Clio big winners at the Burnaby Business Excellence Awards

On November 5th, the Burnaby Board of Trade and the City of Burnaby hosted the 16th annual Burnaby Business Excellence Awards, recognizing organizations that have demonstrated outstanding business success and have had a positive and significant impact on the community.

The event, held at the Hilton Vancouver Metrotown, was emceed by Global BC on-air personalities Squire Barnes and Lynn Colliar.

Winners were honoured in nine award categories, plus the Burnaby Business Hall of Fame where The Valley Bakery was recognized as this year’s inductee.

The biggest winner at this year’s event was local tech start up Clio, who went home with both the Business of the Year award and Business Person of the Year award for company CEO and co-founder Jack Newton. Clio, a provider of easy­to­use practice management software for legal practitioners, has been at the forefront of a movement to get the practice of law into the 21st century. Since its launch, Clio has experienced rapid and sustained growth, being named as the 10th­fastest growing company in Canada and the 32nd­fastest growing on Deloitte’s global ranking.

A big highlight of the evening was a brilliant House of Cards-themed video introduction by Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan, who put on his best Kevin Spacey impersonation. The Mayor’s always witty videos have become a tradition of the Gala over the past several years, and this year’s parody video was a testament to the skill of Burnaby-based Gloo Studios who produced the video, and also happened to take home the Business of the Year (Up to 50 Employees) award.

“Once again our business community has made us exceptionally proud over the past year,” said Burnaby Board of Trade President & CEO Paul Holden. “The Excellence Awards Gala is the biggest night on our event calendar, and the single greatest opportunity for us to really acknowledge and celebrate the wonderful organizations in this community that work so hard to make Burnaby such an exceptional city. This year we had an almost impossibly strong field of truly deserving nominees in each award category, not to mention all the other great Burnaby organizations who came out tonight just to support their neighbours.”

The winners in each award category were:

Burnaby Community Spirit

Still Creek Press 

Environmental Sustainability

Reid’s Automotive Recycling

Not-for-Profit of the Year

 Burnaby Association for Community Inclusion 

Business Person of the Year

Jack Newton (Clio)

Family Friendly Organization of the Year

Traction on Demand

Business of the Year (up to 50 Employees)

Gloo Studios

Business Innovation

Greenlight Innovation

Business of the Year

Clio

Entrepreneurial Spirit

Bit Stew Systems

Business Hall of Fame Inductee

The Valley Bakery