Business, government and community leaders came together, in-person, to celebrate the best of the Burnaby business community at the 22nd annual Burnaby Business Excellence Awards on Wednesday.
The event saw 33 businesses honoured as finalists, and nine award winners named in recognition of their efforts and successes over the past year.
Now in its 22nd year, the Burnaby Business Excellence Awards is joint initiative of the City of Burnaby and the Burnaby Board of Trade, and is designed to uncover, promote and celebrate success stories from the Burnaby business community.
Five awards are presented recognizing excellence in corporate social responsibility, environmental sustainability, workplace culture, innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as four overall awards celebrating the top non-profit, businessperson, small business and large business of the year.
The crowd was moved by the efforts of Desi Turka Indian Cuisine, which fed thousands of people for free during COVID-19, despite being shut down for parts due to pandemic-related orders for all B.C. restaurants.
The 2021 Burnaby Business Excellence Awards recipients included:
Business Innovation: Symvivo Corporation
Healthy Workplace: Watson Gloves
Entrepreneurial Spirit: CadMakers
Environmental Sustainability: LifeLabs
Burnaby Community Spirit: Desi Turka Indian Cuisine
Business Person of the Year: Mike Maierle, ETRO Construction
Not-For-Profit Organization of the Year: Burnaby Family Life
Business of the Year (Up to 50 Employees): Park Insurance
Business of the Year: Alexander College
“Hosting the Burnaby Business Excellence Awards in partnership with the City of Burnaby is an honour. Burnaby is an extraordinary, diverse and innovative business community that has had many achievements of the past year despite the pandemic,” said Paul Holden, BBOT president and CEO. “This year’s awards were even more celebratory as they were the first real opportunity to bring our business community back together in nearly two years. We were thrilled to be able to show how an event like this can be held safely, and to proudly recognize the exciting work being done in our business community.”
Taking home the top overall honours this year were Park Insurance, the three-generation family-owned insurance broker headquartered in the Burnaby Heights, which took home the Business of the Year (Up to 50 Employees) award, and Alexander College, the private, post-secondary college which recently opened a new, purpose-built campus in Metrotown for its 3000 students, which was named Business of the Year. In addition, Burnaby Family Life was named Not-For-Profit Organization of the Year for their community services and programming, and Mike Maierle, principal of ETRO Construction, one of the region’s fastest growing construction management and general contracting firms, received the Business Person of the Year award.
