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/950283
2014 The Pacific eOY gala becomes the largest regional event in the global program. Upward of 1,400 business leaders, educators and mem- bers of the media now take part in this annual celebration of vision, leadership and courage in entrepreneurship. eY Canada marks its 150th anniversary in 2014, having grown from a single trustee and receivership business in Toronto, founded by Thomas Clarkson, to more than 5,000 staff in 17 offices across the country. 54 BCBusiness ApRIL 2018 BCBUSINESS.CA 2013 EY Canada marks 20 years of par- ticipation in the entrepreneur Of The Year awards, a global program that recognizes the best in entrepreneurship across more than 145 cities in 60 coun- tries. Since EOY's inception, eY Canada has recognized some 3,250 finalists and presented more than 1,000 awards across five regions: pacific, prairies, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic. have interesting things to talk about and decisions being made. Every meeting we have has an agenda and action items and due dates. The next meeting starts off with a review." Perhaps most important to Stemcell's success has been Eaves's grip on the reins. He's steadfastly opposed to diluting his ownership stake or going public—an option he sees as the death knell of local biotechnology outfits. "Vancouver is full of dead and dying biotech companies," he declares. "Investors want an exit strategy of three to five years, and, you know, it's too short a time frame. Success [for them] means selling the company to somebody else, ide- ally an American company, in which case everybody loses their job. I saw that with colleagues getting involved with investors. They kill companies." For his part, Eaves isn't going anywhere. "I'm 77, and I plan on living forever," he quips with a wry smile. "I have no exit strategy." • A Good Business— Period Amid a growing field of competitors, Lunapads' purpose-driven approach sets it apart W hen fashion designer Madeleine Shaw teamed up with chartered professional accountant Suzanne Siemens in 2000 to produce and market non-disposable menstrual and bladder leakage products, the pair did more than build a business. They also became part of a revolution in body acceptance and feminist empowerment. That sense of purpose has served them well. As a socially responsible business that diverts two mil- lion pads and tampons from landfills every month, Lunapads International Products—the 2017 EOY Special Citation: Social Entrepreneur winner for the Pacific Region—has struck all the right chords with conscious consumers. Today, it has a devoted and growing customer base of more than 200,000, even as competitors begin to crowd the space. "We just try to use our voice and try to be as authentic as possible," says Lunapads CEO Siemens. "That's really our edge. We have been in it the lon- gest, and we have been transparent about how we do business for the longest time," she explains. "And there have been missteps by some of our competi- tors in terms of how they've come across in the mar- ket. People will figure things out and see through it." Rival Thinx is a case in point. The New York– based period underwear startup created a buzz in 2015 with an edgy marketing campaign, only for self-styled "She-E-O" Miki Agrawal to step down last year, amid allegations of hostile working conditions and sexual harassment. While that business fights to recover its reputation, Lunapads (which has been selling period underwear for years, Siemens notes) is cementing its status as one of the most socially responsible businesses on the planet. That's no exaggeration: for the past two years, the company has ranked in the top 10 percent of B Corporations—an independent global certification that is to businesses what Fair Trade is to chocolate. "Being part of this B Corp community has very much helped us improve, in a number of ways, how we are operating as a business," Siemens says of Lunapads, which has held the certification since 2012. "There's guidelines around how your third- party purchasing should be, guidelines around HR and governance. It provides a really good framework for helping us do better." Lunapads' considerate and purposeful approach makes it choosy about business partners. Siemens says she and creative director Shaw have turned down wholesale customers who didn't seem like a good fit, and they're careful when it comes to investors. "I'm not seeking your traditional venture capital equity when we're going for our next round B.C.'s gReAtest hIts 2010 The XXi Olympic Winter Games descend on Vancouver and Whistler. Besides inciting a renewed passion for curling, they attract hordes of tourists—as well as infra- structure development and lucrative procurement tenders in the run-up to the competition. Despite disapproval during the planning stages, local residents ultimately embrace the games, and International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge praises Vancouver. CeleBR AT ING 25 y e A R S