The Surrey Board of Trade has recognized Michael J. Bose and Zaklan Heritage Farm as its first Agriculture Leadership Award winners, chosen on the basis of their achievements and innovation in Surrey’s agriculture community. Bose is a farmer and entrepreneur dedicated to the protection of agricultural land, is an agricultural representative on a variety of community committees and has also worked as a commissioner for the Agricultural Land Commission. Zaklan Heritage Farm, founded in the 1920s, has undergone continual revitalization led by the next generation of the Zaklan family. The farm has transformed into a diverse mixed vegetables and livestock operation while now surrounded by housing real estate; it remains productive against the threats of increasing population growth and pressures on land values.
Health/Medical
John Knapp has been appointed chief executive officer at X-Sprays, a company owned by CNRP Mining Inc. that has developed a line of sprays containing hemp cannabidiol and nutraceutical ingredients. Knapp has more than eight years of experience in the cannabis industry and is a co-founder of PharmaCielo, a Colombia-based, internationally focused medicinal-grade cannabis extract company, as well as a founder of Colorado-based Good Meds, a medical cannabis business supplying two dispensaries in the Denver market.
Legal
Scott Anderson has joined Lawson Lundell LLP’s Vancouver office as a partner practising in the commercial litigation group.
Real Estate
Jordan Menashy, co-founder, Bench Accounting, has joined Realty Butler as chief revenue officer. Menashy previously served as a board member for the marketing services firm that serves residential realtors a time-saving way to manage website creation and maintenance, social media advertising and newsletter marketing, along with accessible, live support. The company serves realtors in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and now Toronto. A U.S. expansion is set for 2018.
Resources
Rob Pease, founder, Terrane Metals Corp., has been appointed to the board of directors at FPX Nickel Corp. Pease is currently chairman of Trek Mining Inc. and sits on the boards of Liberty Gold Corp., Pure Gold Mining Inc. and Red Eagle Mining Corp. Concurrent with this appointment, Robert Watts has tendered his resignation from the company’s board but will be retained as a company adviser, and current director Jim Gilbert has assumed the role of chair of the company’s audit committee.
Brad Blacketor has joined the board of Aintree Resources Inc. and Steven Krause, president and director, Avisar Chartered Professional Accountants, and CFO, Bear Creek Mining Corp., has joined Aintree Resources as chief financial officer. Krause’s accounting firm has been retained to perform accounting and professional services. Patrice Nazareno is stepping down from the board. Blacketor has more than 30 years of mining industry financial experience; prior to joining the company, Blacketor was CFO of numerous mining industry companies, including Luna Gold Corp., Midway Gold Corp., Gold Resource Corp., Bear Creek Mining Corp. and Metallica Resources Inc. Blacketor also served on the board of directors as audit committee chairman for Kaminak Gold Corp. and Grayd Resource Corp. Krause has worked extensively with mining, mineral exploration and development-stage companies in Canada and the U.S.
Tim Johnston has joined Pacific Rim Cobalt Corp.’s board of directors. Johnston is president and CEO of Desert Lion Energy, a company developing the first large-scale lithium mine in Namibia. He was formerly Hatch’s specialist in project management and transactional analysis for its global lithium and battery business.
New Pacific Metals Corp. has increased the number of directors on its board from five to six and appointed Martin Wafforn as a director. Wafforn was nominated by Pan American Silver Corp., New Pacific’s second largest shareholder. Pan American Silver acquired a 12.1% interest in New Pacific in a private placement announced on November 27. Wafforn is a mining engineer with more than 35 years of experience in the mining industry. He has been at Pan American Silver since early 2004, and currently holds the title of senior vice-president, technical services and process optimization, where he is involved in the technical aspects of the feasibility, development and successful operation of that company’s mines in addition to leading the safety department. Other board directors are Jack Austin, Rui Feng, Greg Hawkins, David Kong and John McCluskey.
Sales/Marketing
Amanda Leier has joined Henriquez Partners Architects as communications manager. Prior to this appointment, Leier was marketing and communications manager at HCMA Architecture + Design. Leier has more than 10 years of experience in communications for mission-driven organizations and previously served as communications director for the Canadian Society for Marketing Professional Services.
Anna Huston has joined Outsource Marketing as social media director. Her work experience includes senior management roles at Alive magazine, Pharmasave Drugs National and Invis & Mortgage Intelligence.
Hats Off
The Wilderness Committee awarded the 2017 Eugene Rogers Environmental Award to Grand Chief Stewart Phillip and Joan Phillip, who have been married for more than 30 years, for their decades of commitment to preserving and protecting lands, waters and the environment for future generations. They have stood up against damaging industrial development such as the Site C dam, Kinder Morgan pipeline, Ajax open-pit copper mine and the salmon farm industry. Grand Chief Stewart Phillip is an Okanagan Indigenous leader who has served as president of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs since 1998. Joan Phillip is a former elected member of the Penticton Indian Band Council and a lifelong advocate for Indigenous rights. This is the 25th anniversary of the award, which comes with a $1,000 prize.
London Drugs stores across Western Canada are partnering with hundreds of low-income, assisted-living and palliative-care seniors’ homes and organizations for the Stocking Stuffers for Seniors program. Visit any London Drugs location before December 11 and take a tag with a senior’s wish list from the tree. Fulfil the items on the list and bring them back to the location where the tag was picked up. From there, Santa and volunteer elves will deliver all personalized gifts before Christmas. The program concept originated in B.C.’s Okanagan with significant growth in Edmonton in 2015. Initially, the program’s goal was to help 40 inner-city seniors. In Edmonton alone, Stocking Stuffers for Seniors will support 4,000 seniors this Christmas.
Attendees of Big Sisters of BC Lower Mainland’s third annual Luminary Award Soirée, presented by the Peter & Joanne Brown Foundation at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, raised over $550,000 – enough funds to support 275 Big Sisters matches.
Ian Gillespie, founder, Westbank Corp., donated $2.5 million to Emily Carr University of Art + Design (ECU): $1 million is committed to scholarships, research grants and new equipment for the Ian Gillespie Faculty of Design + Dynamic Media, and 20% of scholarship funds will support Indigenous students at ECU; $1.5 million will be applied towards ECU’s The Big Idea capital campaign to help fund the new Great Northern Way campus, which opened on September 5. The campaign raised $24.5 million, including $315,000 from students.
Vancouver-based developer Belford Properties donated $15,000 to Burnaby Neighbourhood House. The funds will be directed to much-needed after-school programming.
The Chefs’ Table Society, a non-profit society comprised of chefs and culinary professionals dedicated to the exchange of information within the culinary industry, donated $1,000 to a campaign to help cover fees for five B.C. wineries fighting for interprovincial shipping of liquor.
Rocky Mountaineer founder, Peter R.B. Armstrong, will be inducted into the Business Laureates of British Columbia Hall of Famein March 2018. As Rocky Mountaineer’s owner and operator, Armstrong is the driver behind the growth of the company, which has served more than two million guests since it opened in 1990. Rocky Mountaineer has become the world’s largest privately owned luxury tourist train and a notable part of British Columbia’s tourism industry.
Armstrong has participated on the boards of various tourism industry, community and public companies. He has also made significant contributions to the development and growth of the province’s tourism industry including his work on the 2010 Olympics, Expo 86, and the movement of the Canadian Tourism Commission from Ottawa to Vancouver.
This is not Armstrong’s first Hall of Fame induction. He is also recognized in the Canadian Tourism Hall of Fameand the Canadian Railway Hall of Fame.
Rocky Mountaineer was recently awarded the 2017 Private Business Growth Award, granted by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and Grant Thornton LLP. The company was recognized for “remarkable achievements in strategic, sustainable and holistic growth. •
