Beedie alumni Beech and Goldsmith-Jones win Liberal seats in Election 2015

Beedie School of Business alumni Terry Beech and Pamela Goldsmith-Jones won Liberal seats in the 2015 election.

Beedie School of Business alumni Terry Beech and Pamela Goldsmith-Jones have been elected in B.C. ridings Burnaby North-Seymour, and West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country respectively.

Beech, a BBA graduate and former adjunct professor at the Beedie School of Business, won 36.2 percent of his riding’s vote. Newly created in 2012, Beech’s riding encompasses a portion of B.C. previously included in the electoral districts of Burnaby-Douglas and North Vancouver. Politic pundits had predicted that the riding’s broad demographic mix would be one of the most interesting races to watch in B.C.

A politico at age 18, Beech was elected to city council serving in public office for one year before earning his BBA at the Beedie School of Business. In 2009, he founded hiretheworld.com, a web-based logo design platform that utilizes crowdsourcing to fulfill customer needs. In 2013, he was named one of Business in Vancouver’s Top Forty Under 40.

Liberal candidate Goldsmith-Jones garnered almost 55 percent in her riding, which has typically supported right-wing candidates since 1974. She triumphed over two-term incumbent Conservative MP John Weston to win her MP’s seat. The riding includes all of West Vancouver, Bowen Island, the Sunshine Coast from Gibsons to Nelson Island, and all the towns touching the Sea-to-Sky Highway to Joffre Lakes Provincial Park.

Goldsmith-Jones is a former two-term mayor of West Vancouver, where she prioritized the attraction of talent to her community, and supported citizens in their leadership efforts. She retired from municipal politics in 2011 to enroll in the first cohort of Beedie’s Executive MBA in Aboriginal Business and Leadership, from which she graduated in 2015.