From Nettwerk to Namaste

Whether managing pop stars or teaming up with yogis, business partnerships are about alignment, Terry Mcbride says of his two entrepreneurial ventures

2016

There are two glass doors leading out of Terry Mcbride's Vancouver office, housed on the fifth floor of a building overlooking Cambie Street's Whole Foods Market. One opens toward the headquarters of Nettwerk Music Group, the music management, recording and publishing company he co-founded in 1984 and continues to helm as CEO. The other door takes him to the offices of Yyoga, the upscale yoga and fitness studio chain he co-founded in 2007 with yogi Lara Kozan, for which he is also chief executive.

“Yoga and music are the same business,” Mcbride says. “They are both thousands of years Software giant Microsoft Corp. unveils its eagerly anticipated 142,000-square-foot Microsoft Canada Excellence Centre, housed in the top two floors of Vancouver's Pacific Centre. A hiring spree follows, and the company grows its Vancouver team to more than 750 employees across product development, sales and marketing, and retail and administrative work.

2016

B.C. biotechnology company QLT Inc., creator of the hugely successful macular degeneration treatment Visudyne, changes its name to Novelion Therapeutics Inc. and merges with Boston-based Aegerion Pharmaceuticals Inc. QLT co-founder Julia Levy, who served as CEO from 1999 to 2002, won the 2002 EOY Healthcare category.

Film and television production spending hits a record $2.6 billion in British Columbia, employing some 44,000 people, according to government agency Creative BC. The province also surpasses Ontario as the country's top locale for film and Tv—even with a reduction in labour tax credits from 33 percent to 28 percent the previous year. A new generation of technology entrepreneurs gets a leg up as post-secondary institutions across B.C. add 2,900 spaces in tech-related programs, thanks to $4.4 million in provincial funding. As advances continue in virtual reality, biotech and software, the province is nurturing

the next wave of talent.