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October 2014 Entrepreneur of the Year

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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72 BCBusiness OctOber 2014 Sacha + Jason McLean Vice-chair; president and CEO The McLean Group of Companies T he evolution of the McLean Group from a real estate operation into an aviation, IT and film-production empire was part happenstance and part vision. In 1996, when then- CEO David McLean fell ill, his 21-year-old son Sacha stepped in and was tasked with "kicking out" short-term film production renters and finding permanent leases for a 30-acre East Vancouver warehouse lot. Sacha, now 39, realized there was a business there—"provided you built proper, L.A.-style studios." The family teamed an L.A. sound stage designer with a local architect, and broke ground on the first studio in 1999. Jason McLean, 41, who came on in 2002 to help "clean up" the company's contract system, took on the task of finding $100 mil- lion in financing to complete and expand the studios. "It was a 10-year-plus process, con- vincing the financial markets that the [film] business was here to stay," says Jason. Today, VFS is a six-building, 12-stage film production hub, with camera-equipped helicopters at the ready and two related offshoots: Pacific Backlot equipment rentals and Signal Systems production IT services. "It's like the L.A. model of 80 years ago: everything vertically integrated, everyone under one roof," says Jason. Last year, the McLean Group launched its own in-house production company, Gun Lake Pictures, which now has seven shows in development. Entrepreneurial success is about choosing passion projects, says Sacha, but also about putting skilled people in charge so you can focus on strategy. "A lot of entrepreneurs make the mistake of trying to run a business and grow it at the same time," he says. "You think you're invincible—but it's impossible." Jason agrees: "There's a humility associated with growth. When you realize you're a better owner than manager, you can really get to the next phase of the business." —Melissa Edwards EOY 2 0 14 w i n n e r E n t e r t a i n m e n t / H o s p i t a l i t y

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