Membership

Ambassadors Club


The Ambassadors Club welcomes new members into The Vancouver Board of Trade by acquainting them with The Board’s services and encouraging them to get engaged. Through personal calls and attendance at receptions, the Club acts as The Board’s “Ambassadors”. Feedback generated by the Ambassadors Club helps The Board focus its programs on the needs of its members. The Ambassadors Club meets on the first Wednesday of every month over breakfast with guest speakers. They are responsible for Business After Business™ trade shows. Ambassadors also act as facilitators at Networking Roundtable sessions.

For more information, please contact Chris Barry at 604-640-5476 or e-mail cbarry@boardoftrade.com or Austin Nairn at 604-640-5481 or email anairn@boardoftrade.com 

Become an Ambassador!

Members who are interested in joining the Ambassadors Club must print and fill out the Ambassadors Club Member Application form (PDF/202kb).

For more information, please contact:

Chris Barry
Director, Membership Services
Tel: 604-640-5476
Fax: 604-681-0437
E-mail: cbarry@boardoftrade.com

Austin Nairn
Manager, Member Benefits
& Development Programs
Tel: 604-640-5481
Email: anairn@boardoftrade.com
   

Chair: 
Tracy Dallas
Vice President of Operations
Total Staffing Solutions		   
Vice-Chair:
Brad Pashby
Corporate Insurance Specialist
CFP, CLU
SunLife Financial


Ambassador of the Month Profile


May


Norman Wong is a passionate and highly committed ambassador for The Vancouver Board of Trade.  He has been a member since 1990 and an ambassador since 1998. 

Norman is a financial advisor for Wealth Consultants Inc.  Founded in 1991, Wealth Consultants Inc. brokers for insurance and investment companies and handles their clients’ financial needs.

Twenty years ago, Norman asked a sales manager “How do you build a business?” The answer he got was to create a large network and make contacts. That conversation led Norman to join The Vancouver Board of Trade after attending his very first event.  He says he values the friendships he has made and the knowledge and experience that he has gained from fellow members. 

As a long-standing member of The Vancouver Board of Trade and a dedicated relationship builder, Norman recommends that all members consider joining a committee.  He calls this “taking networking to the next level” and says it comes with many rewards. 

Norman also encourages new members to start building authentic and strong relationships with fellow members.  He believes that “card swapping is not networking and that it is important to know a fellow member as a person and not just by their contact details.” Norman’s grandfather was a member of a business association in his hometown, and he taught Normal the timeless values of community giving, knowledge sharing, and building networks. 

If you would like to get to know Norman, his next event is the New Members’ Breakfast Roundtable.  He will be moderating one of the tables. Come join him for “an incredible two hours of breakfast, intense networking amongst morning go-getters, and free parking!”

April


As a 2012 Leaders of Tomorrow (LOT) graduate, Hope Wang is a motivated and enthusiastic individual. After completing her year in the program, she came back and got involved in the Ambassador’s Club acting as a liaison to the new student ambassadors. Balancing full time studies at Simon Fraser University and her volunteer position as an Executive Committee Member for the LOT program, Hope is graduating in June with a degree in Communication and Sociology.

Anyone who meets Hope is immediately welcomed with a friendly and energetic smile.  As a confident yet humble individual, Hope’s ideal job is not one that involves sitting in the confines of an office working 9-5. She has an entrepreneurial flair with a passion for event planning, and enjoys getting out into the community and getting involved. As a great communicator she thrives in leadership environments where she can volunteer and connect with the community. She hopes to combine all these facets of her life into a career in event planning where she can work at bringing people and the community together.

Hope’s best advice to new graduates of the program- always keep connected with the people you’ve met; your peer network is the best network, so stay in touch.

If you’d like to learn more about this driven upcoming leader, you can meet Hope at the Corporate Yacht Members’ Reception on May 23, 2013.

March


A Vancouver Board of Trade member for a decade, ambassador for seven years and president of the Ambassadors Club for one year, Carl de Jong is passionate about helping others. Both an avid volunteer and financial advisor at Primerica, you can catch Carl dressing up as Santa Claus for the East Vancouver Lions Club or giving financial advice to established adults or young professionals just starting out.

With a history of supporting the financial development of various organizations, Carl specializes in building financial literacy. Carl’s tip to building successful relationships with people is to “take the time to get to know someone before talking business”.  His approach is to help people first and calls himself a social entrepreneur who always look for different ways to make an impact.

Carl enjoys traveling in his spare time and has traveled to Tahiti for 17 times. He recommends everyone to go in their lifetime as it’s a beautiful place. He realized how fortunate he was to live in Canada after traveling to 37 countries in one year and feels lucky to live in Canada. When asked what keeps him so optimistic, Carl shared his outlook on life which is to be happy with what you have, help people, and leave it a better place.

February

Derek Watson is passionate about helping others and he exhibits this through his volunteer work with the Vancouver Board of Trade and in a professional environment. As a Sales Executive at SAP, he is responsible for forming business relationships with clients from the utilities industry in the United States to help them improve their business processes.

Over the past 20 years as a sales professional in the IT industry with Dell, GE, and now SAP, Derek is characterized by his commitment to helping his clients succeed and improve their business. He also demonstrates this same attitude through his involvement with the Ambassador’s Club by acting as a mentor for new members to VBOT as well as connecting with Company of Young Professional members and students in the Leaders of Tomorrow program.

Although he is one the newest members of the Ambassador’s Club, Derek was awarded the Ambassador of the Month for January through his continuous commitment and extremely positive attitude when welcoming new members to the board. Over the next few years, he plans to stay involved with the Club and eventually pursue a leadership role with the committee in the next few years to expand its impact. Professionally, Derek is looking to become an expert in Business Intelligence and Analytics because he believes that this will be extremely valuable to all lines of business in the near future. Outside of his professional activities, Derek enjoys the visual arts and listening to music – especially Beethoven! If you would like to connect with him, he attends many member receptions as well as other VBOT events.

January

Rick Vet is an advocate of doing business in person and forming long lasting business relationships. He is currently a Tradeshow & Signage Specialist with Sign-A-Rama in Richmond BC, where he is responsible for working with businesses throughout Greater Vancouver to fulfill their signage needs. He also attends more than 300 tradeshows per year and expresses that this is his favorite part of being a salesman.

Throughout his career, Rick has been committed to customer satisfaction and forming relationships. He says that the key to sales for him is the 20/80 rule, which means that the customer should be talking 80% of the time. Many sales people believe that they need to do most of the talking, but Rick believes that listening is the most important for fulfilling client needs. This year, Rick’s goal is to generate more sales than he ever has in the past.

Rick has been involved with the Vancouver Board of Trade for over 10 years and has been in the Ambassador’s Club for five. This year, he wants to focus on expanding the board’s footprint and recruit more new members by communicating all of the benefits that the board has to offer to businesses. He was named Ambassador of the Month for December for his continual commitment to welcoming new members and furthering the reach of the Ambassador’s Club. If you’d like to connect with Rick, he attends many VBOT events, so do not be afraid to approach him and say hello!

November




Galia Shukr is the President and CEO of Prestige Performance Consulting, a consulting firm that focuses on taking big business solutions and adapting them for small business. Galia’s credentials include being a certified business and executive coach. She is also fluent in 3 languages, has a B.A. in Management Information Systems, a Masters in Project Management and is a PMP-certified professional.

She has over 20 years of experience in solving problems and finding innovative solutions for all sizes of business. Galia has earned a reputation for driving change, as well as building highly effective teams to structure and implement required solutions. Galia’s most notable achievements include; being the global winner of the Best Technology of the year award for Return on Investment, being a finalist Canadian Information Productivity Awards, speaking at expert panel technology discussions with 80 CIOs, and being an Educational Speaker to Global Fortune 500 as well as federal and provincial government organizations.

At The Vancouver Board of Trade, Galia volunteers with the Ambassadors Club, which focuses on welcoming new members and helping them connect with the community.  She is this month’s Ambassador of the month for her outstanding dedication to supporting new members and suggestions to continually improve the member experience. In short, Galia Shukr is an amazing person, and often available for coffee if you would like to get to know her better.

October




Jonathan Mosley, manager of Skier Development at Mt Seymour Resort Ltd. has been selected as October’s Ambassadors Club Member of the Month.  Jonathan has been involved with the Vancouver Board of Trade for over three years and has been part of the Ambassadors Club for the past year.  Jonathan has been hard at work preparing for the upcoming ski season, which will include a brand new high speed quad chair at Mt Seymour Resort.  This new chair will provide a faster ride and improved experience for guests.  With the new high speed quad chair, Jonathan is looking forward to keeping “Mt Seymour’s tradition of being the place to learn to ski and snowboard.”

In the spirit of the Vancouver Board of Trade, Jonathan is also always setting new goals for himself.  His goal for this year is to “drive more people to take a lesson [at Mt Seymour] and become passionate about skiing and snowboarding.”  Jonathan always makes time in his busy schedule to give back to the community through the Company of Young Professionals.  Specifically, he is working towards completing his Company of Young Professionals Engaged Leadership Certificate.  Jonathan also finds working with the Ambassadors club “a really rewarding way to help build the Board of Trade by developing strong relationships and welcoming new members.”

The Ambassadors Club again is proud to honour Jonathan Mosley as the Member of the Month for October.  Connect with Jonathan, and learn more about the exciting things happening at Mount Seymour Resort this year, at the Stages Bistro Members Reception on October 24th.