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Development/Construction
Kathy Chang has joined the Vancouver-based commercial design firm Cutler. She will lead the new division, Cutler Architecture Ltd., as principal architect. With more than 10 years of architectural experience, Chang has worked on many high-profile projects at design studios in Vancouver, Toronto and London.
Hospitality/Tourism/Convention
Olivier (Oli) Bureau has been appointed general manager at Tableau Bar Bistro. Bureau has worked at acclaimed restaurants such as Bearfoot Bistro, Market by Jean-Georges and Cioppino’s Mediterranean Grill and Enoteca.
Legal
John Forstrom has joined Hakemi Ridgedale as associate counsel. He is a commercial litigation lawyer with more than 30 years of experience advising and representing a wide variety of clients, including individuals, small businesses, public and private corporations and their directors, financial institutions, industry associations and regulatory bodies. He has represented his clients in proceedings before all levels of court in B.C., as well as in mediations, arbitrations and before the BC Securities Commission and other administrative tribunals.
Non-Profit
Pamela Martin, journalist, broadcaster and former director of engagement, liaison, to the BC Liberal Party, has joined the board of the Coast Mental Health Foundation.
Public
Due to health reasons, Donald Nickless has resigned from the board of directors and as chairman of Namaste Technologies Inc. Sefi Dollinger has been appointed chairman. Namaste is the largest online retailer for medical cannabis delivery systems globally. Namaste distributes vapourizers and smoking accessories through 24 e-commerce sites in 20 countries and with distribution hubs located around the world. Sean Dollinger has been appointed to the audit and compensation committees. As a result of these appointments, the audit committee now comprises Kiran Sidhu (chairman), Sefi Dollinger and Sean Dollinger, and the compensation committee comprises Sefi Dollinger (chairman), Kiran Sidhu and Sean Dollinger.
Resources
M. William (Bill) Woods has been appointed CFO at Atlas Engineered Products Ltd., a supplier of trusses and engineered wood products. Woods has more than 20 years of experience in senior and executive roles with established companies as well as startups and companies in expansion. He previously held the positions of CFO and COO of Athabasca Minerals, CFO of Cardio-Metabolics and CFO of Liberty Mines and served as vice-president, finance, for companies in the transportation, manufacturing and business brokerage fields.
Barrie Shineton will not be standing for re-election as a director at Western Forest Products Inc.’s annual and special meeting on May 3. Suzanne Blanchet has been proposed as a nominee for election to the company’s board of directors. Until 2017, Blanchet was senior vice-president of corporate development with Cascades Inc. Prior to that, Blanchet served as president and CEO of Cascades Tissue Group. She currently serves on the boards of Agropur Dairy Cooperative, Atis Group Inc., Solmax and Éco Entreprise Québec.
Technology
Daniel Frydenlund and Louis-Vincent Gave have joined Uniserve Communications Corp.’s board of directors as independent directors of the company. Frydenlund, chairman and CEO of private equity firm StageFund, has led seed stage investing through initial public offerings as a financial and operating executive for more than 25 years. Gave is the founding partner and CEO of GaveKal Capital Ltd. and Gavekal Research Ltd. Gavekal Research focuses in particular on artificial intelligence and financial modelling, which Uniserve will also soon embrace. Hashim Mitha, who has served on Uniserve’s board for over four years, will be resigning as a director, but will remain as president and COO.
COMPANIES ON THE MOVE
Name change
Wildflower Marijuana Inc. has changed its name to Wildflower Brands Inc. to align with the company’s current business model. Wildflower acquired the King Extract brand in 2017, and has signed an agreement to acquire 16 cannabis licenses in California and a Los Angeles property with an operating dispensary and cultivation facility. The company has also elected a new director to its board, Justin Turnquist, CEO, Turk Inc., a consulting firm to the oil and gas industry for the construction of pipelines and related infrastructure.
Super Nova Petroleum Corp. has changed its name to Koios Beverage Corp. Koios is an emerging functional beverage company with an available distribution network of more than 2,000 retail locations across the U.S. and uses a proprietary blend of nootropics and natural organic compounds the company claims enhances human productivity without using harmful chemicals or stimulants. Koios claims its products enhance focus, concentration, mental capacity, memory retention, cognitive function, alertness and brain capacity and create all-day mental clarity.
New Partnership
Richmond Chamber of Commerce and MotionPay Technology Inc. are launching a new partnership, designed to provide exclusive access to Richmond chamber members on merchant services processed via WeChat Pay and Alipay, the two largest mobile payment platforms in China. Details are at richmondchamber.ca. WeChat Pay has 963 million monthly active users and 768 million daily active users. Alipay, with 450 million registered users and 270 million monthly active mobile users, recorded US$1.7 trillion in total payments in 2016.
HATS OFF
Business in Vancouver welcomes submissions from local small businesses and large corporations alike that demonstrate examples of corporate philanthropy and community involvement in the Vancouver area. High-resolution images are also welcome.
Rick Cluff, Hudson Mack and Wayne Williams have been awarded lifetime achievement awards from Radio Television Digital News Association Canada. Cluff hosted the Early Edition on CBC Radio from September 1997 until retirement in December 2017; his career with the CBC began in Ontario in 1976. For most of Mack’s 35-year broadcasting career, he was the face of television news on Vancouver Island, spending nearly two decades as anchor and assistant news director at CHEK TV. Williams retired from the CBC in January 2018 after a journalism career spanning more than 35 years. Most recently, Williams was the senior director of news programming for CBC British Columbia,
The 21st annual Panorama Heights Elementary School’s Hoops for Hope basketball play day raised a total of $1,575.80 to be donated to the Crossroads Hospice Society. The funds were raised through concession sales at the tournament, and $155 was raised through a paper airplane contest held at Harbour View Elementary School. The annual tournament honours the memory of two former teachers, Elizabeth Allard and Maguy Obadia, who both passed away from cancer.
Delta Foundation donated $5,000 to Dan’s Legacy in support of the charity’s Supported Program for Youth with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder pilot program in partnership with the Asante Centre.
Soroptimist International of The Langleys donated $4,000 to Children of the Street Society to support the delivery of prevention workshops for Langley’s children and youth.
The Amir and Yasmin Virani Family Foundation donated $10,000 to Big Sisters of BC Lower Mainland. The funds will help the organization match at-risk girls with a supportive mentor through its one-to-one Study Buddy mentoring program.
The Sandra Schmirler Foundation donated $20,000 to the Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation to purchase two infant warmers. A warmer provides evenly distributed heat in a bassinette and is used for babies who require short-term observation in the neonatal intensive care unit after birth.
RBC donated $9,800 to Decoda Literacy Foundation. The funds are in support of Syrian families with young children attending the Immigrant Parents as Literacy Supporters program at Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House. •
