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Chad Hershler talks film

Fri, 09 May 2008 16:30:27 -0700

BCBusiness Online

What's B.C. doing to green its film industry?

My old friend Peter

Thu, 08 May 2008 15:38:57 -0700

by Tony Wanless

This past winter, my old friend Peter Thomson, a proverbial lover of wine, women and song if ever there was one, died suddenly. I felt a grief that was shared by hundreds if not thousands of Vancouver businesspeople who had also been touched by him.

For 17 years, Peter was the Director of the BCIT Venture Development Centre (VDC), the oldest entrepreneur training operation in BC – and to my mind still the best. In that role he inspired, guided, and trained hundreds of would be entrepreneurs.

Bringing the baseball

Thu, 01 May 2008 19:08:00 -0700

Carbon law round table

Thu, 01 May 2008 19:02:00 -0700

What's the real price of emissions?

Clothes fit for the King

Thu, 01 May 2008 18:34:00 -0700

IM: U. Gary Charlwood

Thu, 01 May 2008 18:19:14 -0700

by Peter Severinson

"Who do you admire in the B.C. business community?"

Michael McPhie

Thu, 01 May 2008 17:32:07 -0700

by Jessica Werb

These jeans certainly not $50 off-the-rack ones. They’re a little more expensive than what you might typically pay, but I expect I’ll have them for a long time. They fit really well and they feel great on.

They’re Agave and they’re handmade in California. I don’t think it would be appropriate to wear jeans with a ripped knee and frayed ends to work, but if you can find some stylish ones that fit you well, why not?

Getting hit when you're good

Thu, 01 May 2008 17:22:43 -0700

Paola Quintanar

Rescue me

Thu, 01 May 2008 17:11:45 -0700

by Jessica Werb

The calls come at the most inconvenient times. It’s like Murphy’s Law: we’ll be in the middle of a dinner party with a turkey in the oven and the pager will go off.

From first to worst

Thu, 01 May 2008 17:09:21 -0700

by David Crane

Andrew Seymour

Thu, 01 May 2008 17:06:07 -0700

by Peter Severinson

Leaving the U.S. was no small step. But Toronto native Andrew Seymour arguably landed a pretty sweet job when he took the GM duties off the plate of Canadians president Andy Dunn in January: the Canadians have growing ticket sales, a spruced-up stadium and energetic local owners willing to spend some cash.

The 40-year-old Seymour had a well-established life in Fort Myers, Florida. He worked his first sports internship with the Fort Myers Miracle minor baseball club.

How to retire (without losing your mind)

Thu, 01 May 2008 16:56:43 -0700

by Jessica Werb

You’re retiring, not dying. Chances are, at 65 you’ve got another 20 to 30 (or more) years ahead of you. Make a list of goals you want to accomplish in five years, 10 years and 15 years – or later.

“Most people think, ‘I’ve got to put money in my RRSP to support the next 25 years,’” observes Jones. “What they don’t think about for 25 years is, ‘Holy shit, what am I going to do?’”

Talent grab

Thu, 01 May 2008 16:48:31 -0700

Tony Wanless

TYPE SOMETHING HERE

B.C.'s bad carbon tactics

Thu, 01 May 2008 14:00:20 -0700

by Aldyen Donnelly

B.C.’s carbon tax is simply the latest of many pollution-discharge fees the province has charged industry for more than 20 years. The fee system was originally touted as a way to reward industrial plant owners who voluntarily cut any taxed pollutants. But plant operators have rarely seen sustained reductions in their tax bills, even after they cut discharges.

That is because the province’s environmental protection costs must be “self-financed” through the pollution-fee system.

Up the capital ladder

Thu, 01 May 2008 13:44:45 -0700

by Tony Wanless

The B.C. government has finally announced the launch of its BC Renaissance Capital Fund. The concept is that the government will seed—with $90 million over five years—a large slush fund to assist B.C. technology, clean-tech, life sciences and new media companies at critical points of their lives.

But the fund's structure is causing much confusion and some cynicism among people who apparently don't have a clue about how venture capital works. For instance, a sticking point among many is that the fund will provide money to six venture capital firms, most of who have little to do with B.C.

A new deal

Thu, 01 May 2008 13:43:53 -0700

Lana Okerlund

From competition to collaboration: How B.C. First Nations and businesses are coming together in common cause – and forcing government to play catch-up.

Golf resort roundup

Thu, 01 May 2008 13:38:00 -0700

by Peter Severinson

Nine major developers are using top-grade golf courses to sell top-dollar homes.

Building a dream

Thu, 01 May 2008 13:32:43 -0700

by Robert Thompson

With PGA Tours behind him, golfer Richard Zokol has taken on his next challenge: building an exclusive golf course in the B.C. Interior.

He admits he had his doubts. “I asked myself how I would pull this one off,” he says. “I’m the consummate PGA Tour journeyman. I wasn’t the most skilled. I figured it all out through perseverance. I never made a fortune playing the game and got my nose bloodied more often than not.”

Turning the page

Thu, 01 May 2008 13:18:46 -0700

Peter Wilson

Scott McIntyre, Vancouver’s legendary book publisher, says the tough times in his trade tend to fade quickly into memory – particularly after what he describes as a “fabulous” 2007. That’s the reason he can look back at the ups and downs of the past 37 years at the helm of Douglas & McIntyre Ltd. – one of Canada’s largest independent publishers – without too much pain.

Still, he can’t help shaking his head as he recalls the devastating 2002 bankruptcy of D&M’s Toronto-based distributor, General Publishing.

The closer

Thu, 01 May 2008 13:09:01 -0700

by Jon Ferry

“Why am I successful? Well, this company has a book,” Reynolds told the convention. “It tells you how to sell, and I follow it 100 per cent. I don’t believe I have any better ideas than the person who put that book together.”

As the six-foot-three 66-year-old relates the anecdote from his modest Vancouver office at the blue-chip law firm Lang Michener – where Reynolds works as a “senior strategic advisor” – his point becomes clear: you don’t have to be especially creative or brilliant to be successful in life.

10 power moves

Thu, 01 May 2008 12:54:55 -0700

by Vicki O'Brien

How many times have you inwardly seethed while a colleague glibly speaks up at a meeting, passing off your brilliant idea as her own? Or felt that inner alarm bell jangle when your boss spells out a plan that you know is doomed to failure?

They don’t teach you how to handle these everyday dilemmas in business school, but knowing how to field them smoothly might just save your bacon if the going gets rough.

Promotional feature: Raising the bar

Thu, 01 May 2008 12:44:00 -0700

by Robin Brunet

Promotional feature: Moving foundations

Thu, 01 May 2008 12:33:00 -0700

by Dorothy Bartoszewski

Man of the north

Thu, 01 May 2008 11:44:13 -0700

by Tony Wanless

In 30 years, he's ascended to the uppermost stratum of world business.

As a youth, Tom Albanese fled a small industrial New Jersey town for Alaska. Albanese, now 50, is the first American CEO of the venerable London-based mining giant Rio Tinto PLC, which last year took over Alcan Inc. in a $38-billion deal. He went to university in Fairbanks, Alaska, for degrees in mineral economics and mining engineering.

La vida Barcelona

Thu, 01 May 2008 10:54:15 -0700

by Peter Severinson

What B.C. could learn from Barcelona is living day-to-day rather than constantly thinking about the future.

The King's seamstress

Thu, 01 May 2008 10:51:12 -0700

by Brennan Clarke

On the surface, Eleanor Von Boetticher’s basement workshop in Nanaimo looks no different than any other home-based tailoring operation in Canada. The 4½-by-nine-metre section of a half-finished rumpus room is dominated by a huge plywood cutting table scattered with pincushions, button trays, oversized scissors and other tools of the tailoring trade.

But a closer look reveals the 39-year-old stay-at-home mom is more than just your average suburban seamstress.

Web-friendly fraud

Thu, 01 May 2008 10:45:13 -0700

Peter Severinson

Seeing green

Thu, 01 May 2008 10:39:18 -0700

by Jeannine Mitchell

It’s well into Sunday afternoon by the time Jonathan Rhone finally gets a spare minute to take a media call.

These are hectic days for the president and CEO of Vancouver-based Nexterra Energy Corp. – a “clean-tech” firm whose unique gasification technology could soon heat universities across the U.S. while also converting beetle-kill wood waste into clean-burning gas to fuel power plants throughout Northern B.C.

In the cards

Thu, 01 May 2008 10:36:15 -0700

Jessica Werb

We finally meet at the Cactus Club in Richmond, a couple of days after the March 2008 Canadian Open Poker Championship in Calgary, where Booth came in second, winning a cool 50 Gs.

He emerges from a gigantic yellow Hummer in flip-flops, loose jeans and a black hoodie emblazoned with logos for Full Tilt Poker, a website he’s paid to support. A large gold ring with multiple diamonds catches the light as he offers his right hand, delivers his “cutie” line again and decorously leans in for a two-cheek peck.

Net volley

Thu, 01 May 2008 10:33:12 -0700

Jessica Werb

TKTKTK