Board appointment

John Kewley, President of BA Blacktop Ltd. in North Vancouver, recently joined the Canadian Construction Association's board of directors as a new provincial vice-chair representing the B.C. Road Builders and Heavy Construction Association.

Empowering entrepreneurs

BCBusiness magazine recently honoured a North Shore entrepreneur and her business partner for their company, Lunapads, hailing it as one of B.C.'s 20 leading innovators. Suzanne Siemens, a long-time North Vancouver resident, and Madeleine Shaw founded Lunapads in 1993 with the intention of producing eco-friendly feminine hygiene products. But they've gone beyond just helping the environment. In 2000, the company partnered with customers and non-government organizations to launch Pads4Girls, a program that provides kits of Lunapads products to girls in Africa and Central America. The idea is to prevent the girls from unnecessarily missing school. "The problem goes far beyond missing a few days of school every month -- it leads to earlier dropout rates, earlier age of marriage and childbirth, increased incidence of maternal mortality, reduced career choices and wages, and overall a smaller, less empowered life," said Siemens in a media release.

Branding book

A West Vancouver branding company has had its work included in an American packaging design book. BrandsBC's package redesign of RealTreats kettle korn is featured in BRANDPACKAGING magazine's Design Gallery, Vol. 8, among other top brands such as Starbucks and Frito-Lay.

To submit information on North Shore business groups or events to our Briefcase section, e-mail mkrishnan@nsnews.com.