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.

When Gidi Grinstein saw the Oslo Accords after his military service in Israel, he was fascinated. He knew he was witnessing an incident of great statesmanship in history – and realized that he wanted to be part of groups that shaped public policy. Leveraging that passion, he started the Reut Group, a public policy think tank. At first, he did everything. Over time, he realized that he couldn’t do everything alone – he had to work with people around him.

Alex de Vries’ role as a “digiconomist” started as a hobby, combining her history with economics with a passion for digital economy. In his role, he provides warnings and cautious advice on those getting into cryptocurrency. This was a far cry from his younger days, when he had no idea what he wanted to do – but keeping his options open paid off.

Jennifer Geary is a writer but it may surprise people that she didn’t like to write. It started out of necessity as a chief operating officer, when she discovered that there was no how-do guide or book on that role. So she decided to give it a shot herself and it has morphed into a “happy part” of what she does.

John Stackhouse graduated during the 1981 recession; seeing its impact, he decided to study something more practical – commerce. However, he had a creative itch to scratch. Joining the school newspaper gave him a desire to break out of the financial world after graduating and landed at the Globe and Mail as a business reporter, which led him to both the creative and practical sides of finance.

Public policy in Canada is a complicated topic. For Renaud Brossard, his job is to make the topic less complicated and more accessible to the public through media outlets. As a business major, he developed his policy analysis background over the years and by working with other high-end academics in the field.

No matter how much Mike Rowlands checks off his to-do list, the list keeps growing. That’s just the nature of being the founder and CEO of Junxion Strategy, an international social impact consultancy. This is a long way from his younger days, when he didn’t know what he wanted to do. He studied business in university and surprisingly didn’t like it. Over time, he experimented in various other businesses, including a bike shop, which gave him a first career where he learned about customer service, business, logistics, and everything in between – a valuable insight on what makes people tick

Mark Liedemann is great at relationship management – his job as CEO of Infrastructure BC calls for it, helping to cultivate the relationships between government and builders of infrastructure around British Columbia. To get to where he is today, it was a journey through a biochemistry degree, teaching in Germany, the banking industry, a business degree, and more.

When Jeanette Jackson took over a clean-tech accelerator called Foresight, it was a team of two. Today, that number has grown to 50. To get there, she had to start with a hands-on strategy, doing everything from ideas to pitching them. Over the years, she transitioned into the leadership role that she serves today. Her biggest advice to others is to get a handle on fine details such as numbers for financials and keeping track of projects’ progress.

As far as Dara Parker is concerned, she has her dream job. As the vice-president of grants and community initiatives at the Vancouver Foundation, her mission is to distribute the funding to make communities better. Throughout her career, she has worked with people and found that understanding people is fundamental to growing as a person and her current role.

How do you get First Nations, government, and the energy industry together? That is something that Chris Sankey knows the answer to, because it is what he does. He loves solving problems that nobody else wants to touch and that drives his mission – aiming for a Canada with economic opportunities without racism.

Rudy Bottignol’s career has taken many turns. He started as a self-taught filmmaker and found success, which sparked an interest in doing it for a career. Going to university, he majored in film and entered the then-new field of independent productions by starting his own company – he was one of the rare breed of instant entrepreneurs after university.

Robert Barnard is the co-founder of Youthful Cities, which seeks to make our cities more youthful and dynamic. His path started as a human geography student, which fascinated him. As a self-described “serial entrepreneur,” his studies kept combining with his passion. Every step of the way, people kept asking, “What’s with all these young people?” Seeing a demand for governments and companies to market to young people led him to pivot his focus towards creating communities focused around youth and young adults.

Jess Ketchum sees himself as an advisor to corporations, which sounds easier than it actually is. His top quality is confidentiality – CEOs invest a certain level of trust in him and expect quality feedback in return. His consistent work and quick turnaround have led to word-of-mouth clients through building relationships and trust.

Businesses need information to make informed decisions – and that is what Ken Peacock is here for. In his role at the Business Council of British Columbia, he takes information from the provincial government and connects it with business leaders for feedback and development. He didn’t start out wanting to be an economist – but he had a curiosity to understand how the world worked. At the advice of a professor, he went into economics. This changed his life and career path.

Drew Collier is the CEO of LGM Financial Services, which handles extended warranties for various car brands in Canada. Being based on the west coast, he has an early start each day to accommodate those out east. And his work is never done – evenings are prep work for the next day. His path started in electronics, which fed his interest in knowing how things work. This desire to learn about the inner workings of everything eventually led him into business, where he is today.

David Hutniak leads Landlord BC, which is an industry association that represents owners and managers of rental housing in British Columbia. His organization represents landlords across BC and balances the interests of landlords and tenants.

Rory Mullen, as the head of BioPharma and IDA Ireland, meets a lot of people, to say the least. He started studying in business and working in advertising, but wanted to expand his horizons internationally, outside his native Ireland.

Troy Clifford identifies as a paramedic, but his mission is much more. He is the president of a union for ambulance and paramedics union, which is also the profession’s de-facto organization in British Columbia. His role is to support its workers and be the face of BC’s ambulance service.

Olaf Groth wants to hear what your frontier looks like – and help you achieve it. That is his mission and purpose, as he helps people and organizations shift their strategy and thinking to meet their goals.