Pacific region's most disruptive and innovative entrepreneurs named finalists of the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ program

VANCOUVER, July 6, 2016 /CNW/ - EY is recognizing an impressive group of Pacific region entrepreneurs for their financial performance, vision, leadership, personal integrity and entrepreneurial spirit. Today, the firm named 41 finalists across 10 categories in its EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ Pacific 2016 awards program.

"We exceeded our expectations with respect to the number of nominations in the Pacific region this year," says Lui Petrollini, Entrepreneur Of The Year Pacific Program Director. "This is a testament to an increasingly impressive entrepreneurial culture in British Columbia, a province which continues to lead the country in economic growth. The men and women who make up our finalists represent a range of industry sectors, that contribute to our vibrant business community. The finalists should be very proud to be part of such an exceptional group."

An independent panel of judges will name winners in a number of diverse categories, and one of the category winners as the overall Pacific winner. That winner will then compete with winners from Québec, Atlantic, Prairies and Ontario for the Canadian Entrepreneur Of The Year title. The Canadian winner will go on to compete with winners from more than 50 countries for the title of EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year, in June 2017.

The Canadian Entrepreneur Of The Year program is in its 23rd year of recognizing, celebrating and telling the inspiring stories of the country's most impressive entrepreneurs from all areas of business and different stages of their entrepreneurial journey.

The Pacific winners will be announced at a gala in Vancouver on 30 September 2016.

More information

Follow @EYCanada, #EOY and #EOYPacific on Twitter for the latest event updates.

Visit ey.com/ca/eoy for more program details and a complete list of category finalists and gala dates in the regions.  

The 2016 Pacific EY Entrepreneur Of The Year finalists

Business-to-Business Products and Services

Bhawnesh Mathur and Geoff Reed
Creation Technologies | Burnaby
www.creationtech.com
Provides scalable electronics manufacturing, design and engineering, and supply chain services to the communications, industrial, medical, energy, computing, and defense sectors.

Allen Eaves
STEMCELL Technologies Inc. | Vancouver
http://www.stemcell.com/
A privately-owned biotechnology company that develops speciality cell culture media, cell separation products and ancillary reagents for life science research.

Geoff Chutter
WhiteWater West Industries Ltd. | Richmond
www.whitewaterwest.com
A global designer and manufacturer of innovative waterparks and waterpark equipment, specializing in waterslides, multi-level water play structures, wave-generating equipment and more.

Business-to-Consumer Products and Services

Ray Russell
Freshslice Pizza | Vancouver
www.freshslice.com
A popular west coast pizza franchise company with more than 80 locations that makes its own dough and uses locally sourced produce for its toppings.

Elana Rosenfeld
Kicking Horse Coffee | Invermere
www.kickinghorsecoffee.com
Organic fair trade coffee roaster, offering the best coffees from exotic destinations around the world, roasted in the freshest air with precision equipment.

Ian Walker
Left Coast Naturals | Burnaby
www.leftcoastnaturals.com
An organic food manufacturer and distributor of more than 30 brands, bulk foods and two in-house brands to grocery, specialty and natural food stores across Western Canada.

Construction

Jason Jacob, Scott Jacob, and Todd Jacob
Jacob Bros. Construction Inc. | Surrey
www.jacobbros.ca
A multi-disciplined general contractor with expertise in both heavy civil & building construction projects.

Ken Mayhew
Penfolds Roofing & Solar Inc. | Vancouver
www.penfoldsroofing.com
Residential re-roofing company, known for excellent workmanship, high quality products and service to customers in more than 1,500 projects a year. 

William Downing
Structurlam Products Ltd. | Penticton
www.structurlam.com
Manufactures and supplies glue-laminated beams and cross-laminated timber panels in pre-fabricated mass-timber packages, and a leader in applying technology such as 3D modelling and robotics to wood construction.

Consumer Technology

Ryan Peterson and Trent Shumay
Finger Food Studios | Port Coquitlam
www.fingerfoodstudios.com
Technology company that designs and develops immersive connected experiences in the areas of Mobile, MR/AR/VR, Internet of Things (IoT), Cloud and Entertainment.

Lance Priebe
Hyper Hippo Productions Ltd. | Kelowna
www.hyperhippo.ca
Builds games for players of all ages that are available on mobile, Steam® and soon on major consoles; major titles include Adventure Capitalist, the world's greatest capitalism simulator.

Sean Clark and Roger Hardy
Shoes.com | Vancouver
www.shoes.com
Online footwear and apparel retailer, offering over 500 brands to 8 million customers across the USA and Canada via online properties including SHOEme.ca, SHOES.COM and OnlineShoes.com.

Emerging Technology

Casey O'Neill
Cypress Solutions Inc. | Burnaby
www.cypress.bc.ca
A wireless product developer and solutions provider for industrial and commercial applications helping companies to implement best-in-class industry solutions which seamlessly integrate wireless technologies into their existing management and communication systems.

Timothy Berman
Fluxwerx Illumination Inc. | Surrey
www.fluxwerx.com
Synthesizes industrial design, optical engineering and LED technology to manufacture distinctive lighting products. Breakthrough proprietary anidolic optics technology offers substantial energy savings, lighting quality, and remarkable lifetime.

Philip Vanderpol
Vitalus Nutrition Inc. | Abbotsford
www.vitalus.com
Supplier of sophisticated, customized dairy ingredients for the world's food, beverage and nutraceutical industries. Products are used in applications such as baking, confections, dairy products, snack foods, instant formula, protein drinks, nutrition bars and more.

Fintech

Cody Green
Canada Drives | Vancouver
www.canadadrives.ca
A fintech company that enables consumers to secure auto financing online before their vehicle purchase at a dealership that has changed the landscape of auto sales in Canada.  

David Gens
Merchant Advance Capital Ltd. | Vancouver
www.merchantadvance.com
Provides small business owners with access to working capital by leveraging its technology and proprietary credit score with a focus on a merchant's electronic transactions, bank statement, and other non-traditional data.

Hamed Shahbazi
TIO Networks Corp. | Vancouver
www.tionetworks.com
A cloud-based multi-channel bill payment processing and receivables management company serving the largest telecom, wireless, cable and utility bill issuers in North America. Integrates with back office billing systems to accept, validate and collect payments via self-service kiosk, retail walk-in, mobile and web solutions.

Healthcare Services

Robert Boscacci and Cameron Fleming
HME Mobility & Accessibility | Richmond
www.hmebc.com
A healthcare equipment and services company primarily working with hospitals, nursing homes, government agencies, health authorities and end users.

John Dehart, Ken Sim, and Cathy Thorpe
Nurse Next Door Home Care Services | Vancouver
www.nursenextdoor.com
Delivers flexible, affordable and quality care options to seniors, with a full spectrum of home care services ranging from weekly companionship to around-the-clock care from a registered nurse.

Karina Hayat and Zeeshan Hayat
Prizm Health | Vancouver
http://prizmhealth.io
A digital and technology innovator that connects consumers who have been diagnosed with pre-diabetes and diabetes with healthcare companies at their point of need. The company of choice for some of the fastest growing DME, diabetic supply providers and mail order pharmacies in US and Canada.

Infrastructure

Jeff Stibbard
JDS Energy & Mining Inc. | Vancouver
www.jdsmining.ca
Provides engineering, construction, procurement and management solutions to the mining and construction industries, delivering project concepts from inception to full operations for clients throughout Canada and around the world.

Paul Dunstan
Plenary Group Ltd. | Vancouver
www.plenarygroup.com
An international infrastructure business working on projects in the Americas and the Asia Pacific region and encompassing finance, planning, design and construction, complementary commercial development, asset management and operations.

Kyle Washington and Jonathan Whitworth
Seaspan ULC | North Vancouver
www.seaspan.com
Offers coastal marine and deep-sea transportation, bunker fuelling, ship repair and shipbuilding services on the West Coast of North America.

Marketing Technology

Mathias Marquez
Buyatab Online Inc. | Vancouver
www.buyatab.com
Provides a seamless solution for digital gift cards to be sold on merchants' online properties and delivered via email or text message, which helps merchants drive growth, acquire customers, increase B2B revenue and leverage prepaid solutions into loyalty and incentive marketing programs.

Johann Starke
FCV Technologies Ltd.| Vancouver
http://fcvinteractive.com/
Creates digital services for public and private sector clients, and offers proven expertise in strategy & transformation, experiences & content and platforms & integration.

Morgan Carey
Real Estate Webmasters | Nanaimo
www.realestatewebmasters.com
Provides end-to-end technology solutions to real estate companies, franchises, teams and agents, from custom and semi-custom websites, to marketing tools, to lead management, CRMs and consulting services.

Retail and Hospitality

John Neate
JJ Bean Inc. | Vancouver
www.jjbeancoffee.com
A retail and wholesale coffee roaster that sources the highest quality green coffee and roasts it in small batches daily, always guided by the same motto: the best taste wins.

Jean-Pierre LeBlanc and Kate Ross LeBlanc
Saje Natural Business Inc. | Vancouver
www.saje.ca
Develops and markets plant-derived alternatives to pharmaceutical medicine, and connects people to natural remedies and products to help the body detoxify and rejuvenate.

Daniel Frankel
Tap & Barrel Brands Ltd. | Vancouver
www.tapandbarrel.com
A Vancouver-based restaurant brand with three locations that offers locally sourced food and beverages. Currently operates three large format restaurants in Metro Vancouver and has two new outpost concepts called TAPshack.

About EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™

EY Entrepreneur Of The Year is the world's most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs. The unique award makes a difference through the way it encourages entrepreneurial activity among those with potential, and recognizes the contribution of people who inspire others with their vision, leadership and achievement. As the first and only truly global award of its kind, EY Entrepreneur Of The Year celebrates those who are building and leading successful, growing and dynamic businesses, recognizing them through regional, national and global awards programs in more than 140 cities in 50 countries.

The 2016 Pacific region independent judging panel consists of Ryan Beedie, President, Beedie Group; Charles Chang, President & Founder, Lyra Growth Partners; Ashley Cooper, President Paladin Security; Christine Cooper, Division Head Corporate Finance Division, BMO Bank of Montreal; Debra Hewson, President, Odlum Brown; Shannon Rogers, President and General Counsel, Global Relay; Lisa Shields, CEO FI.SPAN Services Inc.; Bill Tam, President, BC Technology Industry Association.

This year's program national sponsors are TEC Canada, La Presse, RDI, The TMX Group, The Globe and Mail Inc., Merrill Corporation, Kira Talent, Air Canada and The Printing House Limited. The Pacific regional sponsors are BCBusiness, Hunt Personel Temporarily Yours, Four Seasons Hotel and Leone.

About EY

EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all of our stakeholders. In so doing, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for our clients and for our communities.

For more information, please visit ey.com/ca. Follow us on Twitter @EYCanada.

EY refers to the global organization and may refer to one or more of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.

SOURCE EY (Ernst & Young)

Sasha Anopina, [email protected], 416 943 2637; Julie Fournier, [email protected], 514 874 4308; Leigh Kjekstad, [email protected], 604 648 3807