Professional Background

Prior to being elected first as Councillor in 2005 and then as Mayor of Port Moody in 2011, I enjoyed a varied career, ranging from software programmer to senior manager to entrepreneur.

During my high school and college years, I worked for Petro Canada Coal Harbour and North Arm at the retail and wholesale marine sales outlets. After university, I worked for an international marine shipping agent, representing Weyerhauser and China Ocean Shipping (the world’s largest shipping company). I was promoted through the organization from the early days as a data entry IT position to Manager of Canadian Intermodal and Equipment Operations and Manager of Customer Service, where I had the responsibility for hundreds of millions of dollars assets and offices across the country.

I left the shipping agent for an opportunity to be a managing partner and owner of a transportation and warehousing company. Starting from a 20,000 sq foot warehouse with 8 employees, my partners and I grew the company to over 2 million square feet, 100+ employees and led a merger with the largest distribution company in BC.  After completing the transition to the new ownership, I decided to return to my roots as a software programmer and started my own company developing applications for transportation, customs brokerage, and warehousing companies.

It was an exciting time in the transportation software industry and I was able to help many businesses transform their operations to online services and implement electronic data interchange solutions with trading partners. I also helped small businesses transition to the “new” online world, helping them get connected to email, and develop websites. I developed many web-based applications, allowing companies to open up their processes to their customers, vendors and trading partners via the world wide web.  I still own a small IT consulting company.

Education

After graduating from Port Moody Senior Secondary, I continued my studies in Computer Science at Coquitlam College and Simon Fraser University.  I later attended BCIT for Business Management and Sales and Marketing.  I have been a Certified Microsoft Professional for 20 years, specializing in database management and web programming. I have taken advantage of various educational opportunities during my working career, including leadership, accounting and management, web application development and more.