co-founded MEDIC Foundation to help people living with chronic conditions like diabetes, Crohn's, Parkinson's and anxiety and depression. Vigneswaran's duties at MEDIC are diverse: she's developing a vibra- tion therapy wristband for anxiety, overseeing diabetes and senior care projects and hosting STEM workshops for high school students. Her diabetes work includes designing a low-cost insulin pen (which she hopes to get into under-resourced communities in Sri Lanka) and exploring non-invasive ways to detect diabetic ketoacidosis (a life-threatening condition) early on. She also puts together MEDIC's monthly magazine, which keeps readers informed on biomedical and chronic disease-related innovations. Subscribers have grown from 10 in 2020 to 250 in 2024. While juggling school and business hasn't been easy, helping underserved communities keeps Vigneswaran motivated to break barriers in health care. "I've seen how lack of access to health care affects people's quality of life... that's why I'm driven to use STEM to bridge those gaps and inspire the next generation," she says. B O T T O M L I N E >> Vancouver-based MEDIC (Medical Engineering Students Designing Innovations for a Cause) partners with UBC faculty, labs and global organizations to sup- port ongoing projects. It's partnered with three senior homes in B.C., and its base of volunteers has grown from three to 90 over the past five years.—R.R. SHAWN GAUBA Age: 29 Owner, Connects Wireless T H E J O U R N E Y >> Shawn Gauba was earning his degree in business administration at the University of the Fraser Valley when he took a job at a Rogers Communications kiosk in Chilliwack and found his calling. Abbotsford-raised Gauba, who entered the workforce at the age of 12 when he started working at his uncle's gas station, found himself handling one of the busiest locations in the telecom's massive portfolio. He climbed the corporate ladder, working as a store manager while going to school full-time to support his family as best he could. After a few years, he decided he wanted to do his own thing and reached out to Bell. "These types of businesses, they don't advertise franchise opportunities to people—if you know someone in the industry, they'll let you in," says Gauba. In 2019, Gauba and a partner took over a friend's Bell dealership in Port Moody. "The location was heavily under- performing, so we went in to see what we could do," he recalls. The pair increased sales by 200 percent within a year. "I was doing flyer runs, cold-calling businesses, anything I could to generate volume." The success there led to Gauba taking over another location, this one in Maple Ridge. Then a contact told him he planned to retire and sell his seven locations. Gauba's business partner balked at the additional risk, but he was all in. "I knew I had to do whatever I could—the opportunity for seven locations comes up once in a lifetime," he says. B O T T O M L I N E >> In February, Gauba's company, Kelowna-based Connects Wireless, was set to acquire its 10th location. It's the largest Bell dealer in B.C., with outposts in Kelowna, Castlegar, Nelson, Quesnel, Williams Lake and Squamish. Gauba, who also has his real estate licence and purchased a gas station with a mechanic shop in Parksville, hit over $19 million in revenue across all of his companies this year.—N.C. DANIEL GARDINER Age: 29 Senior vice president, KPMG Corporate Finance T H E J O U R N E Y >> Daniel Gardiner grew up in Nanaimo raised by a single mom. "I saw her as a role model of being expected to work and grind and figure things out," he says. "She was in the arts so her one rule growing up for me was that I couldn't go into the arts. So I said, 'OK, I'll go into business and finance.'" Gardiner got a scholarship to Vancouver Island University. "I took a big bet that I could come over and break into Vancouver without gradu- ating from one of the big brand-name schools," he says. He did just that and got a job at KPMG shortly after graduating. "I felt like I had a chip on my shoulder. Our starting class at KPMG was probably 105 people—99 were from either SFU or UBC. I just thought, 'I'm going to be the first one [at the office] in the morning and I'm going to outwork everyone and let the world know that it doesn't matter what school you go to.'" Gardiner spent a few years in the company's audit practice before taking his CPA exam and finishing with the top score in B.C. He's now a vice-president of the company's cor- porate finance team. "It's been about betting on myself and my career and having strong motivations for social mobility because of the way I grew up," he says. "I love this organization because it's meritocratic and there are merit-based opportunities to get promoted early. That's what's kept me around, to be honest. It's the per- fect cultural fit for someone with my personality type who is aggressive and wants to push and grow." B O T T O M L I N E >> KPMG's corporate finance team has 22 employees in B.C. and nationally is the largest and most active middle market investment banking team in Canada. It advises on some 50 transactions a year, most of which are helping private companies buy and sell businesses. Gardiner alone has led or contributed to 15 successfully closed M&A transactions representing B.C. shareholders.—N.C. JENNY YUE Age: 29 Co-founder, OHME! Foods Inc. T H E J O U R N E Y >> Like many entrepre- neurs, Jenny Yue used the downtime during the pandemic as an incubator for innovation. After the effects of

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