They have toasted high-tech visionaries, old-school industrial warriors and everything in between over the course of 16聽years, and last week, the University of Victoria feted the new head of the country鈥檚 Digital Technology Supercluster.
Thursday night, a packed house at the Victoria Conference Centre celebrated Sue Paish, the 2019 Peter B. Gustavson School of Business Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year.
A vertitable who鈥檚 who of Victoria鈥檚 business and academic community turned out in force along with previous award winners for the event, which shines a light on an inspirational entrepreneur who has had a significant impact on the global community through business leadership.
Saul Klein, dean of the Gustavson School, said it is 鈥渜uite amazing鈥� they have been running the award program for 16聽years.
He pointed out the award is not about trying to establish a relationship with business leaders, but rather to give the school鈥檚 students someone to look up to.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not really looking for a quid pro quo. This is to honour someone who we think is deserving of merit, who stands as a symbol or representative for聽us that our students can look up to and somebody inspirational in terms of a career path,鈥� he said.
Paish, a lawyer and an appointee to Queen鈥檚 Counsel in sa国际传媒, is certainly that.
She led transformative change in her previous position as chief executive of LifeLabs Medical Laboratory Services, and as chief executive of Pharmasave Drugs, where she implemented new dispensary-management technology that has聽become the Canadian standard.
She is the second woman to receive the award since it was started in 2004. Linda Hasenfratz of the Linamar Corporation was honoured in 2016.
The list of previous winners of the award reads like a Canadian business who鈥檚 who.
It includes local luminaries such as the late Alex Campbell, founder of Thrifty Foods (2010), David Black, founder of Black Press (2007) and high-tech superstar Stewart Butterfield (2018). It also features JR Shaw of Shaw Communications (2011), WestJet鈥檚 Clive Beddoe (2008) and Jeff Mallett of Yahoo! (2004).
