The Kelowna Chamber of Commerce has launched its “40 Under Forty” for 2020. The chamber is now calling for nominations.
This is the Kelowna chamber’s sixth year of searching for the city’s high achievers and bringing their stories to the public.
BDO Canada LLP will make up the independent panel of judges.
There will be a wrap-up celebration for recipients once the program has concluded.
Alyssa’s career began in communications, she briefly served as a Microsoft Office Trainer, then three years as Communications Director. Her passion for entrepreneurship and system creation lead her to pursue contract work consulting on marketing, communications and event management.
Eventually she gained enough experience and credibility to pursue larger opportunities focused on business strategy and operational efficiency. For over seven years Alyssa has owned a small remedial construction company servicing brands such as Prospera Place, Sun-Rype, and Andrew Peller on technical coatings and building envelope projects. In the last two years Alyssa has focused her practice on coaching non-profits and charities as an Entrepreneur In-Residence with local social enterprise accelerator, Purppl.
At the same time, she has also started a tech company called TasteAdvisor, that makes product recommendation algorithms for the alcohol industry. Both of these initiatives are Alyssa’s effort to use her professional capacity to have a greater impact on the local community.
Alyssa has had the fortunate opportunity to lead in a variety of organizations throughout that Okanagan thanks to her career as a business coach. She has lead teams up to 100 people, and teams of all ages and skill levels. In recent years her leadership experiences have focused more on capacity development and fostering strategic alignment between staff and management.
Alyssa has a passion for supporting and integrating marginalized people which has informed much of her volunteer work. For over four years she has volunteered at the Metro Community, serving people facing homelessness, mental health, poverty, addiction and incarceration.
From this volunteer role she went on to hire people with barriers in her construction company, supporting recovery through employment. Alyssa has also served as a youth leader in several organizations mentoring at risk middle and high school students, where she lead a three month global citizen program through Vernon school district for 20 high school students, which included six weeks in Panama. Alyssa also runs marriage workshops and founded Change Up, an annual social impact pitch competition that builds awareness for local charities.
Alyssa has an undergraduate degree in Business Management from the University of British Columbia Okanagan and a graduate certificate in Enterprise Architecture from the University of Toronto.
During Alyssa’s undergraduate studies, she was awarded the Millennium Excellence Award, given to only 100 Canadian students, for academic achievement, innovation, leadership and community service. Alyssa also graduated as an honours student, receiving annual awards for top 5 per cent of students in her area of study.
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