Canada’s Entrepreneur

John Evans is the millennial Founder and President of EverLine Coatings and Services. He started his first business at age 21 and was the first-ever to win the International Franchise Association’s NextGen in Franchising - a global competition for young entrepreneurs.

Peter Richmond is President of the 49th Parallel Grocery Group which includes 4 community-minded grocery stores, a flower shop, 2 dollar stores and a print shop. Peter, along with his sister, their children and other relatives, represent the second and third generations in the family business his parents founded in 1977. The 49th is passionate about serving our community and we continue to focus on our customers, our employees and the needs of our community. In an industry that is extremely competitive, we have managed to succeed through listening to our customer and adjusting our instore experience accordingly. We are fortunate to live in a beautiful part of the world and we take that into account in all of our daily decisions At the 49th, we will always play a big part in our communities.

Peter graduated from UBC with a Bachelor of Commerce in 1986 and obtained his CA designation while working for Ernst & Young, Chartered Accountants in Vancouver. After four years in the Internal Audit department of Canadian Forest Products Ltd., he returned to the island in 1996 to help the family business expand from one store to two, a doubling of service area and employees.

Janice Liu is the founder of Retreat, a technology start-up, which connects users with last-minute, discounted premier spa and salon appointments in the city of Toronto, where Janice calls home. By day, Janice leads a consulting and engineering team at the consultancy firm, Magnet, that has a mission to engineer the future of marketing.

Terry Sydoryk is CEO of Chaordix which specializes in establishing online communities for brands like LEGO, Rust-Oleum, American Airlines and SMART Technologies so they can engage with consumers, fans and stakeholders on deeper level.

Doug Mochrie is the Founder and CEO of AIRO.LIFE, an innovative technology company disrupting the norm, and on a mission to bring the world free access to information, with a means to education. They do this with AIRO.LIFE’s Be Free Phone, where end-users no longer have to pay for smartphones and data plans and other incredible products that are currently being developed. Doug's journey and evolution to AIRO.LIFE has been an exciting roller coaster that led to his mission to help people and the planet. From action sports athlete to attending school for finance and marketing, then being accepted as a MARS Officer and Armoured Officer to injury to later starting a digital media company - Holeshot1 Media, his entrepreneurial journey is rich and filled with applicable insights for other entrepreneurs.