8 BCBusiness FEBRUARY 2016 PoRtRAit: AdAm BlAsBERg
In this issue, we oer you a bevy of content
both new and improved
New!
In "The New Face of Philanthropy" (starting
on page 38), we unveil two faces that you prob-
ably don't recognize—or know very little about.
Our cover boy, Eric Peterson, made his mil-
lions in tech—launching a medical imaging
company called Mitra and selling it 10 years
later for $300 million. Since 2009, he's been
sinking proceeds from the sale into a B.C.-based
research group called the Hakai Institute,
which has become one of the leading scien-
ti'c forces on the West Coast. But unlike many
well-known philanthropists whose names
appear on hospital wings or business schools,
Peterson's name is nowhere to be seen—and
his hands-on approach to running the institute
stands in stark contrast to the distant remove of
his many cheque-writing contemporaries.
Similarly, Paul Myers de"ies the typical
image of a philanthropist. Myers—owner of
Keith Plumbing and Heating—does not
frequent the society pages. His
wealth is much more modest than
Jimmy Pattison's or Bob Lee's. But
Myers's $25-million gift to Lions Gate
Hospital last fall was the largest
donation to any hospital in B.C.
history—and it's changed the way
fundraisers look at their job and who
they might approach for money.
Improved!
For the past two years, BCBusiness and
market research 'rm Ipsos have exam-
ined B.C.'s top brands through the lens
of brand love. "Love," in the market-
ing sense, is an amalgam of various
attributes, including trust, innovation
and ubiquity. But ultimately brand love
is a matter of consumer perception,
says Ipsos's Michael Rodenburgh, and
"highly correlated" with advertising. So
this year we tackled the meatier metric
of inuence—how these brands ažect
our lives. "To actually have inŸuence means that
you have a level of impact beyond what you're
delivering," explains Rodenburgh. "These
brands have a fundamental impact on how you
operate in the world—that's the distinguishing
factor." To 'nd out who has love and inŸuence,
or one but not the other, turn to page 27.
Also New!
Finally, check out our new back-of-magazine
section, O¢ine. It's a curated take on the
lighter side of business—everything from
advice on how to bike to work in style to the
weekend pursuits of B.C.'s top businessfolk
to our lead feature on what everybody's talk-
ing about, which we call Watercooler (this
month: Steve Jobs and the cult of personality
in business Ÿicks). O¢ine's curator-in-chief
is Felicity Stone, so if there's anything you
think might be a good 't, send Felicity a note:
fstone@canadawide.com
C O N T R I B U T O R S
Matt O'Grady, Editor-in-Chief
mogrady@canadawide.com / @bCbusiness
Steve burgess, whose
Watercooler (p.59) report debuts
this month, is a Vancouver
freelance writer and author of
Who Killed Mom? from Greystone
Books. Burgess is the former host
of the @the end program on CBC
Television. A two-time National
Magazine Award winner, he has
written columns and features for
BCBusiness for many years and
previously hosted the magazine's
CEOs in Cars video series.
Vancouver-based photographer
Matthew Chen ("The Conver-
sation, " p.19) has only been
shooting for three years but in
that time has won an Applied
Arts magazine award, travelled
the world on assignment and
photographed childhood favourite
David Suzuki for his portrait series
"Neighbours." Chen says it's good
to get buy-in from subjects up
front: "Establish a common goal
and promise you'll throw out the
bad photos."
New + Improved!
editor's desk
IN MARCH
We prole British Columbia's most inuential women and look at what's new in MBA programs
