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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TOp + BOTTOm RIghT: ADAm BLASBERg; ABOVE: mICROSOFT VANCOUVER ApRIL 2018 BCBusiness 55 2016 B.C. biotechnol- ogy company QLT inc., creator of the hugely successful macular degeneration treatment Visudyne, changes its name to novelion Therapeutics inc. and merges with Boston-based Aegerion pharmaceuticals Inc. QLT co-founder Julia Levy, who served as CEO from 1999 to 2002, won the 2002 EOY healthcare category. 2016 Software giant microsoft Corp. unveils its eagerly anticipated 142,000-square-foot Microsoft Canada excellence Centre, housed in the top two floors of Vancouver's pacific Centre. A hiring spree follows, and the company grows its Vancouver team to more than 750 employees across product development, sales and marketing, and retail and administrative work. 2015 Burnaby semiconductor maker PMC- sierra—whose founder, Gregory Aasen, won the pacific Emerging Entrepreneur Of The Year category in 1999—is acquired by microsemi Corp. for US$2.5-billion in cash and stock. pmC had accepted a US$2-billion cash offer from Skyworks Solutions Inc., but California-based microsemi swooped in a month later with an offer it couldn't refuse. of growth," she asserts. "I'm very specific about 'These are the kind of investors we're looking for, because they are also trying to create higher value in the world through their investments.'" Lunapads itself is an inves- tor in Afripads, a Ugandan social enterprise founded in 2010 that manufactures and supplies cloth menstrual pads to individuals and NGOs. "They've just supplied their two millionth kit to girls and women in the global South— they're a bigger company than we are," enthuses Siemens, who points out that menstruating girls in developing countries often miss school because they lack access to menstrual hygiene products. With the rise of period-positive advocacy— National Public Radio dubbed 2015 "the Year of the Period" after a swell of news stories and events that included a "free-bleeding" marathon runner and the lifting of Canada's so-called tampon tax—Lunapads is primed to attract a new wave of consumers. "What's great about our industry is there's always a new generation needing our products," Siemens observes. "And each new generation is always think- ing more progressively about environmental issues and social issues." Lunapads, which features real bodies and gender- nonconforming menstruators in its visuals, is well attuned to the millennial demand for values-driven, authentic consumer brands. That's why Siemens believes the future is bright, for her company and the planet. "Millennials and Generation Z are way more aware that there are finite resources than the baby boomers and previous generations," she says. "That keeps me optimistic and happy." • pLaNET WIsE Lunapads found- ers Shaw (left) and Siemens cre- ate value for the world, not just their business From Nettwerk to Namaste Whether managing pop stars or teaming up with yogis, business partnerships are about alignment, Terry mcBride says of his two entrepreneurial ventures t here are two glass doors leading out of Terry McBride's Vancouver office, housed on the fifth floor of a building overlooking Cambie Street's Whole Foods Market. One opens toward the headquarters of Nettwerk Music Group, the music management, recording and publishing company he co-founded in 1984 and continues to helm as CEO. The other door takes him to the offices of YYoga, the upscale yoga and fitness studio chain he co-founded in 2007 with yogi Lara Kozan, for which he is also chief executive. "Yoga and music are the same business," McBride says. "They are both thousands of years