British Columbia’s businesses depend on Pamela McDonald’s job. That may sound like an exaggeration, but it is not. Leading the BC Securities Commission, it is her job to ensure that the BC business sector’s money and investments are safe. Her inspiration came from her father, who was a stock broker. So when she graduated, she went towards that field, thinking that was where she wanted to go – only to find out it wasn’t. But that experience gave her a valuable insight on where her true path lay.

When you make a bad investment, you probably want someone to hold hands with. That is how Murray Leith describes his job – he is the one to hold your hand during turbulence and help keep you from panicking. This role stems from his family and educational background in finance – he knew he wanted to be in that industry. As time went along, he realized that his goal depended on writing and discovering what he had to say – and how to say it well.

What happens when a bunch of side gigs become a career? For Ernest Lang, he points to himself as the answer. As head of Promerita, he invests and advises on financial matters around corporate assets, wealth planning, real estate, and more. His interest in money was rooted in necessity – coming from a family with one parent and with limited means, he had to figure out how money worked and that has led him to a “survive at all costs” approach to business.

How do you create economic opportunities and attract the right investments? That is a question that Jacquie Griffiths tries to answer every day, as the President of Invest Vancouver. The key to this is developing talent and seeking investors from abroad, helping to create a well-rounded industry. This is a lot of responsibility – and it all depends on the sense of relationship-building that she developed very early in her career in workforce development.