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.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1532267
34 B C B U S I N E S S . C A M A R C H 2 0 2 5 class and then they would call us and then the call would go direct to either Eddison's phone or mine," Chan says. "I'd always be sitting there in class hoping he answered it." The pair went to university— Chan did marketing at BCIT, Ng did computer science at UBC—and con- tinued to build the company through their studies. "After university ended we got all our own equipment and we found this person who was ready to retire and asked him to teach us everything: how to print properly, embroidery, all that," says Chan. "So he showed us the ropes and then ended up giving us some clients too. Then we were able to make a really powerful website thanks to Eddison." B O T T O M L I N E >> Vancouver-based Coastal Reign has some 40 employees and facilities in both Vancouver and Toronto. The business does a lot of bulk printing for large organizations and has worked with companies like Netflix, Amazon and Microsoft.—N.C. VIVIAN TSANG Age: 26 Executive director, Qi Integrated Health; research director, Roots to Thrive T H E J O U R N E Y >> After completing her medical degree from UBC, Vivian Tsang started experimenting with drugs at work (not in that way, come on). In 2019, she joined a research team that studies the effects of therapeutic cannabis use in pediatric populations (and still serves on that committee today). She also joined Vancouver clinic Qi Integrated Health and helped develop its first ketamine-therapy program, PsyQi, in 2022. Tsang's interest in novel thera- peutics for mental health conditions stems from her medical training in psychiatry. In addition to her MD, she also holds a master's degree in public health from Harvard. Seeing gaps in treatment options made Tsang curious about innovative programs, and her work in this realm includes leading research at Nanaimo non- profit Roots to Thrive—which offers ketamine, psilocybin and MDMA- assisted therapies—and pursuing a DPhil in evidence-based care from Oxford University. "I get questions all the time about the legalities of my work," Tsang says. "From patients and from friends and family as well." Her psychiatry training, she adds, helps her break down complex information. But B.C.'s evolving drug policies will likely raise more questions in this regard as some programs (like MDMA therapy) could be affected by policy amendments. "Interestingly, all of our work is novel and new because of B.C.'s changing drug policies," says Tsang. "The decrim policy changes have enabled us to offer new therapies that we weren't able to before." Regardless of what happens, she argues, the ketamine programs will stay. "Ketamine is completely legal and used in ORs across the country," she explains. "There are so many patients who are very much in need, who've exhausted every other form of therapy, and this is an opportunity for them to try something that might be effective for their mental health with very few side effects." B O T T O M L I N E >> Since its inception, Qi's ketamine team has grown from zero to 20 people. "We serve many first responders, health-care profes- sionals, firefighters, RCMP and folks like that," says Tsang. "One patient sent us a heartfelt email reflecting on his transformational experience... and testimonials like these really encourage us in the work that we do." At Roots to Thrive, Tsang's research team expanded to around 20 as well, and she has helped complete over 1,500 ketamine-assisted therapy sessions (worth approximately $2.5 million, according to Tsang).—R.R. PETER BEHNCKE Age: 29 Director, corporate develop- ment and investor relations, Gold Royalty Corp. T H E J O U R N E Y >> Growing up in Rev- elstoke, Peter Behncke lived what he calls a "pretty low-key lifestyle." Behncke spent a lot of time on the ski hill and even more on the track. He starred in hammer throw and shot put and eventually became a fixture in SFU's track and field program. He studied finance and accounting, which ultimately led to a career at KPMG, where he spent some time with that organization's M&A team. Maybe it was something about heavy objects, but Behncke soon fell in love with mining and joined Vancouver startup Gold Royalty in November as the company's first employee. "You don't know a lot about it until you're in it," he says. "A lot of accountants, bankers and lawyers kind of accidentally end up in mining and then once you're in it it's just a really fun industry." Gold Royalty focuses on providing financial solutions to the metals and mining industry and Behncke helped propel it through an IPO. "A lot of my time is execution and running through Vivian Tsang V i v i a n Ts a n g : E d w a r d C h a n g