What does it take for a building to go from an idea to completion? This is part of Tillie Kwan’s job as an architect at Studio Balcaen Kwan, which she co-owns with her colleague Bettina Balcaen – she looks at what is possible and appropriate for the client’s vision and budget. This is a far cry from what she thought architects did when she graduated high school.

For Bettina Balcaen, being an architect is her primary role at Studio Balcaen Kwan, which she owns with her colleague Tillie Kwan. The wide variety of roles involved in her job keep her going, which involves not just design but also how buildings are constructed – while some architects are specialized, she also sees the values of being a generalist as well.

Running British Columbia’s largest credit union is all about leveraging the abilities of your team. As CEO of Vancity, Wellington Holbrook’s job is to make sure everyone’s strengths shine, including the diversity of ideas and problem-solving skills. Amidst all of this, as a credit union, he also needs to make sure this is balanced with meeting the needs of its members.

How do you know where business trends and growth are headed? That is Katie Fitzmaurice’s challenge as the executive vice-president of Invest Vancouver, on top of creating relationships and making sure she catches every trend as it happens. This is especially true today, with what businesses in Europe and Asia are seeing in Canada’s market – she has to compete with other Canadian jurisdictions, especially when those overseas markets could see Canada as a singular market.

What are your workplace talents? That is what Dr. Linda Schubring seeks to help you discover, through her consultancy work. To achieve this, she has to do a lot of discovery herself, as it is a constant learning process to learn how to help others.

Are you doing everything the right way, legally? That is what Robin Junger helps with, in his role as a lawyer with McMillan LLP – he untangles the complexities around treaties, government frameworks, and more to make sure transactions and deals go smoothly, especially around negotiation time. A lot of this depends on communicating clearly and understanding what matters to clients – and gaining their trust.

How does technology work with your business? That is what Marc Low helps you understand, as the leader of Ignition at KPMG. He works with businesses to demystify technology trends and how to leverage innovations like artificial intelligence. The journey to this job was all because of his curiosity about how everything comes together or happens – this domino effect shaped his career and his understanding of how the world works.

How are policies around mining determined in British Columbia? As the President of the Association for Mineral Exploration in BC, that is Todd Stone’s job. He helps shape the policies and regulations through advocacy and meetings with stakeholders and decision makers in government. His mission is to provide informed solutions, and not just complaints.

For anyone who lives in British Columbia, everyone knows the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC), the Crown corporation that handles public auto insurance. As its leader, Jason McDaniel is tasked with balancing insurance coverage with affordability – in fact, he sees affordability as his top concern. That means having a very lean team and having work on his mind beyond the normal office hours. His path to his role is not straight, but it was the result of simply giving opportunities a chance when they came.

What does it mean to lead an artificial intelligence company? For Louis Dron, CEO of Redwood AI, it means everything – helping his company and workers get grants, fundraising, making sure the technology works, and more. While his team is small, it is also heavily networked with universities, academics, and government agencies. Much like the industry itself, his role requires constant innovation.

Can “encourager” be a job? For Joe Roberts, that is how he sees himself in a world full of change and uncertainty. In his Push For Change Foundation, he seeks to better protect kids so they don’t fall through the cracks. And he isn’t just all talk – he draws on his own struggles with being a homelessness youth in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. On top of his foundation, he also does public speaking at conferences, where he uses his empathy to understand how to speak to each audience.

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.

Vicky Yehl lives for mining. In her job at the British Columbia Securities Commission, she helps mining companies include information that they are required to share with the public, ensuring maximum transparency. She knows what she’s talking about as well – her background as a geologist gives her a wealth of knowledge to draw from. “It’s a bit of a dream job,” as she says. “I get to read geology all day [and] every day and someone pays me to do it.”

As former President of Shell Canada, Susannah Pierce worked to make sure all of Shell’s Canadian business initiatives could actually get into the country – and it was more than just the gas stations that people saw. Her goal was to make sure all the Canadian businesses associated with Shell were set up for success, as well as make sure other stakeholders such as indigenous groups were clear on what the company is, and how their goals can align for mutual benefit.

Do you have an idea or product and need to gauge what people think? Colin Whelan can tell you. As vice-president of Innovative Research, he leads a team that helps companies gather the consumer opinions and information needed to make their plans successful. His job has morphed through the years, as information gathering has changed from door-to-door to phone to online methods. This is a constant challenge, but a vital part of knowing if your idea will hit or sink.

Todd Yuen is the president of Beedie Industrial and responsible for property management and construction across Canada. As a self-admitted “micro-manager,” he has learned to trust people around him to move the business forward, while he goes out to external stakeholders and makes connections. And this is especially important, as an operation which tends to make things happen quickly.

“HR has a place in every department of every organization” because there are people in them, according to Kevin Howlett. As a human resources professional, managing people’s roles at work is the core of what he does, on top of having difficult conversations, reintegrating them into the workforce, and more. Before retiring from Air Canada, he had to oversee over 40,000 employees around the world – he had to learn to be efficient to survive in this nonstop 24/7 job.