Speakers

Stewart ensures that every V2V guest experiences seamless and exceptional service at our Victoria terminal, when purchasing tickets, checking in or boarding the V2V Empress.

He is passionate about making every guest smile and about always finding a way to make things easier, smoother and more welcoming for our guests. Seeing guests begin to relax into the V2V experience as soon as he starts to speak to them, is a fantastic reward.

Before V2V, Stewart was privileged to be at sea in the cruise industry for 16 years, with 10 years as a Cruise Director at Celebrity Cruises.

In his spare time, Stewart enjoys exploring all the beautiful parts of Vancouver Island and the gulf islands and working on perfecting his Victoria home. As a recent heart surgery patient, when participating in any fundraising events, Stewart’s charity of choice is the Heart and Stroke foundation of Canada.

 

-- Stewart 's talk will be about Riverside Marine in Australia, how we came to Canada, what our company values are, and what services we offer.

 

Madeline Sternig is a student at Spectrum Community school, born and raised on Vancouver Island in Victoria, BC. For the past 2 years she has been an active member of her school's leadership club.  She has spent over 10 years being an avid member of her soccer team Gorge United, and has committed many hours to play her clarinet for school events as well as parades in her school’s band. Madeline is excited and proud to be a long term outbound Rotary exchange student and represent her country and home Rotary clubs abroad.  Summer, 2019 she starts her school year in Denmark, Rotary District 1470, Virum - Sorgenfri.

Rebecca Merner, the youngest of four sisters, is a grade 10 student at Esquimalt High School. Where she is in the Challenge Programme and takes part in peer tutoring. Rebecca is a member of the Victoria Children's Choir and internationally renown choir and can be spotted on the Camosun Campus learning American Sign Language. Thanks to your sponsorship she will be going on a Rotary Youth Exchange to Lahti, Finland. Rebecca is so excited to be going on this amazing adventure. 

Kevin Hilgers and Rick Lemon are intro and thank you

 

 

Jim Ross (VP Anawim) will present the Anawim Story explaining what they do to help
Victoria’s poor and homeless. They effectively help these people make lasting change
in their life whether that means  freedom from addiction, reconnecting with loved
ones, moving into housing, going back to school, or finding work or a home. Anawim
has successfully helped two to three people every year get back into society,
working, paying taxes and contributing to our community.

Terry Edison-Brown (House Director Anawim) will present “How we do it”. They offer a
family environment where people can recover their dignity and self-worth  and break
free of isolation, addiction, and past trauma. It’s a place where people can
contribute and build lasting relationships as members of a loving family. A place
where people can thrive, not just survive. They work with people to rebuild their
physical, emotional, and spiritual health and set new goals for themselves.

Jim Ross has over 37 years experience as a sales manager, business owner, board member and President and CEO of DSL Inc., a food equipment supply company servicing western Canada. When retirement brought him to Vancouver Island, he became a Rotarian with South Cowichan Rotary Club.  Involved in several projects in the Cowichan Valley, Jim also became a Paul Harris Fellow.  Since moving to Victoria he has chaired his strata council and since 2015, he has sat on the Board of the Anawim Companions Society.

 

Tyson King Bio

Topic of Discussion:  Different Roles Dogs Play in Society

This topic of discussion will be on the roles that each of the following plays in society: Pets/Companions, Emotional Support Animals/(ESA’s)/Personal Therapy Dog, Working Dogs, Facility Therapy Dogs and Service Dogs.  Through this discussion a better understanding of the significant differences between them and why legitimate Service Dog Teams have protections of human rights.  I will briefly discuss the variety of providers within Canada and highlight some important facts.

Tyson who is particpating in Harbourside Superpower Dogs fundraiser.

 

 

Executive Director/Chair

Philippe Blanchard

As head of the Board of Directors and founder, Philippe oversees the execution of all our operations by providing direction and exercising control over charitable resources and the coordination of directors in their areas of responsibility. Philippe was born and raised in Granby, Quebec, a French province of Canada. In 1988, Philippe joined the Canadian Armed Forces as an Air Force Officer, and served Canada for over 26 years, first as an Air Navigator onboard Canada’s Long-Range Patrol Aircraft CP-140 Aurora, then as an Air Logistics Officer. He graduated in 2008 with a Bachelor of Commerce in Entrepreneurial Management from Royal Roads University (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada), and in 2013, received his Master's Certificate in Project Management from the University of Victoria. Philippe resides in Canada; however, he spends 3-4 months a year in the Philippines to effectively carry out our agenda. Philippe believes that by helping others, it brings true meaning to our own lives, and as a bonus all the smiles and hugs he receives from our beneficiaries.

BIOGRAPHY: Garth is an entrepreneur with a history of six start-ups, several failures, two exits and one acquisition. For the past 14 years he’s owned and operated Allsite IT, an IT Managed Infrastructure company. Clients include Bell-Canada, Carbon Engineering, Hilton Hotels and several Small Medium Businesses. Allsite IT has offices in Victoria, Vancouver and Toronto. 

Garth’s work experience and love of a good story means he translates IT subject matter into interesting and useful and information for small-medium business owners. He tells stories with real world actions owners and managers can take to mitigate the business situations discussed.

The Little Known Story of Notpetya

The NotPetya attack on 27 June 2017 started at a small-medium company serving the Accounting business and spread to affect the US national security supply of vaccines and nearly a fifth of global shipping. The final estimate of the damage was $10 Billion, the most expensive cyberattack ever. Later the US and UK formally blamed Russia for the attack but that didn’t help the small family-owned business that was hand picked by Russia to be “patient zero”. They were not even the target, they were the best available conduit to the target. The owners faced arrest and a class action lawsuit, a SWAT team raided their office. Could it happen to you? Who’s on your client list? Is a client-of-a-client maybe a target or “pathway of interest”? We are interconnected, don’t be the weakest link that catches the blame.