The Canadian bookstore chain Chapters/Indigo signed an exclusive contract with Gary Taxali for a line of toys based on characters he created.  The illustrator, artist, author and designer has won over 500 awards and his work has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek and GQ, among others. He has exhibited and sold his merchandise in galleries and museums across North America and Europe.  He has created cards for Sony; magazine and cd covers for Warner Brothers and Warner Music and customized wii consoles for Nintendo. He was born in Chandigarh and came to Canada when his parents moved here in the late 60s.  “I’ve no idea what I’m going to draw or...

How many Canadians does it take to change a light bulb? Just one woman, actually! Nina Gupta, President of Greenlite Lighting Corporation, to be precise.Her company credo is ‘change a bulb, change the world’, and she is doing her part to make Canadians make the switch from incandescent bulbs to CFLs. She credits her father for the bright idea.“He was a visionary,” says Gupta, who ran successful boutiques in Montreal. He also insisted his daughter get involved in the family business.Gupta left the fashion industry and established production lines in China with the aim of importing CFLs into North America.The company which started with Gupta and a single employee with a $50,000 bank...

Member of the Federal immigration and Refugee Board, the Ontario Advisory Council on Multiculturalism and Citizenship, and on the City of Toronto’s Committee on Race and Ethnic Relations, Kamala-Jean Gopie is a passionate advocate of ethno-cultural equity. She campaigned to make the House of Commons more representative of women, minorities and immigrants.Her paternal grandparents went to Jamaica as indentured labourers from Bihar in colonial India. Her father and uncles worked on sugar estates and Gopie recalls being teased as “coolie gal”.She didn’t let that stop her. She moved to Canada in 1963 and in 1989, helped organize the 150th anniversary of Indian Arrival Day.Gopie received...

Venkatesh Mannar, President of the Ottawa-based Micronutrient Initiative, says his organization is actively involved in 20 countries and their micronutrient products reach 70 countries around the world, battling malnutrition and hidden hunger.Since 2006, the Initiative has increased the number of Pakistani households consuming iodized salt from 17 per cent to 60 per cent. It is a project close to Mannar’s heart – he designed the iodized salt testing kit that is used around the world today.He has helped develop iodization programs in more than 40 countries, including the highly effective Iodine Deficiency Disorder Program in China with UNICEF and the World Bank, and was a driving force...

Dr Piyush Patel, MD, FRCP (C) is the founder of Allied Research International, a world leader in allergy science. He was selected as the national winner from the finalists for the prestigious Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award.Launched in 1989 with an initial investment of less than $10,000, Allied Research had two employees – Dr Patel and his wife Arati.Within 10 years, the company grew to become a state-of-the-art facility with 15 employees.“We financed the growth with RRSPs and a second mortgage, so of course there were sleepless nights. But I am the sort of person who just goes ahead and does things. I never started out thinking I’d be an entrepreneur. An...