Did you know there is a World Happiness Report? That is what John Helliwell devotes his professional life to, creating metrics and analyses to measure happiness around the world in order to influence decisions that promote personal wellbeing – a far cry from where he thought he would end up.

For Chyanne Trenholm, meeting people from all over the world is an everyday occurrence at Homalco Wildlife & Cultural Tours. Fittingly, her love for tourism started with the outdoors. Combined with her educational background in physical education, it has well-positioned her to connect visitors with nature and introduce them to Canada’s indigenous culture in a way that never would have been possible in their home countries or cities.

Problem solving – that is how lawyer Bruce McIvor describes his job. To him, that is why people come to lawyers. It is about identifying the problem, the solution, and barriers to the solution. “It’s often not about the law,” he claims. “It’s about relationships” and how legal issues tend to come up when a relationship has failed in some way. That is also something he teaches his students at the University of British Columbia, helping shape the next generation of lawyers.

Many doctors are also business owners. That is something that Brian Day points out, as leader of the Cambie Surgery Centre, a private surgery clinic in Vancouver. As the CEO, he leads a small team and also promotes ideas and ways to improve the healthcare system in Canada. In addition, his experience with sports medicine earned him a spot in British Columbia’s Sports Hall of Fame – the first orthopedic surgeon to be inducted – and his reputation has led him to treat some of the famous celebrities who work in Vancouver’s film industry.

For Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, his job is connecting the dots in food systems. For example, how do flavours, labels, prices exist the way that they do? To him, there is a story behind the data of food and it is his job to make it available to the public.

What is Michael Geller’s job? To him, his role has ranged from architect to urban planner to developer to real estate consultant. Not to be outdone, he entered politics by running for Vancouver city council – after all, real estate and politics are often intertwined.

Downtown Vancouver is the pulse of the city’s business and cultural development. For Jane Talbot’s role as CEO of its business improvement association, she has to connect regularly with officials, the public, and its members. “It’s about being out there and being available,” she stresses. The key is collaboration so the organization can tackle the big issues to make downtown thrive and succeed.

When developing and buying real estate, how do you make good decisions? This is what Ryan Berlin helps with, in his role with rennie & associates. He and his team do the research to guide clients to understand the complexities of the industry and cut through the noise in a way that doesn’t feel overwhelming.

Want to grow your business and raise funding for it? That is what Diraj Goel does, with GetFresh Ventures. Not only does he help with venture capital, but he also looks at strategic goals and how to set companies up for long-term success.

As far as Andy Day is concerned, he has the luckiest job in the world – it brings him to the most beautiful places to meet all sorts of “beautiful people.” This can include anyone who works in jobs that connect people to the land. As the CEO of the BC Parks Foundation, that is his mission – to bring people to nature. The roots of this journey go back to his decision to pursue law or go a more adventurous route; by choosing the latter, it opened him up to the diversity of life and, in turn, the planet.

Connecting talent to opportunities is something that Michael McPhie has always been intrigued by. In fact, he feels that young people should understand the businesses that they operate in and spend actual time in their industry, rather than sitting in classrooms or staying close to home. And he lives that mantra as well, in his role at Falkirk Environmental Consultants, he anticipates where industry trends are headed and develops business practices according to that.

What is energy and its role in technology, government, and the private sector? That is a question that Dan Woynillowicz tries to answer in his job at Polaris Strategy + Insight. He knows that if companies want a change in government policy to succeed, they need to know how to get the messaging across – and that is where he thrives.

British Columbia’s businesses depend on Pamela McDonald’s job. That may sound like an exaggeration, but it is not. Leading the BC Securities Commission, it is her job to ensure that the BC business sector’s money and investments are safe. Her inspiration came from her father, who was a stock broker. So when she graduated, she went towards that field, thinking that was where she wanted to go – only to find out it wasn’t. But that experience gave her a valuable insight on where her true path lay.

When you think of a CEO, do you think of someone who is jumping into the fray and dealing with everything hands-on? This is not how Beau Jarvis does it – to him, it is not only about time management, but also about mentoring a team that can be competent without micromanaging. This is a must, as the leader of Wesgroup, which builds all kinds of housing throughout British Columbia. After all, it’s not just about building homes – it’s also about talking with government and creating more sustainable housing outcomes.

As the CEO of the Mining Association of British Columbia, Michael Goehring represents the entire mining and smelting industry of the province and advocates the sector’s interests to the government.

“It’s all about people.” That is how Michele Matthews sees her job – managing people in order to move forward a vision. It all harkens back to her marketing days, which took her to all sorts of different roles in her small organization as time went along. After all, in small start-ups, sometimes you have to do a job that you weren’t hired for – this fed into her curiosity and led to her career taking off in the human resources sector, as COO of AG Care and a board member at the Chartered Professionals in Human Resources (CPHR) of British Columbia & Yukon.

Glyn Lewis never thought he would start a renewable development company. He thought he would be a teacher or chemist – but he found that the creative and analytical parts of him were more suited for something else. To him, working in construction but NOT coming from the construction industry helps feed into his passion for being innovative and coming up with disruptive ideas.

Thomas O’Shaughnessy’s days don’t start in the morning – they start the night before, when he takes care of himself in order to feel refreshed in the morning. After all, you can’t embark on a career path when you don’t feel well. That is the core of his role as the CEO of Onco Innovations, a company that embarks on cancer research and innovations – and bringing patients hope.

David Blackmon doesn’t see what he does as work; after all, he is doing what he loves, writing articles on energy and running a substack on the topic. It sounds like he knew what he wanted to do in life from the start – but based on what he was like as a youth, nothing could be farther from the truth.

Dr. Gifford-Jones’ job is to keep people healthy. This is easier said than done, but he believes it can be done through many factors, ranging from genetics to diet to staying active. His journey started in medical school, leading him to careers that inspired and fuelled him to continue a career in medicine and surgery.