North Shore women set to share secrets of business success
ABBY LUCIANO aluciano@nsnews.com Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
An upcoming panel is championing the voices of North Shore women who are leaders and role models in the business community.
The North Vancouver Chamber is hosting its Women in Business panel on March 31, with four local business leaders set to share the challenges theyāve overcome, celebrate their wins and talk about their strategies for success.
Kari Kylo, founder and managing director of SOMA Public Relations, said she felt honoured to be asked to be a panelist at this yearās event.
āBeing able to sit on a panel in front of a group of North Vancouver business leaders and other women panelists and talk about the great work that weāre doing, our clients and highlight my team, it made me feel really proud,ā said Kylo SOMA Public Relations works with clients that are in health and wellness, environmental and clean technology fields, she said.
Travel Consultantand Owner of Women With Wings CONNECTING WITH
Kylo launched her own PR business in 2007, after working for an ad agency and as a marketing manager for a Vancouver car dealership. Kylo said she and her team often break down difficult
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concepts of the work her clients do into an easy way for the public, media, stakeholders and other partners to understand.
āBeing in public relations and a storyteller, I wanted to wake up every day and I wanted to feel that the stories Iām telling are ones having a positive impact on humanity and how can I truly help to make the world a better place,ā Kylo said.
During the panel, Kylo plans to speak about a more provincial scope of business in B.C. and the current geopolitical climate.
āI think thereās a lot of uncertainty, but thereās also so much opportunity,ā she said. ā[There are] opportunities to run a business that is both profitable and purpose-driven, and I think thatās where true success lies and where most business owners and staff get the most enjoyment out of their work.ā
Other panel members for the
upcoming event include Mariana Freitas, co-owner of boutique wellness and fitness space Life Studio in North Vancouver; Emily Kerr, vice president of business banking at Bank of Montreal; and Maryam Nani, manager of the North Shore Immigrant Inclusion Partnership at Impact North Shore.
Kim Stegeman-Lowe, president of SSA Marineās Canadian Region, will be the keynote speaker
Highlighting leaders creates role models, CEO says North Vancouver Chamber CEO Patrick Stafford-Smith said panels like this arenāt about checking off a box, but recognizing leadership thatās already shaping the local economy and making sure those stories are visible.
āRepresentation really
Continued
Hanne Sorensen recently took the helmofWomenWith Wings, acompany that has been connectingadventurous women through small-group tours around the world fortwentyyears.
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Kari Kylo, founder and managing director of SOMA Public Relations, will be one of the featured speakers at a Women in Business panel hosted by the North Vancouver Chamber on March 31 PAUL MCGRATH / NSN
Speakers serve as role models
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matters. When people see leaders who look like them, whoāve faced similar challenges, it reshapes how they see their own potential,ā said Stafford-Smith. āThese conversations help normalize women at the helm ā whether thatās running companies, leading teams or launching something entirely new.ā
The chamber CEO said this yearās lineup carries a wide range of experiences, demonstrating the many paths business leadership can take.
āThereās something powerful about hearing directly from women whoāve navigated the realities of building a business or leading in traditionally male-dominated industries,ā he said. āIt creates space for honest conversations about both progress and the work still ahead.ā
Kylo said she has always felt supported in the positions sheās held over the years. During her time in the auto industry, she said it was male-dominated, but she enjoyed being in a management role with the opportunity to hire more women into the space and show there are many
opportunities and roles for women in the business.
āThereās a lot of growth still needed, but Iāve loved it. Iāve always felt very empowered to go after what I believed in and do the things I wanted to do,ā she said. āI always felt there were great women mentors and male role models as well.ā
Kylo and Stafford-Smith hope people walk away from the panel feeling inspired.
āIf someone leaves thinking, āIf she can do that, maybe I can too,ā then weāve done our job,ā Stafford-Smith said āNorth Vancouver has an incredible network of women supporting women, and this even is a reminder that no one builds success alone.ā
The panel will take place at the Doubletree by Hilton (700 Old Lillooet Road) on Tuesday, March 31 from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Tickets are available on the North Van Chamber website, $49 for members and $65 for non-members.
Abby Luciano is the Indigenous and civic affairs reporter for the North Shore News. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
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Counter Narratives: Maria Kwong and Andersonās Pharmacy
GEORGIA TWISS
Contributing writer
For more than 30 years, the MONOVA Archives has contributed a weekly article accompanied by an archival photograph to the North Shore News known as the Time Traveller.
For archives staff writing the Time Traveller, the process is straightforward. First, we find a landscape-oriented photograph from the collection that has not been used before, and then we research the contents of the photograph in order to write 100 words to accompany it. In early January, while prepping upcoming Time Travellers, a newly digitized photograph from the City of Vancouver photograph collection of Andersonās Pharmacy from the 1980s caught our eye. It was landscape, we had never used it before, and there was enough information in our records to write a short history of the Anderson family who founded the business.
Almost immediately after the publication of the piece, we received a flood of emails and inquiries, all asking the same question: āWhy did you not mention Maria Kwong?ā
We learned that Kwong has been the owner of Andersonās Pharmacy for almost 50 years. None of our records relating to the
Born andraised on theNorth Shore, Anne grew up in Deep Cove before earning herlaw degree fromthe University of BritishColumbiaand completing her articles at Lakes, WhyteLLP
Anne maintains ageneral solicitorsā practicefocused on estate planning, estateadministration, real estate transactions,and businesslaw.She emphasizescollaborationand clear communication, with acommitmentto making legal services straightforward andaccessible
store, however, had mentioned her. Previously, we have reflected upon the existence of archival silences relating to
marginalized communities in our records through the story of Lucky Corner Grocery and the Choy Family. The silence about Maria Kwongās story in relation to Andersonās Pharmacy exists similarly Pharmacies, while cornerstones of health care and prominent features of urban streets, like corner stores, are often forgotten, and their role in the community goes unrecognized.
Unlike Lucky Corner Grocery, photographs of Andersonās Pharmacy existed in our holdings, but Maria Kwongās story, like the story of the Choys, remained untold. We are grateful that community members brought it to our attention, and that Kwong graciously sat down for an interview, giving us the opportunity to learn her story and share it here now
Maria Kwongās story
Maria Kwong emigrated to Canada with her family from Hong Kong in January 1966. She attended Britannia High School before entering the University of British Columbia, where she graduated in 1975 with
Jennifergrewuponthe North Shore. Afterbeingcalled to thebar,she joined Lakes, WhyteLLP as alawyer in 2018 and has remained there ever since, specializinginwill drafting, estate administration, andestatelitigation.
Jenniferalsohas ageneral litigation practiceand has guided local families and businesses through estate, property and regulatorydisputes.
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jbednard@lakeswhyte.com
www.lakeswhyte.com
Jennifer Bednard Lawyer
Maria Kwong stands behind the counter in Andersonās Pharmacy on West Third Street in North Vancouver, a business sheās owned for nearly 50 years. MONOVA Continued
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Pharmacy owner doesnāt let sexism, racism stand in her way
Continued from A22
a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy Her first job was in Ladysmith, before moving to the North Shore to work at Lonsdale Pharmacy
It was there that she first heard that Andersonās Pharmacy was for sale. In 1977, at the age of 25, Kwong entered a handshake agreement with Victor Anderson to buy the pharmacy following a six-month trial period. For the next 12 years, she worked from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every single day of the year, at one point carrying her baby daughter in a basket while she worked.
It took until there was a mix-up with Lions Gate Hospital not sending the emergency prescriptions to Andersonās on Christmas Day for her to finally close that one day of the year Almost 50 years later, she still runs the store, just a few doors down from its original location, as well as a second location just up the road at 1520 Lonsdale Ave.
Much has changed over that time. In the late 1970s, Lower Lonsdale was predominantly white and working-class, with the Shipyards still functioning as the
industrial hub.
āAt that time, it was kind of running down,ā Kwong said from behind the Andersonās Pharmacy counter when I spoke with her Pharmacies, too, have changed, she noted.
āFrom typewriters to computers, now we can prescribe some stuff and do injections,ā she said.
When she first took over the store, it even had a coffee bar. For independent pharmacies like Andersonās, the rise of larger chains like Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmasave has made survival more difficult. Kwong said that when she first took over, the independent North Shore pharmacists formed a united collective to buy items directly in order to reduce prices Now, everyone is in competition. Despite this change, the importance of pharmacies has remained constant.
āA lot of people come to us because we are the most accessible place to get healthcare information,ā she said For Kwong, helping people is the most rewarding part of running her business.
āMy customers are not a number,ā
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she said. āI know them by name. Itās a relationship.ā
The rewards, however, have come with challenges. Over the years, Kwong has experienced discrimination in the forms of both anti-Asian racism and sexism. When asked why she kept the name Andersonās Pharmacy, she pointed directly to her experience with anti-Asian racism, while also conceding that she figured āAndersonāsā as a name sounded good, and Victor Anderson had been kind to her when she started out.
She also recounted a story of attending a trade fair with the other North Shore pharmacists and having the salespeople treat her differently. They were ignoring her, she realized, because they thought she was the wife of one of the other pharmacists.
The worst experience, however, was being held up at knifepoint.
āThat is unforgettable,ā she said. She also recalled a time someone broke the windows of the building, forcing her to stay alone, waiting all night for an emergency window company to arrive. Those are the parts of running a pharmacy that people donāt see.
āShe has served the community well, for a long time,ā Mariaās husband, Thomas Tsang, stated proudly when he joined her behind the counter during our interview He later noted that she has seen clients grow from children to adults, and even continued to deliver prescriptions to people living as far away as Richmond and New Westminster who wanted to remain customers.
Her customer satisfaction, I told them both, was made clear by the number of people who had contacted us about her story not being mentioned in the Andersonās Pharmacy Time Traveller. March 1, 2027, will mark the 50th anniversary of Maria taking over the pharmacy In reflecting on her work and the impact she has made on many peopleās lives in North Vancouver, she joked, āI guess I did something right.ā Georgia Twiss graduated from UBC with a Master of Arts in History in 2022. She works as the reference historian for the Museum & Archives of North Vancouver (MONOVA), where she helps to preserve and tell the stories of the people of North Vancouver
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