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.

When you make a bad investment, you probably want someone to hold hands with. That is how Murray Leith describes his job – he is the one to hold your hand during turbulence and help keep you from panicking. This role stems from his family and educational background in finance – he knew he wanted to be in that industry. As time went along, he realized that his goal depended on writing and discovering what he had to say – and how to say it well.

How do you create economic opportunities and attract the right investments? That is a question that Jacquie Griffiths tries to answer every day, as the President of Invest Vancouver. The key to this is developing talent and seeking investors from abroad, helping to create a well-rounded industry. This is a lot of responsibility – and it all depends on the sense of relationship-building that she developed very early in her career in workforce development.