Chad uses technology, strong accounting practices and leadership to maximize company performance.

Over the last 11 years, Chad has been practicing as a CPA both inside and as an external resource to small and medium sized businesses. During this time Chad founded the Construction Forum with the Chartered Professional Accountants of BC (CPABC) with the purpose of creating best practices for CPAs intent on transforming an industry that has lagged most in productivity and efficiency.

Chad has experiences over the past 20+ years spanning most mission critical parts of businesses large and small. Holding leadership positions in project management and accounting, to sales and marketing, information technology, he understands how they are all important towards company growth and viability. With business partner, Matt Wong, they co-founded Purpose CPA in 2019 to “help good people build good businesses.”

Cheryl Farmer is a Senior Business Advisor at Women’s Enterprise Centre, a non-profit organization devoted to helping BC women start, lead and grow their own businesses. Women's Enterprise Centre provides business loans, skills training, mentoring, advice and resources from our three offices in Kelowna, Vancouver and Victoria.

Cheryl works directly with women business owners to provide one-on-one complimentary business guidance. She reviews and provides feedback on business plans, evaluates loan applications, and provides support to current loan clients. She holds a Master’s degree from the University of Calgary in Learning in the Workplace and previously taught business at the college level.

Cheryl enjoys working with new business owners.  “The path to success can be challenging and I really enjoy providing the guidance to propel women business owners closer to their goals.”

Chris Legler is the CEO and founder of Axios Growth Consultancy, a firm dedicated to optimizing client businesses. Chris is a growth-oriented leader who defines and implements strategic plans. His experience includes 20 years as a senior executive and over 10 years as a management consultant. As the former owner and operator of a wholesale coffee roasting company in Marin County, California, Chris truly understands the needs of the small business owner and strategies that can achieve success.

The principal of Liberate Leadership Coaching & Consulting, Christina Nikiforuk is an ICF certified professional leadership coach, trainer, and facilitator with a passion for inspiring people to discover and optimize their potential.

A seasoned Human Resources with over twenty years of experience, Christina works with businesses to support their leadership development needs.  She sees self-development as a lifelong journey and strives to create motivating and fun learning environments. Her expertise lies in the areas of enhanced self-awareness, communication skills, interpersonal and team effectiveness, values discovery, authentic leadership, life balance, resilience, and renewal.

Christina S.W. Kwok is a lawyer with Oyen Wiggs Green & Mutala LLP, a boutique firm practicing in the area of intellectual property law.  Christina’s practice includes advising clients on all aspects of intellectual property law, with a particular emphasis on trademark filing and prosecution and patent prosecution in the areas of chemistry, biotechnology and mechanical devices.

A true HR Generalist, Christina is the leading authority on what it takes to build powerful teams and respectful workplaces. Christina is passionate about helping connect awesome employers with awesome employees.  There is no better call to make than the one telling a candidate that they got the job and there is nothing better to hear than clients telling her how much they love the candidates! 

After 20+ years in HR. Christina founded Praxis Group in 2014 with the idea of helping connect business leaders with practical, applicable solutions to solve tricky employee issues. Through Christina’s favourite HR activities of recruitment, training and culture building, Christina elevates teams and organizations.

She is a Chartered Professional in Human Resources and certified by Psychometrics Canada in the Myers Briggs Type Indicator training. Her pursuits include fitness, providing time & energy to her community and family, and when all else is complete, curling up with a good book. Want to see her light up? Chat about the advancement of women and girls, or geek out about logic puzzles, your favourite hikes, or your shared love of DQ Blizzards.

Owner of Courage Space Coaching & Consulting, Dagmar believes that obstacles can be an opportunity for growth and courage is a catalyst for change.

Dan Sera is the Senior Field Adjuster with the BCAA Small Business Insurance team. Before coming to BCAA in 2019, he handled claims across various commercial and habitational lines of coverage for several years, and prior to the launch of SBI, was a field adjuster with BCAA Home Insurance.

Dan Sutton is the Founder and CEO of Tantalus Labs, British Columbia’s largest licensed producer of regulated cannabis. Tantalus Labs believes in sun-grown cannabis, and are wholly owned and operated in British Columbia.

Dan’s 2015 TedXVancouver presentation furthered awareness around the environmental advantages of sun-grown cannabis. He was placed on the “40 Under 40 list” by Marijuana Ventures Magazine in 2016. Dan was also nominated for the Innovator of the Year Award at the Canadian Cannabis Awards in 2017.

His career in business development and finance spans innovative industries from nuclear fuel to high field magnetics. In 2012 he founded Tantalus Labs, a company focused on applying advanced agricultural techniques to cannabis production. He and his team of biologists, agricultural scientists, and engineers designed and built North America’s first cannabis-tailored closed-system greenhouse.

The Tantalus Labs prototype facility, SunLab, enables federally licensed sun-grown cannabis cultivation while maintaining the environmental control of a laboratory. SunLab reduces the energy demand for cannabis production by up to 90%, substantially lowering both production costs and environmental footprint.

Dan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Victoria.

Dana was called to the British Columbia bar in 2005, and began practicing litigation in a boutique firm, handling cases for commercial clients from varying industries. She then worked in-house at the British Columbia Medical Association, where she was responsible for negotiating and drafting contracts with the provincial government.

Dana was inspired to establish Benchmark Law after several friends and colleagues with small businesses came to her for advice. Knowing that many small businesses lack the ability to afford the typical high cost of retaining a lawyer, she set out to create a firm that provides high quality legal advice without excessive costs.

When not in the office, Dana spends time with her three children and…well, there’s not much time for anything else!

Dana is committed to ensuring that the firm provides exceptional service, and she works closely with clients to develop long-standing relationships.

Residing in West Vancouver, BC, Darryl Davis is a senior business advisor with Cultivate Advisors, a company focused on supporting the growth and scale of small and medium sized businesses. Before Cultivate, Darryl led strategy and operations as a Chief Operating Officer for 3 large organizations, and before that built 5 successful businesses with 3 successful exits over a period of 20+ years. He graduated with a commerce degree from the University of Alberta.

Dave's diverse background as an international business consultant and educator inspired him to cofound Vancouver Consultants.

David provides practical and client-focused service. David's patent practice includes biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, green technology, oil and gas, chemicals, mechanical devices, manufacturing processes, and garments.

David Xie holds MBA/Law degrees and has more than ten years of MNC corporate working experience with diverse responsibilities throughout general management, risk management, legal management, intellectual property, human resource and trade marketing across Consulting, Finance, Automobile, IT, Logistics and FMCG industries in North America and Asia. He also has hands-on entrepreneur experience by founding and running his own businesses.

David has a passion to leverage his expertise to help small or medium-sized enterprise owners or entrepreneurs to create and realize their value by providing a professional business intermediary consultancy. David serves as seminar presenter with Small Business BC, mentor with Business Immigrant Integration Support of S.U.C.C.E.S.S. and as facilitator with Self Employment Entrepreneur Development Society. David regularly writes at special column on Global Chinese Press and westca.com on business transaction.

David holds Certified Business Intermediary designation of the International Business Brokers Association to keep abreast with the leading knowledge and expertise of the industry and the Commercial Real Estate Trading Service License in British Columbia. Holding MBA (with concentration in Finance) from HEC-Montreal and PhD in International Law from China, David is bilingual in English and Mandarin.

Dianne is a Certified Professional Bookkeeper (CPB), Advisory Business Consultant and Accounting Software Trainer. Over the past 25 years she has earned a reputation for helping entrepreneurs keep their financial position up-front and central to their business. Dianne and her company Soma Small Business Solutions is the glue that sticks entrepreneurs to their growth strategies. Through regular seminars at Small Business BC she helps new entrepreneurs during their start-up stage.

Digital Main Street is a program and service that helps main street businesses achieve digital transformation. The program is built around an online learning platform, structured training programs, and their Digital Service Squad, a team of highly trained recent graduates who help main street businesses grow and manage their business through the adoption of digital tools and technology.

Eddie Abbey is a Business Development Representative at Uniserve Communications.  He works with a number of Uniserve's accounts, across a broad range of industries and specialties’, to provide support, consultation, and management of their I.T. services.  He specializes in providing Unified Communication solutions which give businesses access to essential communication needs such as phones, video conferencing, online chat, and remote capabilities. Eddie also consults and provides tailored solutions for businesses looking for I.T. managed services, hosted solutions, network/infrastructure gear, business-grade internet/connectivity, and office devices and hardware.

Elise Kobylanski is a Registered Nurse and certified Occupational Health Nurse with 20 years' experience specializing in public and private sector disability management. Starting her WorkSafeBC career in 2006, Elise has progressed through several areas of the organization including Special Care Services, Claims, and the new Employer Return to Work Programs. Over the last five years, she has collaborated with employers throughout the province to improve their return to work outcomes by implementing disability management and prevention best practices. Elise has shared her expertise on Return to Work best practices and programs at conferences and other engagements for the BC Municipal Safety Association, Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, the BC Maritime Employers Association, and the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering.

 

Elva has a decade of experience as a food scientist, specializing in research and development within the nutraceutical and food industries. She has successfully formulated over 50 products and brought them to the market. She brings a wide range of knowledge in product development, regulatory compliance and quality assurance to the cannabis industry.

Currently, Elva is the CEO and co-founder of Nibbler Technology, a successful licensing consultancy that aids clients in the procurement of federal and provincial licenses to operate within the cannabis space, regulatory compliance, and health and hazard prevention planning. Nibbler is also a holder of a cannabis research license, primarily focused on the product development of edibles.