E O Y
W I N N E R
R E N E E W A S Y L Y K
[ CEO, T ROIKA MANAGE MENT C ORP. ]
50 BCBusiness OCTOBER 2015
R
enee Wasylyk is proof
that you don't need
a business degree to
achieve business suc-
cess. The
CEO of real estate
developer Troika Manage-
ment Corp. had a bachelor's
degree in religious studies,
a master's in theolo«y and a
six-week unpaid internship
working for a project man-
ager at a private real
estate developer, the
Irvine Company in Cal-
ifornia, before form-
ing her own industry
consulting business.
"I started the company
in 1998 out of necessity; I
needed a job. Consulting
was something that I could
do with little kids," says
Wasylyk, who had one child
at the time and a second
one on the way. Six months
into consulting, she started
working on a business plan
for her own development
company—conducting inter-
views with people across the
industry to learn more about
the "pitfalls and pro¡ts"
of the market with the aim
of becoming a full-service
developer and builder.
Wasylyk gave herself ¡ve
years to get the business
up and running, but she
started amassing properties
within a year and launched
the company within three.
Fifteen years later, Wasylyk
has turned Kelowna-based
Troika into one of the few
full-service real estate
development companies in
Western Canada—focused
on everything from land
acquisition to construction
to sales and marketing—
with revenues of more than
$35 million and 17 projects
across B.C., Alberta and
Manitoba. Despite repeated
warnings for a housing cor-
rection in Canada, Wasylyk
believes developers who are
in touch with their market
will continue to do well.
"One of the reasons that
the housing market is over-
heated [in some Canadian
cities] is because we haven't
been able to keep up with
the demand," she says.
"That, for us, is a positive
because it means the more
that we create—yes, it might
be sold at a lower price
point—but the more we cre-
ate, the more we are actually
supplying to the housing
demand and keeping this
attainable and aordable.
Where it gets dangerous is
when we don't have enough
supply and we get into bid-
ding wars."
While the real estate
development business
remains risky, Wasylyk
prefers to view it another
way: "Entrepreneurs don't
see risk… they see oppor-
tunity and what's missing.
That enables us to move into
environments where we can
make things happen and
propel things forward."
—Brenda Bouw
R e a l E s t a t e + C o n s t r u c t i o n
winner
2015
"Renee has taken
Troika from a
small development
company to a
corporate
conglomerate
in just over
15 years"
T H E J U D G E S S A Y
