Venue: The Fairmont Hotel Vancouver
By Terry Hadley
Event partner: The Rix Center for Corporate Citizenship & Engaged Leadership
Gold partners: The Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, The Vancouver Sun, The Province, London Air Services, The National Post
Silver partners: BMO Bank of Montreal, Rix Clinical Laboratories Ltd; Cathay Pacific, HSBC Bank of Canada
Henry Lee, president, Tom Lee Music Company Ltd. All Photos: D.Roels“It is definitely true; the more you give, the more you receive,” Henry K.S. Lee, president, Tom Lee Music Company Ltd., told a sold-out crowd as he was invested into The Vancouver Board of Trade’s Council of Governors (former chairs) at the premier annual business event of the year, the Governors’ Banquet 2009: A Salute to the Vancouver Airport Authority (YVR).
The gala evening at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, with social commentator Rex Murphy as keynote speaker, also honoured YVR as recipient of The Board’s inaugural Engaged Corporate Citizenship Award “for its outstanding successes, economic impact and valued reputation at home and internationally as an engaged corporate citizen.”
The award is new this year as a result of the recent opening of The Board’s Rix Center for Corporate Citizenship & Engaged Leadership, named after current Board of Trade chair and philanthropist, Dr. Don Rix, CM, OBC.
Chairman Don Rix listed Henry Lee’s many achievements during his year as chairman, including leading The Board’s property tax initiative resulting in a one-per-cent shift saving businesses thousands of dollars over the next five years; the call for the national crime rate to be measured with annual criminal victimization surveys because only one in three crimes are reported; the launch of The Board’s Women’s Leadership Circle®; the winning of the Best Recruitment category at the World Chambers Congress in Turkey; leading an Urban Study Field Trip to Hong Kong and then participating in the opening of the Canada Pavilion at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
Lee, presented with his Governors’ certificate signed by the Hon. Steven L. Point, Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia, thanked The Board of Trade. “I’ve learned to stand up and say what I believe in; I guess that’s why I’m here,” he told the sold-out crowd. Lee, who came to Canada as a teenager and has close business ties with both Hong Kong and China, said crossing the bridges of three cultures had helped show him that many challenges can be resolved when you have the ability to look at them from different points of view.
Both Larry Berg, president and CEO, and Graham Clarke, chair, Vancouver Airport Authority, thanked The Board for the Engaged Corporate Citizenship Award. “Corporate citizenship is integral to every organization. In fact, you can’t survive as a business without it,” Clarke said.
“Corporate citizenship is being responsible for the impact that business has on the world,” said Darcy Rezac, managing director and chief engagement officer of The Vancouver Board of Trade and chief executive of the Rix Center, who also presented a $25,000 anonymous donation to the YVR Art Foundation. “A good corporate citizen means contributing to the community as an integral part of its core business. As an organization that has embedded socially responsible practices into every aspect of its business, YVR is a leader in the 18 communities in the seven countries where it operates, worldwide.”
As Rezac explained, the Rix Center aims to not only recognize and celebrate the achievements of recipients, but also to encourage and inspire others. “Engaged leadership means bridging to the broader community to make a difference,” he explained.”
Murphy, presented with a certificate naming him Honourary Fellow of the Rix Center, gave an inspiring speech at a time when the corporate world is undergoing global criticism in a tanking economy. “It’s a difficult time to be in the corporate world,” he admitted, but praised the often “invisible benefits” communities gain from thriving and connecting businesses, and said the achievements of mankind over history demonstrate what can be achieved in the future.
“By far the biggest question of today is confidence,” he said. “The concept of faith and belief that people have in themselves and what they’ve collectively done and will collectively do.”
Murphy stressed that during the downside of economic cycles, we must look not just at particulars but at the “collective achievement” of the human race, achievements which should be recognized as “miracles.”
He said we should be showing an “exuberant confidence” in what we have achieved together “in enterprise” and not be afraid of “honest self-congratulation.”
“A lack of confidence steals our soul’s own energy,” Murphy said. “We should have confidence, faith and belief in what we have done, and what we are going to achieve.”
He congratulated The Board of Trade for promoting the concept that there is more to business than the bottom line, working together on “common causes” resulting in “collective achievements” interwoven with the community: “business interwoven with a common endeavour.”
Connecting in “common pursuit” for the greater good is crucial to great achievements. “Every man’s gain ennobles me if I am involved in mankind,” Murphy said. Murphy concluded that achievements up to now are the foundation for even greater future endeavours. “At moments of greatest challenge, the exceptional will find its way,” he said.
Proceeds from the evening, which included a silent auction and a raffle for a trip to New York with Cathay Pacific, will benefit The Board of Trade’s Leaders of Tomorrow Program for post-secondary students, The Vancouver Board of Trade Foundation and the Rix Center.
See Sounding Board pullout section on the Rix Center and YVR (PDF).
