Guest: Jennifer Geary (writer about corporate development)
Jennifer Geary is a writer but it may surprise people that she didn’t like to write. It started out of necessity as a chief operating officer, when she discovered that there was no how-do guide or book on that role. So she decided to give it a shot herself and it has morphed into a “happy part” of what she does.
Being a politician isn’t easy. According to Yuri Fulmer, it means a lot of travelling and talking to people face-to-face. As a candidate for the leadership of the Conservative Party of British Columbia, it is vital for him to get to know the people he seeks to represent – no matter where in BC they live. While this is a tall task for anyone, this was not something Yuri thought he’d do, while growing up in Australia. What started as a 3-week journey in Canada ended up being 34 years – starting with a humble job at A&W, he learned how to lead through franchising a location in New Westminster and developed the entrepreneurship skills that shaped who he is today.
What is the current and future state of dentistry in Canada? To Bruce Ward, this might be the biggest issue in his industry today. Does the dentistry field have enough dentists? What about assistants? After all, dentists need them to function. Do we have enough qualified workers domestically, or do we need to reach out internationally? As the president of the Canadian Dental Association, Bruce’s job is a mixture of making sure dentists in Canada can deal with industry realities, economics, and even immigration.
How do you deal with over 15,000 restaurants and their issues? That is Ian Tostenson’s job at the BC Restaurant and Foodservices Association. Most of British Columbia’s restaurants are small businesses, which might not have the resources and connections to solve their many issues – Ian and his team help that. As he puts it: “When I hear the industry’s not doing well, I take it personally.”
Is Diana MacKay a thinker? A change maker? Or an advisor? To her, there might never be a way to classify her career with a single role. Currently, she is working as a health journalist – something that was unplanned, initially to help her father but the role morphed into something more. Unlike her father, she is not a doctor, which forces her to pivot her role into more of a health advisor instead of medical expert. This allows her to topic issues such as the impact of housing on health, which may not neatly or formally fit into the world of medicine.
