2006 GALA AWARDS - Exchange Magazine€¦ · Gary Parker as the 2006 Peter Hallman Mentor Award...

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The Centre for Family Business GalaAwards were held in Waterloo in June.Twenty-four businesses were honouredwith Milestone Anniversary Awards,ranging from10 to 155 yearsof business.Highlights ofthe eveningincluded apresentation toGary Parkeras the 2006Peter Hallman Mentor AwardRecipient, and the message fromPresident Barney Strassburger Jr.

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2006 GALA 2006 GALA AWARDS

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Mark Hallman, Gary Parker

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Barney Strassburger Jr., centre, President ofthe Centre for Family Business, with Peter Ben-ninger and Bonnie Benninger from ColdwellBanker-Peter Benninger Reality, celebratingtheir 20th Milestone Anniversary

Gerrad, Brent, Judy, Brian, Trevor, and GeordieKurtz, of Brian Kurtz Trucking, celebrating their25th Milestone Anniversary.

Barney Strassburger Jr. with Shanty,Kam and Charles Gopal of GopalInvestments Ltd., celebrating their30th Milestone Anniversary.

(right) Katie, Kelly, Sherry, Marty and Wes Hodgson, of Popeye’s Fitness and Gym,

celebrating their 30th Milestone Anniversary.

(right) Barney Strassburger Jr., with Cheryl White and Phil Schiedel, of Schiedel Construction Ltd.,

celebrating their 55th Milestone Anniversary.

Barney Strassburger Jr. with Marianne and JimErb of Edward R. Good Funeral Home, markingtheir 60th Milestone Anniversary.

Swan Dust Control celebrated their 60thMilestone Anniversary; from left, Chris,Jim, Jo-Ann, Vickie and Bryan Tank.

Barney Strassburger Jr. with Murrayand Orlan Martin, of Country LaneBuilders (1981) Inc., celebrating their25th Milestone Anniversary.

John Kraemer Jr., left, of Waterloo Man-ufacturing Company Ltd., celebratingits 155th Milestone Anniversary, withBarney Strassburger Jr.

Heather, John, Terry, Kelly, Sheila and Ken Armstrong, ofArmstrong & Quaile Associates, celebrating their 15thMilestone Anniversary.

Carrie, Ted, Kathy and Tom Drew-Smith of ReidCandy and Nut Shop, celebrating its 35th MilestoneAnniversary.

Barney Strassburger Jr., with Angie Benderand Amanda Brenneman of Amkad MetalComponents Inc., celebrating their 10th Mile-stone Anniversary.

2006 GALA AWARDSRECIPIENTS

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Lisa, Marcus, Jenny Shantz and Bill Moolen-beek of Albert Street Development Corp, cele-brating their 40th Milestone Anniversary.

David, Jason and Carolyn (r) Carnahan andJodi Koberinski, of D&C Carnahan Manage-ment, celebrating their 55th Anniversary.

Heather, Brent, Mary and O’Derald Gingerich ofpeopleCare Inc., celebrating their 40th Anniversary.

Rachel, John and Susan Seyler, Andrew andNancy Yantzi, Erma and Ervin Steinmann, of River-side Brass and Aluminum Foundry Ltd., celebrating their 40th Milestone Anniversary.

Amelia, Byron, Erma and RossShantz, of Roma Meadows, celebrat-ing its 25th Milestone Anniversary.

Centre for Family Business 2006 GALA AWARDS RECIPIENTS cont’d

tive advocacy agenda.”Farwell says that as the Chamber looks to the

future, it is simply building on an incredibly stronghistory. “The Chamber has always been on the lead-ing edge of issues.”

But today, the board and Chamber President ToddLetts are focused, says Farwell, on “creating the nextgeneration Chamber,” concerned with “economic,workforce, enterprise and membership development.”

The Chair points to the Chamber’s leadership inhealth care recruitment, noting that the Chamber hascarried the issue beyond seeking family physicians tolooking at the entire spectrum of health care. The goal,

he says, is “to recruit and retain the best,” and in very practical terms, “to besure our employees have a doctor to go to.”

He also points to the new program, the Waterloo Region ImmigrantEmployment Network(WRIEN), a broadpartnership that ishosted by theChamber. This is aprogram with widebenefits, he says –not only does it helpnew Canadians findemployment, it alsois a key part of thesolution to the grow-ing problem that“we’re outstrippingthe supply of skilledlabour.”

Photo at right, (back row) Brent and Mark Hallman,Kevin, Katelin Rempel, (front row) Susan Rempel, Bren-da and John Hagey of Terraces by Hallman, celebratingits 10th Milestone Anniversary.

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THE GREATER KITCHENER-WATERLOO CHAMBEROF COMMERCE is marking an historic milestonethis year – but when you talk to Chamber ChairRoger Farwell, you don’t spend much timedwelling on the past.

This year is the 120th anniversary of thefounding of the local Chamber, an organizationthat has been a key economic and social force inthe community throughout those 12 decades.The Chamber is proud of what they have accom-plished – and celebrated it at a Gala earlier in theyear – but Farwell is much more interested intalking about what is still to come.

He’s a convinced believer in the organization. Farwell told Exchange,“From my perspective, the Chamber is the best and most appropriate vehi-cle to assist in building this community.” He points to the “cross-section ofmembership,” which ranges from the smallest local business to corporategiants.

The Chamber is the right organization “to advance the prosperity agen-da,” says Farwell.

The Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce describes itselfas “a business association of economic development champions... By work-ing together and focusing on initiatives that support growth, members usethe services of the Chamber as an important catalyst for their business suc-cess.”

And the Chamber is not shy in boasting about its accomplishments:“Recognized as a leader in one of Canada’s most forward-thinking businesscommunities, the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce strivesto be the best Chamber of Commerce in Canada.”

John Tennant, CEO of Canada’s Technology Triangle, agrees: “TheGreater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber is a leader on regional economicissues, consistently far-sighted in developing a comprehensive and effec-

Eyes Forward!

120 YEARS LATER, THE CHAMBER ISLOOKING TO THE FUTURE

Key Chamber leaders include (left) Bruce Antonello,health care issues, Chair Roger Farwell, and PresidentTodd Letts.

Dave, Cheryl, Sheryl and Aden Frey of Frey’s Hatch-ery Ltd., celebrating their 60th Anniversary.

Absent were Delta Water Warmth Well Being (15 years); Beckett-Glaves Funeral Home Centre (135); Journeys by Jerry Van Dyke (25); Sapenaur Inc. (70); and Yantzi TIM-BR Mart (55).

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HERE’S PRIME MINISTER STEPHENHARPER, on Waterloo’s new AcceleratorCentre: “It will be a driving force in thegrowth of new business, for all ofCanada.” In a message read at the GrandOpening of the Accelerator Centre, May18, Harper added, “The economicstrength and viability of Canada aredependent upon a strong entrepreneurialtradition,” and he commended the newfacility for fostering that tradition.

In a rare demonstration of non-parti-san unity, the provincial Liberal govern-ment agreed with Harper’s praise. TonyWong, Parliamentary Assistant to OntarioPremier Dalton McGuinty, was guestspeaker at the event. He characterizedWaterloo as “one of the hottest technolo-gy clusters in North America,” lauding theregion for its “reach for the stars” culture.

Premier McGuinty has retained theportfolio of Minister of Research andInnovation, and his spokesperson said,“Waterloo will continue to solidifyOntario’s reputation as a global technolo-gy leader.”

Wong praised the Accelerator Centrefor showing “a quality of leadershipunique to this region,” and articulated theAC’s basic goal: “Getting the ideas fromthe lab to the marketplace.”

The Grand Opening was an event wellpopulated with political, academic andbusiness leaders. It was estimated thatmore than 400 people attended the event,which saw speeches and congratulationsfrom many officials, including AcceleratorCentre CEO Gerry Sullivan, who said that“The Accelerator Centre is at the cross-roads of technology, innovation, andcommunity.” He joked that the AC isthere to help fledgling businesses whichhave reached the “love-venture gap”...the point where funding from loved oneshas been exhausted, but where the newcompany is not quite at the level to attractsignificant venture capital.

By providing space for these youngcompanies in a setting which also offersmentoring from an entrepreneurshipcouncil and on-site access to expertise andgovernmental agencies, young entrepre-neurs can literally experience significantacceleration of their enterprise.

The Accelerator Centre is designed toencourage the growth of high-tech firms

and act as a catalyst for the creationof new products and services. Thefacility is located at the University ofWaterloo Research & TechnologyPark, at 295 Hagey Boulevard.

Hagey Boulevard was one of fourelements of the R&T Park officiallynamed during the AcceleratorCentre ceremonies. Each honoursan important innovator or academ-ic who made a significant contribution tothe university: Gerald Hagey, WesGraham, Frank Tompa, and Ira G.Needles. UW President David Johnstonpraised each of these men, noting that“good things happen because of greatpeople.”

Also honoured during the event wasretiring Chair of the Accelerator CentreBoard, Gerry Thompson. Thompson issucceeded by Ian McPhee. During theproceedings, Thompson called theAccelerator Centre “a crucible for entre-preneurship, which provides experience-based mentoring and support.” That sup-port includes such services as intellectualproperty management consultation,mentoring, access to professional serviceproviders, community networking eventsand investor matchmaking with innova-tors.

Overseeing the day-to-day operation ofthe centre are Sullivan, as CEO, andBobbi Holte, who has focused on gettingthe Accelerator facility running since join-ing the centre this past January. Sullivanhas been involved in the founding, devel-opment and management of several com-panies that use modelling and simulationsoftware. Holte has held various seniorfinance positions at companies thatinclude Maplesoft and Dspfactory.

Clients of the centre are paired with amember of the centre's entrepreneurshipcouncil, who will provide active mentor-ship. The council consists of successfulentrepreneurs with experience in variousroles critical to growing an enterprise,including financial management, invest-ment, research and development, productdevelopment, marketing, sales, legal andhuman resources.

Clients normally occupy one of 20plug-and-play office suites in a 22,700-square-foot building. Suites range in sizefrom as small as 250 square feet to as largeas 800 square feet and include office fur-niture, Internet access and telephones.Suite fees include access to meetingrooms, reception, photocopying, lightadministrative support and a networkingkitchen. The building also has multipleenvironmental treatments and is coveredby Canada's second-largest extensivegreen roof.

The not-for-profit Accelerator Centre isthe result of a multi-stakeholder partner-ship, with land and a portion of the initialoperating funds provided by UW. TheGovernment of Canada, Province ofOntario, Region of Waterloo and City ofWaterloo provided the primary capitalfunding. Other stakeholders include theUniversity of Guelph, Wilfrid LaurierUniversity and Conestoga College.

Shown at the Grand Opening of the Accelerator Centreare, from left, retiring Chair Gerry Thompson, CEO GerrySullivan, and University of Waterloo President DavidJohnston.

XQuote“While Canada’s economy stood its ground in the face ofgreat challenges in 2005, in today’s global economy, com-placency is a killer. If the past few years have taught usanything, it is that, as a nation, we need to adopt a moreaggressive, more focused and more disciplined approachto trade and competitiveness.”

- Canada’s International Trade Minister, DAVID L. EMERSON

“A driving force for all of Canada”Accelerator Centre opens in UW Research and Technology Park

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“THE BEST,” says Iain Klugman, “is yet to come.”Klugman is President of Communitech, and in that role, he has seen a lot of “best” in the

last month or two. Communitech is the Waterloo Region high-tech organization which wasfounded by a group of local CEOs, nine years ago, “who said we believe we can build a verysuccessful technology sector here, not just [individual] companies,” in the words of Klugman.He sees Communitech’s mandate as working to promote that goal, and points to recent eventsas prime examples of how well the mandate is being achieved.

Communitech hosted two important events in May. First was Communitech’s 2006 TechLeadership Conference, with keynote speaker Terry Matthews, “the most successful high techentrepreneur in Canada”. Then, on May 25, Communitech hosted the Regional Innovation

Networks’ conference, bringing together leadersfrom regional innovation networks acrossCanada and the United States.

Also in May, Communitech released itsimportant “State of the Industry Report 2006.”

Concerning the May 11 conference withMatthews, Klugman says, “we were thrilledwith the outcome of the conference. It reallysucceeded in bring together a great experiencefor people.”

The conference focused on the brash theme:“Brat Politics and Guerrilla Logic: Winning theWar for Talent, Markets and Money.”

As Matthews and the other featured speakersshared their expertise with the entrepreneurs,Klugman says, “the message really was the needto build companies and not just technology.”The experts brought experience of both successand failure in the high tech industry, andKlugman says that is a key concept for Canadianbusinesses. He pointed to the need for “culturalchange,” echoing Matthews and others as theysaid Canadians are too “averse to risk” and were

critical of “the fact that we don’t tolerate failure well.”Other speakers and leaders at the conference included David Thomson, author of “Blueprint

to a Billion”, Linda Hohol, of the TSX Venture Exchange; Brett Marchand, the person behindthe I AM Canadian campaign; Dr. John Sullivan, Helen Handfield-Jones, Peter Suma, FredJaques of Dare Foods, Mark Evans, Elizabeth Walker, Osama Arafat, and Dave Caputo.

The May 25 Innovation Network conference brought together 50 leaders of tech communi-ties across North America, from centres including Ottawa, Toronto, Southwestern Ontario andfrom as far away as Connecticut. Their goal – which Klugman says was completely accom-plished – was to share ideas, describe best practices and learn from one another.

In conjunction with these conferences, Communitech released the “State of the IndustryReport 2006.” Klugman noted a number of key findings in the report:

• 80% of the tech companies in Waterloo Region are headquartered here. “This is the exactopposite of centres like Markham and Mississauga,” he said.

• 50% of tech companies are headed by alumni of local educational institutions.• 30% are driven by serial entrepreneurs.“There is real diversity in this tech sector contrasted with other centres,” he told Exchange.

“These are all incredible strengths.”He points out that the local tech sector has wide variety in terms of size, age and experience

of companies. One thing most seem to have in common is a commitment to growth – the sur-vey found that 80% of high tech companies are hiring, and most are investing heavily inresearch and development.

Klugman points out with pride that Communitech has become “recognized as being one ofthe top innovation organizations in Canada.” This, he says, is why Communitech was chosenby the Ontario government to hose to Regional Innovation Networks conference. He also notedthat Waterloo Region is top-of-mind at provincial and national political levels; this is thefavourite example of leaders who are pointing to tech success in Canada, he says.

And, in simplest terms, Communitech will continue to be “more strategic and focused” onits mandate, serving as “the rallying point of the tech industry in Waterloo Region.”

IT’S ALL GOOD AT COMMUNITECHConferences and reports all point to growing success

www.xquarterly.ca

• According to Communitech’s State of the IndustryReport), Waterloo Region is a Tier 1 Tech cluster.

• 79% of firms surveyed place a high importance onR&D spending (CSIR).

• 49% of firms report 1-10 employees (CSIR).• 40% of firms surveyed hold more than 1400

patents, with more pending (CSIR).• 86% of ICT firms have revenue-generating products

in-market (CSIR).• 87% of Science, Technology and Engineering firms

plan to expand their workforce over the next twoyears (CSIR).

• 75% of Advanced Manufacturing firms are headedby Alumni of local institutes (CSIR).

• 84% of Biotech, Life Science and the Environmentfirms employ R&D specialists (CSIR).

• More than two-thirds of manufacturing plants wereinnovative between 2002 and 2004, according todata from the 2005 Canadian Survey of Innovation.An innovative plant is one that introduced a new orsignificantly improved product (good or service)onto the market and/or implemented a new or sig-nificantly improved production process.

• According to The Canadian Alliance AgainstSoftware Theft and the Business Software Alliance,Canada's software piracy rate decreased three per-centage points from 36% to 33% in 2005, fallingbelow the worldwide piracy rate which remainedstable at 35%. Losses to the Canadian economydue to software piracy were CDN $943 million.

• 93% of Canadians want water services to remainpublic, according to a poll released by the CanadianUnion of Public Employees. Canadians want the fol-lowing services kept in public hands: street andbridge maintenance (87%), libraries (85%), publictransit operation (84%), park and rink maintenance(83%), and garbage collection (82%).

• Seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing startswas 216,800 units in May, down marginally from217,900 units in April, according to CanadaMortgage and Housing Corporation.

• New home prices rose sharply in April. The NewHousing Price Index rose by 1.2% over the previ-ous month to 138.2 (1997=100). This was themost significant month-over-month increase at thenational level since April 1989. Compared to oneyear ago, contractors' selling prices are up 8.2%.

• Prices advanced in 14 of the 21 metropolitan areassurveyed. Calgary led the way once again with amonthly increase of 4.7%. Windsor (-1.4%),Kitchener (-0.4%) and St. John's (-0.1%) postedthe only decreases due to competitive pricing.

• The share of foreign control in the Canadian corpo-rate economy remained stable in 2004. Foreign-controlled corporations accounted for 21.9% ofassets held in Canada, and 30.0% of operating rev-enues.

• Retail sales continued to climb in March after edg-ing down in February, capping the strongest quar-terly gain in four years. Retail sales increased by1.5% in March from the previous month to reach arecord high of $32.1 billion. March's advanceboosted this year's first quarter results up 2.2%over those of the previous three-month period.

• The automotive sector led all other sectors in salesgrowth in March. Sales at new car dealers rose4.6%, making up for a 3.4% decline in February.

• Travel from overseas nations into Canada rose forthe second straight year, following three consecu-tive years of declines. The number of overnighttrips to Canada from countries other than theUnited States increased 7.1% to more than 4.2 mil-lion. Overseas tourists spent $5.7 billion in Canadain 2005, up 6.5% from 2004.

Iain Klugman, President of Communitech



BUSINESS IN EXCHANGE’S READERSHIParea has been going like crazy. But the eco-nomic factors are complex, working both forand against growth, so we have much fur-ther to go. Over the last half decade, leadershave been transforming the economic basisof our regions, province, even of our coun-try. No greater change has occurred thanhere in in our own communities.

In fact, change is occurring all aroundthe world. Why? Because of all the reasonsyou already know: free trade, global mar-kets, the technological revolution. They allcontinue to drive change, and, says DavidCrombie, “The rest of us will be driven byWaterloo.”

Crombie says that the trick to succeed-ing “is to figure out what we can keep ofthe old economy, such as the automobilebusiness, and how much we can get of thenew economy.” Crombie suggests that thevery first thing we should do is retool, andwe need to understand what we must do inretooling our own Public Realm (seeExchange Magazine, June 2006).

In the last 30 years, we have seen anattempt to reestablish our understanding ofour relationship with nature. And that isgoing to have a strong impact on the way

that we proceed in the regeneration of thenew economy. The basic relationship, inthe 18th, 19th, and the early part of the 20thcentury, was that “if it’s nature, our job wasto get rid of it, our job was to bury it, orburn it, or cut it, to get it out of the road.”The rationale saw protecting nature asbeing anti-progressive. Progressive placeswere those places that subdued nature.

“We thought creeks were so importantwe decided to bury them in little boxes.

And today people are out trying to dyna-mite these places and find those creeks forgood and sufficient reasons.” Crombiereflects on the basic law of ecology: “Every-thing is connected to everything else; there-fore, the idea that you can move in and useup and move on is no longer acceptable.”Communities can no longer treat ecologyas separate. In truth, “ecology, economyand community are a trio, and we have tofind some balance and methodology inmoving the trio forward.”

“Accountability is the mother’s milk of ademocratic system”; we want to hold lead-ers accountable. But is it applicable intoday’s structure? “You can’t [hold politi-cians accountable] today because life iscomplicated,” says Crombie, “life requiresthat all governments do certain things.” Andnot all governments are equal, since onemay do more than the other. “Does eco-nomic development belong to one govern-ment, does environmental stewardship,education, belong to one – it’s not possibleto do.” Crombie points out that we have tofind ways in which people can work togeth-er, in order to accomplish the things thatmatter to communities. Crombie suggests aprocess that adopts the attitude: “we don’tcare if you’re the provincial government, thefederal government or the local govern-ment, when it comes to local matters weneed to find the mechanism to get togetherthe appropriate mechanisms in order torebuild the public realm, in order to regen-erate the economy.” And no place, he says,does it better than in Waterloo Region.

Crombie suggests a refocus on our fed-eralism, providing more civic grounding inOttawa, in Queens Park and local munici-palities, all with a focus toward makingdemocracy work. The first step is to defendlocal democracy, so everyone can con-tribute, and those that have small voicescan be heard. On June 12, The Ontario Gov-ernment passed Bill 53, “The Stronger Cityof Toronto for a Stronger Ontario Act”. TheAct recognizes Toronto as Ontario’s eco-nomic engine, and provides Toronto’s citycouncil with more autonomy, authority andaccountability. Toronto Mayor David Millersays the legislation will give the city theability to create policies that boost econom-ic growth and improve the quality of life forresidents, and it will reduce reliance onproperty taxes and user fees for funding.

The act, says Judith Andrew, Vice-Presi-dent, Ontario, of the Canadian Federationof Independent Business, in a letter to Dal-ton McGuinty “extends broad, permissive

taxing and regulatory powers to the City ofToronto.”

Crombie says the act was brought on bythe province and agreed to by Toronto.“They’re going to say the mayor appointsthe chairs of the committees, the mayorappoints the chief bureaucrat, the mayorappoints the presidents of the local regionalcouncils, and it’s almost like they’re goingto have Mayor Miller say ‘Stop’ on thesigns.” Crombie is very critical of the lack ofdemocracy in the Act. “It’s top down. Theythink it’s reform, but all that reform meansthat the council is diminished, and the citi-zenry have less involvement.”

Former Toronto Mayor Crombie, whospent 18 years in government – nine yearslocally and nine years federally – says “theday when you decide that you’re going togive more power to the centre and less tothe sides, that’s the day you begin to loselocal democracy; you will begin to lose thedemocratic spirit.” Further, he says, “Youhave to find ways in which to make democ-racy work. More power to the centre willdiminish the ability of people to push theirway into the political framework.”

Andrews comments on the investmentloss that will undoubtedly hit Toronto. Shesays, “Sadly, business and investment willflee Toronto in direct proportion to theCity’s use of its new powers, thereby mak-ing Canada’s largest city an even lessattractive place to do business. Already, theflight of businesses and jobs to the 905 sur-rounds is evident in any data comparingjob growth, office space construction or theinventory of industrial buildings. Currently,the municipal portion of 2005 businessproperty tax rates are double that of thesurrounding regions.” This may bode wellfor surrounding areas, making them morefinancially attractive. However, given Dal-ton McGuinty’s June 15 introduction of newlegislation to strength Ontario municipali-ties, by reforming the Municipal Act, casu-alties may be limited to just businesses.

BUSINESS MONITOR

ELECTION 2006

In the Company of GiantsPART II

Judith Andrew, Vice-President, Ontario , of theCanadian Federation of Independent Business.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty


2006 GALA AWARDS - Exchange Magazine€¦ · Gary Parker as the 2006 Peter Hallman Mentor Award...

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