Lionel Grant - Trade Broker/Credit Clearing Specialist

Lionel Grant is a business consultant whose experience ranges in the energy sector as a public and member relations expert as well as event planning. Lionel spent 20 years in hospitality in various roles managing convention centres, catering operations and assisting with the planning of many large scale events such as “Live 8” and many professional golf association events. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in English and is a proud Canadian, enthusiastic outdoorsman and devoted husband.

Jeff McDonald - Trade Broker

Jeff McDonald is a corporate communications pro with business development and marketing experience in many different industries, including tourism, travel, real estate, economic development, health care, wine, and others. His past roles include communications positions with Vancouver Economic Development Commission, Tourism Whistler, and the British Columbia Wine Institute.

Jeff lives in Vancouver, Canada, and has traveled extensively in North America, Europe, Central and South America, and Mexico. He’s a skier, a road cyclist, a back-country trekker, a mountain climber, a writer, and a lover of all things connected with wine, especially drinking it.

Rod Fong - Trade Broker

Rod resides in Vancouver where he grew up. He spends his time doing the things he loves: spending time with friends and family and learning his craft in the food and beverage industry. He leads an active and healthy lifestyle playing sports and dedicating his time to his young family.

Rod has a proven track record in business. His past success has been earned from establishing good relationships, hard work and innovative ideas. His future success as a broker will be to build on his reputation and continuing to build a "win - win" situation for his customers.

Gary Strachan - Trade Broker/Credit Clearing Specialist

Strachan assisted the re-establishment of the BC wine industry after its contraction in the wake of the 1987 Bilateral Free Trade Agreement with the United States. He drafted new wine standards for the VQA assessment programme, established screening taste panels, and shared his knowledge with dozens of new wineries who chose to enter the reorganized wine industry, assisted them to write business plans and obtain BC wine production licences. Reconciled BC VQA standards with Ontario VQA, US BATF, Canada Food and Drugs Act and European Community wine laws.

Former Gov't of Canada delegate to Office Internationale de la Vigne et du Vin General Assembly. A pioneer in the Okanagan wine industry, Gary organized the first BC VQA wine evaluations, wrote the VQA protocols, drafted the rules. Former Chair of the BC Wine Industry Technical Committee, Director of the Pacific Northwest Chapter, American Society for Enology and Viticulture. Gary organized and taught the first Viticulture courses and the first Winery Assistant courses of Okanagan College.

Societies: Professional member - Agricultural Institute of Canada, American Society for Enology and Viticulture. Former member - Genetics Society of America, Canadian Genetics Society, American Society for Microbiology, International Association of Milk, Food, and Environmental Sanitarians, American Association for the Advancement of Science,

Nancy Strachan - Trade Broker/Credit Clearing Specialist

After many years of training and performance awards, Nancy studied for her solo performance and teaching degree, voice and piano, at the Royal College of Music, London England, on scholarship. Nancy has been a piano and voice teacher, soloist, and choir director in Manitoba and British Columbia from 1970 to the present. She has served on many boards: Director, Summerland Arts Council and Publicity Chair, director, Summerland Community Cultural Development Committee, director on the Board and choir member of Music Vocal Ensemble, and director, Board of the Summerland Museum.

Nancy was a piano teacher and choir director at the Summerland Children's Centre from 1999 to 2003. She was also pianist and choir director for the Christmas production of the Summerland Singers and Players, 2002. She was co owner of Okanagan Wine Tours, and later was co owner of First Estate Cellars, responsible for inventory management, sales, events, decor and displays, book keeping and cash. She has also acted as a real estate broker in Winnipeg for four years, and worked as News Director for Summerland Radio Station CKSP (now CHOR).

Carlo Nigro - Italian Linguistic Division Manager/Trade Broker

Carlo is easy going, patient and friendly. He has been involved in the financial world, in one way or another for 25 years. He loves entrepreneurship, capitalism and free market ideas. He loves to network and his own network of contacts includes people with innovative ideas and services to serious investors. Although English is his first language, he speaks reads and writes Italian fluently and can get by in Spanish. Favorite saying: “There are more people with money than people with ideas; you just have to find them.”