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Accelerate Okanagan searched far and wide to find the best person to run their organization, but in the end, their best choice was right under their noses. Brea Lake had been interim CEO for nine months and has worked with the organization for five years. She's excited about her new role and as we discovered in a sit-down interview with Lake, she has some ambitious goals.
Lake grew up in the Okanagan, earned a business degree at Okanagan College and worked for Disney Interactive Studios before coming to Accelerate Okanagan. She believes the lasting relationships she's built here will serve her well as she settles into her permanent role as CEO.
And she has ambitious ideas about the future of tech-related business in the Okanagan which already boasts an annual economic impact of $1.7 billion "I would really like to see in the next five years that we actually reach a 5 billion dollar a year economic impact," she said, "so that's very intense growth."
So Lake really envisions putting more acceleration back into Accelerate Okanagan. "How we're doing that is really putting more focus, not on just the start-ups," she explained, "but how do we help the companies that have already seen some success and are scaling-up."
Currently, the tech sector in the region is growing at a rate of approximately 15% each year. Accelerate Okanagan is set up to help new technology-sector businesses get their start, by guiding them and connecting them with the resources their going to need and mentors in the business community.
"In the early stages it's a lot of one-on-one meetings with your mentor," she said. "And you have goals that you've set out on a quarterly basis and you're sitting down making sure you're hitting those goals."
Lake said there are business clusters forming in our region as a result of the legacy left behind by success stories like Club Penguin. "We now see more and more gaming and animation companies emerging because of the spin-off staff that have since moved on."
The tech sector is growing no matter where you live, but she said the Okanagan is unique in other ways."I think we have a lot more entrepreneurs that have that entrepreneurial spirit to start a business."
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