Merrifield biz leader of the year
Kelowna’s Lane Merrifield is best known for being one of three founders who sold Club Penguin to Disney in 2007 for $350 million.
That’s a massive amount, and a famous achievement. But it was also a decade ago.
Merrifield has moved on to create an education portal, help start-up tech firms, serve the industry and lead the charge for the development of the Okanagan Centre for Innovation.
For this entire body of work, the Kelowna Business Excellence Awards will honour Merrifield as the 2017 business leader of the year.
The title is part of an awards program that will see trophies handed out Oct. 12 at a gala dinner at the Delta Grand hotel.
A list of finalists in nine categories was released last month.
Business leader of the year is announced a couple of weeks before the awards ceremony, without a list of finalists, as a way of creating hype about the awards and the gala.
As such, the organizing Kelowna Chamber of Commerce is using the announcement to remind people that $140 tickets are still available to the Oct. 12 event at KelownaChamber.org.
Club Penguin is the safe and fun online playground for kids started by dads Merrifield, Dave Krysko and Lance Priebe for their kids.
It became an international sensation with millions of kids playing for free or having their parents pay a subscription for enhanced access.
It became so popular, it attracted the attention of global entertainment giant Disney, which paid $350 million for the company.
Disney still operates a Club Penguin game within its Disney Interactive portfolio and maintains an office in Kelowna to create Club Penguin content and content for Disney’s other websites and online entertainment.
Since leaving Club Penguin and Disney, Merrifield co-founded FreshGrade, a portal that many schools use to connect parents, students and teachers for engagement and progress reporting.
Merrifield also started Wheelhouse, a firm that helps start-up technology companies with funding and advice.
He was also part of the committee that pressed for the Okanagan Centre for Innovation.
The seven-storey showpiece at the corner of Ellis Street and Doyle Avenue downtown houses tech companies of all sizes, firms that support them, such as Accelerate Okanagan and the Business Development Bank of Canada, and also features a soaring lobby atrium and roof-top restaurant and patio.
Along the way, Merrifield has served on several boards, including UBC’s board of governors and the Premier’s Technology Council.
He’s also won numerous other accolades in conjunction with Club Penguin, from a British Academy of Film and Television (BAFTA) award and two International Academy of Digital Arts and Science (Webby) awards to Web Marketing Association trophies.
At one time, the Hollywood Reporter listed Merrifield as one of its top 35 executives under 35.