Pender JA Students Win Provincial Award

Throughout an intensive 18-week period, Pender hosted a cohort of students in the Junior Achievement British Columbia (JABC) Company Program. With the support of Pender staff, including Founder and Chairman, Kelly Edmison, 14 students created their own company, organized their leadership, designed and developed a product, and determined a marketing strategy to sell it—all with their own capital and operating at a profit. This initiative aligns perfectly with Pender’s strong entrepreneurial spirit, as Pender was founded by a small team of venture capitalists passionate about investing. Today, Pender has evolved into a multi-asset investment firm overseeing $3 billion in AUM. 

Building on this legacy of innovation and success, Pender’s student cohort has been awarded the provincial Celebrate Entrepreneurship Award, which recognizes the JA Student Company that has demonstrated the most innovation in their business and includes a $3,000 prize that can be used towards the students’ post-secondary education. Examples of innovation include creating a new product, distributing the product or service in a completely new way, marketing using cutting-edge tools and media, or employing a business model rarely seen in today’s business world. Despite tough competition and with only single digits separating the companies in the selection criteria, the students’ outstanding creativity, marketing, and sales results ultimately stood above the crowd. 

We are proud of our cohort of students and look forward to continuing to achieve great things with our entrepreneurial students!