On October 5, Junior Achievement (JA) Southern Alberta will hold the 19th annual Gala and Induction Ceremony for the Alberta Business Hall of Fame – Southern Alberta at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Calgary. Three well-respected business and community leaders will be inducted into the Hall of Fame, while a newly established Young Innovator Award will be handed out for the first time.
“The Gala is JA Southern Alberta’s annual fundraiser,” explains JA Southern Alberta CEO Keri Damen. “It typically raises over $400,000 for JA programming. The support of sponsors and attendees ensures that southern Alberta’s students and educators continue to have free access to entrepreneurship, financial literacy and work readiness education.”
This year’s laureates are Arlene Dickinson, Louis “Lou” MacEachern and Ron Mathison.
“Arlene is a household name after appearing on our TVs for over 17 years as a Dragon,” says Damen. “She is a serial entrepreneur and general partner of District Ventures Capital, a venture capital fund focused on helping market, fund and grow entrepreneurs and their companies.”
“Louis MacEachern is an active philanthropist in both Calgary and his native Prince Edward Island,” she continues, “most known for the commercial cleaning company he founded in 1964, Servpro. Ron Mathison is a well-known Calgary-based business leader as chairman of MATCO Investments Ltd., and founder of many other successful companies.”
The new Young Innovator Award was created to recognize an innovative business leader, under the age of 40, who is changing the landscape within our economy, exhibits an energetic and entrepreneurial spirit, and is a promoter of change on behalf of the greater good.
“We cannot think of a more deserving inaugural recipient than Dr. Breanne Everett,” says Damen. “Breanne is the CEO and co-founder of Orpyx Medical Technologies Inc., as well as a medical doctor with residency training in plastic and reconstructive surgery at the University of Calgary. Seeing the burden that diabetic foot complications posed on both patients and the health care system, she founded Orpyx, a leading digital therapeutics company that is committed to extending the health span for people living with diabetes through personalized remote care.”
“We view this award as an opportunity to connect with the community of professionals who are just in the middle of their careers, and hopefully, begin the circle that will bring them back to the Alberta Business Hall of Fame – Southern Alberta as an inductee in the future,” Damen adds.
JA Global is the world’s largest non-profit serving youth in 120 countries and has been operating in Calgary since 1960. “This past year, we’ve made huge strides in terms of impact – reaching an all-time high of 2,500+ programs delivered to 60,000 students in southern Alberta,” Damen says proudly. “This is due to the launch of new cutting-edge programs but also to the broadening of program access – with COIVD accelerating online course delivery enabling us to reach more students.”
JASA’s fastest growing program is a financial literacy one called More than Money (grade four), which grew 140 per cent from last year. “Our most impactful program is the Company Program after school for high school students,” says Damen. “Over a four-month period, grade 9 to 12 students learn how to build and operate a real business, with help from volunteers from the local business community.”
The Gala is more than 80 per cent sold. Visit south.abhf.ca for more information or to secure sponsorship.
Arlene Dickinson
Arlene Dickinson’s story is one of hard work, hardship, resilience and, in due course, great business success: owner of Venture Communications, co-owner of District Ventures Capital and Believeco:Partners, Dragon on CBC’s Dragons’ Den, author, podcaster, public speaker.
The daughter of South African immigrants looking for a brighter future in Canada, Dickinson grew up in suburban Calgary. A bright student who graduated from Sir Winston Churchill High School at 16, she married and started a family at 19.
In time, she set her sights on business. “I believe you’re born an entrepreneur and that you can’t teach somebody to be one if it’s not already somewhere in them,” Dickinson says. “I didn’t have an immediate desire to become an entrepreneur and didn’t know it was in me until life circumstances forced me to discover that it was. Sometimes it’s the hardships that help us discover who we really are.”
Dickinson joined Venture Communications as a sweat equity partner in 1988. “While it sounds glamorous to be a partner at an ad agency in your early 30s, I can assure it wasn’t,” she notes. “I was a single mother to four kids and had no income from my full-time job. But I persisted because I knew I was growing something purposeful in an industry that had been doing things the same for decades.”
After a decade of hard work – early mornings, working over weekends and overcoming the hurdles that come with reinventing a business – Dickinson eventually bought out her partners in 1998. Being a woman however, she was unable to obtain the financing to do so. “So it was done the hard way by reinvesting working capital into the business as no bank would give me a loan,” she says.
In November 2022, Dickinson brought Venture Play and five other independent Canadian agencies together to form Believeco:Partners, a 300-person agency with offices across North America, offering marketing, communications and advisory services to businesses in need of strategy, branding, advertising and public relations services. One of Believeco:Partners brands, Castlemain, focuses on Indigenous advisory services.
After 18 years on Dragons’ Den seeing thousands of entrepreneurs, Dickinson decided to form District Ventures Capital to invest in early-stage CPG businesses in the food, beverage, health and wellness space. “By providing Canadian entrepreneurs with the capital to manufacture and take to market the packaged products from agriculture, and the consumer-ready health innovation from our R&D labs, we create a globally competitive economy, a better nation and stronger Canadians,” she says.
An active supporter of her community and country, Dickinson is currently creating a foundation for supporting seniors in need and ensuring their stories are told. In addition, she supports charities and non-profits that ensure no one is left hungry. “Canada has a network of food bands and food rescue agencies that do amazing work to ensure food doesn’t go to waste,” she says. “I’m proud to be an ambassador for Second Harvest and bringing awareness to the organization’s cause.”
Her advice to young people is this: “There is only one person who has the ability to stop you in life and that person lives in your head. Believing in yourself will bring out your resilience and perseverance and those traits are critical to your success.”
A proud Calgarian, Dickinson is grateful for the city: “I’ve grown up and I have built several businesses here, but the most important thing I’ve done is raise my own family here. All my children were born at the General Hospital. I was raised here, my kids were raised here and I created myself as a businessperson here. This city truly raised me up.”
Louis “Lou” MacEachern
Louis “Lou” MacEachern first arrived in Calgary in 1952, a young man from PEI in search of a job. He’d grown up on a farm and quit school after grade seven to work. “Things were pretty dull in PEI then,” he recalls. He made the trek out west in order to “have something to eat.”
While he did land a job, four years later MacEachern decided to return to the Maritimes to complete his grade school education. “An education never hurts,” he admits. After high school he went on to pursue post-secondary education, first at St. Dunstan’s University and Prince of Wales College (University of PEI predecessor institutions), then at Dalhousie University to study commerce.
During the summers, MacEachern would travel to Toronto and work at a cleaning company. “I’d make enough money to make it through the winter and return to school again,” he says.
After finishing his education, he returned to Calgary in 1964 and soon started his own cleaning business – Servpro. The business was focused mainly on insurance cleanups – fires and floods. For 36 years, MacEachern grew his business. “We tried our best to give good service and do what the customer wants,” he reflects.
By the time he sold Servpro in 2000, the business was a successful and well-known organization. “We grew to 800 employees,” he says, “and we started just with myself and a guy with a drinking problem!”
While he was no longer involved with Servpro, he continued to run Fortune Industries Ltd., a company he founded in 1965 which owned all MacEachern’s interests. “We had 19 different companies that operated at the Servpro offices,” he explains, “and Fortune owned by interests. Those companies were mostly related to salvage and real estate.”
Today, MacEachern’s business interests continue to be carried out through Fortune. “We’re building apartment buildings in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia,” he says. “And I’m involved with the stock market.” He is also a director of various corporations and has been a member of the UPEI Board of Governors, as well as an advisor to the University of Calgary and Mount Royal College.
Through the course of his life, MacEachern has donated much time and money to various charitable organizations, both in Alberta and PEI. “I was with the Calgary Foundation for several years in the 90s, and that’s a great operation,” he says. “I was with the Cancer Society for years too. And in the Maritimes I’m with the Confederation Centre of the Arts, I like that outfit quite a lot.” Other organizations he’s been involved with include the Rotary Club of Calgary, the Naval Museum of Alberta, The Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards, and the Pinnacle Awards.
His advice to young, would-be entrepreneurs? “It’s not easy,” he says matter-of-factly. “If you’re looking for lifestyle and no work, don’t start a business. There’s a lot of work involved, and it requires a couple of things. One is good judgement. The second is lots of work. If you think you don’t have to work because you’re the boss, I’ve got news for you!”
Ron Mathison
Ron Mathison has spent his career building. Energy and related companies, entire downtown city blocks, University of Calgary halls; he’s played an instrumental role in the birth and growth of much in this city. But perhaps the most important thing he’s built is his reputation.
“My father always said that it takes a long time to develop a reputation and a short time to lose or ruin it,” Mathison reflects. “The induction [into the Alberta Business Hall of Fame – Southern Alberta] is gratifying because it suggests that, on balance, people in the community and a group of your peers recognize that you’ve had a modicum of success and that you’ve tried to do the right thing.”
Born in Calgary and raised in Winnipeg, Mathison feels fortunate to have grown up in a working-class family: “My parents were always very conscious of costs and the value of a dollar, but we never wanted for anything, and my dad was able to loan me the money for my first business.”
He enrolled in the Faculty of Commerce at the University of Manitoba given his interest in business. “When I graduated I still really didn’t know what I wanted to do,” he recalls, “and my dad, who grew up with Dick Haskayne, said he didn’t know what to recommend but that ‘Haskayne had become an accountant and it worked pretty good for him’.”
Accordingly, Mathison went on to obtain his Chartered Professional Accountant, Chartered Business Valuator and Chartered Financial Analyst designations. His first job was at the Winnipeg accounting firm Thorne Riddell (predecessor to KPMG) in the audit department, which he hated. He soon switched to tax and business valuations and through this work met Rob Peters, the founder of Peters & Co., who offered him a job in Calgary. He joined the firm in 1987.
“Peters & Co. was, and remains, the pre-eminent Canadian investment bank for the oil and gas business and over the years has employed dozens of people who are legend in their own right,” Mathison reflects. “My time at Peters & Co. was the favourite part of my career. Great firm, great people.”
He left Peters & Co. in 1999, and remained focused on MATCO Investments Ltd., which by that time had invested in and developed a large commercial real estate portfolio. When The Economist famously predicted that oil would be $5.00 forever, Mathison decided to purchase distressed oil and gas assets. “If The Economist was correct, everything I owned would be worthless anyway,” he reasoned. “If they weren’t correct, I would be better off with more assets that were available at that time of historically low prices.” Luckily, The Economist wasn’t correct, and the strategy worked out well.
MATCO’s development of Eighth Avenue Place (EAP) downtown was a major achievement. “Like many things, EAP seemed like an overnight success, and I guess it was,” Mathison reasons, “except it was 20 years in the making. EAP was built on spec and for a few years looked to be the biggest white elephant in Canadian real estate history.” But as is so often the case in Calgary, the economic cycle moved very quickly after the 2008 recession. Both towers in EAP are now fully leased.
Mathison is also co-founder of three oilfield service companies: Calfrac Well Services Ltd., Western Energy Services Corp. and Echo Seismic Ltd. Calfrac, in particular, has done very well. “We had our first Christmas party at one table in a restaurant in town and now Calfrac operates in Canada, the United States and Argentina and has several thousand employees,” Mathison says.
A generous philanthropist, Mathison explains his rationale: “I have had the extraordinary good fortune to be associated with a number of great community builders and I’ve seen how impactful their contributions and efforts have been, both for the community and the organizations, and also for their own feeling of community.”
Young Innovator Award Recipient: Dr. Breanne Everett
Though Dr. Breanne Everett chose the medical profession, business was her first passion. As a child growing up in Bragg Creek, she was always interested in business and entrepreneurship, and tried her hand at several small businesses. She credits her parents for fostering her passion.
“They doubled-down on the things we loved,” she says. “Although we didn’t have a lot of resources, they literally did whatever they could to support and encourage us.” This support led a young Everett to start a beaded jewelry business, which evolved into silversmith jewelry after she took silversmithing courses. Her jewelry supplied a number of televisions series and movies shot locally.
“I did that until midway through middle school,” she recalls, “and then became more focused on school.” An interest in science led her towards medicine, and she received the Canadian Merit Scholarship, a national, full-ride scholarship (now called the Loran Scholarship) to any university in the country. She chose to pursue an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from McGill.
Upon completing her degree, she returned to Calgary to attend medical school. She obtained her MD then began a residency in plastic and reconstructive surgery. During this training, she conceived the idea for a sensory insole to prevent diabetic foot problems.
“I never intended for these paths [medicine and business] to combine,” she reflects. “But as a clinician I saw some of the problems we face consistently every day in the health care system. And I had several ideas for how we could improve the way we deliver care for chronic diseases.”
Dr. Everett co-founded Orpyx Medical Technologies Inc. in 2010, in the middle of her residency. Orpyx’s flagship product is the Orpyx SI® Sensory Insole. “It’s a sensorized insole,” she explains. “They can be made in custom or non-custom forms. Inside the insole we have a suite of sensors for pressure, temperature and activity. All the data from the underfoot is collected with the insole, which transmits the data wirelessly to an app or other receiving device.”
The result is a continuous time series of data from the shoe of a person living with diabetes. “We have an in-house care team, including credentialed nurses, that oversee that data and can escalate issues as required,” she continues. “They can raise issues with the patient or their prescribing physician, as needed. It’s a turnkey solution that allows for continuous care and surveillance to prevent foot complications.”
Orpyx SI® Sensory Insoles also cue activity and movement in the patient as required. “The intervention is very effective at stopping limb problems, including eventual amputation,” she notes. “We did a randomized controlled trial that showed the highest risk patients can reduce the rate of ulceration by about 86 per cent. It’s really good at doing what it does.”
The product can be used in a range of other chronic disease management, for sports performance quantification, improvement and injury prevention.
As the inaugural Innovator Award Recipient, Dr. Everett is humbled by the honour. “The creation of this new category is exciting,” she says, “particularly for students to see individuals who are earlier in their careers. It’s an amazing honour, but at the end of the day, it’s a reflection of the work of a very large group of people who have brought the company to this stage.”
“You’re never too young to get started,” she advises would-be entrepreneurs. “If you have a passion, just start exploring, learning and shaping that part of yourself, because time goes by quickly. And one of the best things young people have is the innate ability to be very flexible thinkers. So if you can harness that early and train that muscle in yourself early, it will serve you forever.”
