Arlene Dickinson: a drive to help others. (CREDIT: SUPPLIED)
Arlene Dickinson
Dragon on a mission
Arlene Dickinson has the reputation of being one of Canada’s most savvy business titans. But how she would like to be remembered goes beyond her role as a top Canadian businesswoman.
“I’ve built my life around helping entrepreneurs,” says the self-made multimillionaire, explaining that the future of business is in the hands of tomorrow’s innovators.
Dickinson, CEO of Calgary-based Venture Communications and popular judge on CBC’s Dragons’ Den, is one of this year’s recipients of the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Lifetime Achievement awards. Through their creativity, innovation, hard work, vision and philanthropy, Canadian entrepreneurs like Dickinson leave a personal mark on the world.
“I think, for me, leaving behind a better path forward for entrepreneurs who can realize their dreams and are unafraid to dream big is very important to me,” she explains. “And particularly in Canada, I’m dedicated to the cause of identifying and helping entrepreneurs succeed.”
Her own path to business success started back in 1988 when she joined Venture Communications as a partner. By 1998, Dickinson had taken over as sole-owner and CEO. With no formal postsecondary education, it was up to her hard-working, risk-taking character to make a name for herself and her company.
“I believe that I’ve been blessed with a tenacity around being able to get myself up and keep going, even when things were really bad,” says Dickinson. “And courage is a big thing. You can be tenacious, but without courage it doesn’t mean anything. Because if you’re not courageous enough to try new things, you’re not going to be successful.”
But as she built Venture into a formidable communications and marketing giant, Dickinson – a single mother of four at age 28 – says she was also able to get involved in causes that felt personal.
“As I grew older I wanted to pick a cause and, in particular, I wanted to help women and children,” she explains. Dickinson has been a proud supporter and national spokesperson for the Breakfast Clubs of Canada, helping feed schoolchildren healthy breakfasts. She has also served on the board of Kids Help Phone.
Dickinson’s family immigrated from South Africa to Canada when she was three years old and eventually settled in Calgary. As an immigrant, she says this deeply influences her worldview and the stamp she wants to make.
She says her wish for her legacy is best described as “a three-legged stool.” She explains: “I want to help women and children, I want to help entrepreneurs and I want to think about how we find balance in the world. And so I look to how we can help refugees and immigrants.”
Gerry Pond: investing in the Maritimes. (CREDIT: SUPPLIED)
Gerry Pond
A champion for the Atlantic
For almost five decades, Gerry Pond has been at the helm of some of the country’s most impressive information and communications technology companies – such as Aliant Telecom and NBTel – all while keeping his feet firmly planted in New Brunswick.
An EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Lifetime Achievement award recipient this year, Pond admits to having “a passion to prove to whoever will listen that you don’t have to be big to be successful, especially in the IT world,” he says. “It’s a great leveller.”
Now the chairman of Mariner Partners Inc., a group of IT companies, Pond has proven time and again that smaller companies can have big – and profitable – ideas.
In 2001, after leaving Aliant Telecom, Pond founded Internet security firm Q1 Labs, which was later purchased by IBM for about $600-million. His next venture, Radian6, a social media monitoring company, was bought for $340-million by Salesforce.
“We need more companies like Shopify in Atlantic Canada,” says Pond, referring to the Ottawa-based e-commerce company that went public in 2015. “We can come up with great ideas from here and execute them from here, but we need more companies to [launch their] IPO from here.”
Pond is passionate that great companies can be conceived, launched and grown in Atlantic Canada. He’s been the co-founder of several start-up accelerators, including Propel ICT and East Valley Ventures. For Pond, building the future of business in the Maritimes hinges on investing in its young entrepreneurs and showing them the advantages of keeping their ideas at home.
“Young, educated people are our biggest product that we export, and we export them for free,” explains Pond. “But I’ve made my home here and my commitment is that I’m going to invest in New Brunswick and the Maritimes.”
He adds: “I believe in Canada, I believe in Atlantic Canada, and our turn will come.”
Charles (left) and Stephen Bronfman: ‘unparalleled’ generosity. (CREDIT: SUPPLIED)
The Bronfmans
Father and son philanthropists
Charles and Stephen Bronfman are no strangers to building a legacy. Members of the Seagram’s Distillery dynasty, the pair have helped carry on the family name in business by investing in Canadian entrepreneurs and local charities.
Since 1924, when Samuel Bronfman created Distillers Corporation Limited, which would later become Joseph E. Seagram & Sons Inc., the Bronfman family has had a profound impact on Canadian business, building Seagram’s into one of the largest beverage distillers in the world.
But investing in the next generation of entrepreneurs has been a passion for Charles and Stephen Bronfman. In 1987, Samuel’s son Charles started the Montreal-based Claridge Inc., a private investment firm dedicated to identifying and investing in promising and transformative ventures in Canada and abroad.
“Selecting Montreal’s Bronfman family for this year’s EY Family Business Award of Excellence was simple,” says Luc Charbonneau, EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Quebec Program Co-Director. “They’ve been leading supporters of the Canadian entrepreneurial ecosystem not only through their own family business, but also through their investments in chemicals, real estate, food, technology and entertainment.”
In 2012, Charles took the extraordinary step of pledging to give the majority of his wealth to charity. His many philanthropic initiatives have benefited causes that include education, the promotion of Canadian heritage and the Jewish community.
Today, Charles’s son Stephen carries on the family’s entrepreneurial legacy with the Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Family Foundation, which focuses on entrepreneurship, education and the environment.
“Living in Montreal, it would be hard not to know the Bronfman name,” says Daniel Baer, EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Quebec Program Co-Director. “From the first generation to today, the family has played a key role in helping grow the Montreal, Quebec and Canadian economies. And the family has dedicated just as much to charitable giving as it has to investing in business. Their generosity is unparalleled.”
This content was produced by The Globe and Mail's Globe Edge Content Studio, in consultation with an advertiser. The Globe's editorial department was not involved in its creation.