Philippine Asian News Today Vol 20 No 08 | Page 13

April 16 - 30, 2018
BUSINESS NEWS
PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY
13
Vote for the Filipino-Canadians nominated for RBC Top 25
Canadian Immigrant Awards!
Businesswoman Carmelita Tapia of Vancouver
Carmelita Tapia migrated from the
Philippines to Canada in 1988.
She finished her accounting degree
in the Philippines. She is married to Ed-
gardo A. Tapia, a mechanical engineer,
and they have two kids, Odessa and Earl
Von.
Tapia is active in the Filipino commu-
nity being the chairman of HISTORAMA,
The Rotary Club and participated
in various dental missions to the Philip-
pines.
On the business side, she is president
of Asean Canada Business Council, which
acts as the bridge to promote trade and
investments between Canada and the 10
Southeast Asian countries.
Previously, she was president of Phil-
ippines Canada Trade Council. She is the
Filipino business representative to Asia
Pacific Gateway Committee of the Burna-
by Board of Trade. She is responsible for
organizing trade missions to ASEAN, first
in 2003, then 2008 to Thailand, Indo-
nesia and Philippines; and July 2013, to
Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia. The
trade missions zeroed in on education,
health and wellness, skilled workers and
immigration, power generating plants,
commercial goods, and mining for both
Indonesia and the Philippines.
Tapia had been a director of New
Westminster School District #40 BC,
which operated secondary and ESL
schools in Wenshou, China. and Seoul,
Korea, aside from being the vice-presi-
dent of finance of family-owned Odessa
Manufacturing, the only pollution control
parts manufacturing facility in Western
Canada.
Help to support Carmelita by voting
for her at canadianimmigrant.ca/cana-
das-top-25-immigrants
Lawyer Josephine Victoria Yam of Toronto
Josephine Yam had to
overcome the “lack of Cana-
dian experience” just like us.
She faced lots of barriers as
a female, visible minority and
immigrant. But she did not
give up. She worked very hard
to start a new life in Canada.
Because of her exceptional
qualifications, Josephine got
exempted from the bar ex-
ams. She worked as a lawyer
with a Toronto law firm and
the Alberta government.
Today,
Josephine
is
the CEO and Co-Founder
of Building Breakthrough
Boards (B3) Canada. B3 Can-
ada’s matchmaking program
puts corporate employees to
serve on non-profit boards.
B3’s program provides
people with leadership skills
while they serve the commu-
nity. A clear triple win for cor-
porations, employees and the
non-profits they serve.
Josephine is passionate
about building a diverse and
inclusive Canada for all of us!
Help to support Josephine
by voting for her at canadian-
immigrant.ca/canadas-top-
25-immigrants
“BASURA NYO,
HAHAKUTIN KO”
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