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Helen Siwak: Editor’s Message Issue #14

British Columbia builds in registers that rarely share a page. This issue holds them together anyway: the province-wide infrastructure of a research network beside the four walls of a downtown salon, a civic campaign rebuilding public trust beside a songwriter who finally chose her own voice over one written for her. Scale is not the measure here. Conviction is.

None of it should stay confined to these pages, or to this province. At Portfolio.YVR, we believe that putting these stories into the world in a permanent, searchable, shareable way matters. Every feature becomes part of a digital record that travels far beyond Vancouver, discoverable by search engines, surfaced by AI tools, and read by audiences we may never meet. If something here moves you, we hope you will pass it along.

This summer issue opens with Antonio Brandao of BCNET, whose work coordinating collaborative infrastructure for the province’s higher education and research institutions represents entrepreneurship at an institutional scale. Andrea Jauck of Premier Group Real Estate Marketing builds a boutique luxury real estate practice on the conviction that exceptional homes deserve marketing to match. Rebecca Bligh of Vote Vancouver shaped a civic movement around practical governance and restored public trust.

The issue then turns inward. Maggi Ho of Forward & Up Counselling sits alongside Meo Ho of Level Headed Salon & Wellness, where hair care and wellness education share the same space. Wanting Qu of Wanting Music followed her own voice when the path others charted for her no longer held. Jan van Vianen of van V Media builds a queer-owned content company around the principle that taking up space is legitimate. Kean Tan of NEXUSV Inc. closes the features with the company he and his brother founded in 2000.

Our Quick Takes this issue check in with two people whose stories have grown since we last told them. Author Jess Singh, the Vancouver author we featured in December 2025, carries her journey forward here with a guest invitation to the Word on the Street Festival in Toronto for her third novel, as does Drew Munro of Demi, whose path from professional chef to caterer continues to develop in ways worth following.

Every story has a starting point, and this is where many of them find their voice.

Author Profile

Helen Siwak, Collaborator: This story is created in collaboration between Helen Siwak and the featured subject. As the founder and publisher of Portfolio.YVR Business & Entrepreneurs Magazine, Helen works closely with entrepreneurs to share their paths of innovation, resilience, and growth. Each story in this series is co-developed through interviews and first-person insights, blending authentic voices with Helen’s editorial expertise to highlight the remarkable individuals shaping British Columbia’s business landscape.