Karen McAthy
Founder & Chief
Executive
Officer
Chef Karen McAthy’s focus as a chef has been highly centred
on plant-based foods, fermentation, preserving, reducing
food waste and working within the local food system. She
founded Blue Heron with business partner Colin Medhurst in
2017.
Karen is also the author of The Art of Plant-based Cheese
making (New Society Publishers, 2017, which won the vegan
cookbook category of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards,
2018.
Karen, on behalf of Blue Heron was a finalist for the
innovation award for the BC Food Processor’s Awards in 2018,
and Foodie of the Year award winner for Western Living
Magazine, 2017.
Karen has a background in Biology from Simon Fraser
University.
Lawrence Eade
CPA, CA
Chairman
Lawrence, a chartered professional accountant, was founder
and CEO of B.C. based Box Concepts Food Group from
2007-2019 where he grew the organization from a single
brand of three stores to a multi-brand 100+ store business
with more than 2,000 employees and annual enterprise
revenues in excess of $60 million.
Currently, Lawrence is President of Purdys Chocolatier,
Canada's most significant manufacturer and retailer of
chocolates and confections, where he leads a team of
1,000+ employees across 83 retail locations and two
manufacturing facilities comprising more than 120,000sqft.
Lawrence is a past board member for both the Canadian
Franchise Association and Small Business BC, a member of
the CPA Canada, the BC Food Processors Association and is
a 2018 winner of Business In Vancouver’s Top 40 Under 40.
Dean Shillington
Director
Dean is the President of Knightsbridge Capital and has
spent twenty-five years in sales and commercial finance.
Dean spent several years at GE Capital specializing in
equipment and property finance. During this time, Dean was
responsible for managing a debt portfolio in excess of $2
billion and was integral to its double digit growth.
Dean left GE in 2007 and founded Knightsbridge Capital, a
financial services company based in Western Canada
offering specialized corporate financing solutions. Having
funded more than $1 billion in transactions at
Knightsbridge, Dean has spent many years advising on debt
structure strategies to businesses in a transitional
cycle, from start-ups, to growing companies, to
financially troubled businesses.
Dean has actively invested in projects to support both
business turnarounds and start-ups. In 2018, he purchased
Caffe Artigiano, with the intention of revitalizing a
legacy Vancouver brand. He has served on numerous not for
profits and community organizations, and is currently
acting District Administrator for Little League Baseball
in North & West Vancouver.
Jerin Mece
Director
Jerin Mece is the Co-Founder and previous head of Global
Sales at Nude Beverages. Under Jerin’s leadership and
execution, Nude Beverages has made history by being the
only brand to sell over 1 million cases annually in
British Columbia.
Jerin has a wealth of knowledge in building brands,
marketing, sales and distribution. He’s propelled Nude to
unprecedent success with distribution in over 10,000
outlets catapulting it to one of the fastest growing
alcohol beverages brands in North America. Jerin has
tremendous experience in dealing with global big box
stores, regional chains, government run entities and
leading distributors in North America. Nude has sold over
110 units in less than 4 years in 3 international markets.
Jerin’s extremely excited to aid in supercharging Lumi’s
growth.
Jerin, a New Westminster native attended both UBC and
Douglas College. Jerin started his first venture at 21 and
is extremely passionate about growing local businesses and
brands.
Maxime Wolff
Director
As former Managing Director of Cerelia North America, was responsible for top line growth through customer acquisition
and led the industrial footprint transformation.
Previously Managing Director for Matines, Project Management Officer for Avril Group, CEO of Gardel and held several positions in the sugar industry (Suedzucker).
Maxime is a strong operationally minded leader, and he brings his depth of experience the sales and operations continuum to building Lumi's future growth.
Maxime plays an integral role in the day-to-day development of Lumi's and legacy brand Blue Heron's sales strategy and mentoring key team members.
Brennan Burden
Production and Supply Chain Manager
Brennan has over 20 years of Food and Beverage Management within the Restaurant and Hospitality industries.
Brennan is a Certified Red Seal Chef with diplomas in Culinary Arts, and Restaurant and Hotel Managment from the Dubruelle Institute.
His experience spans conceptualization to leading large corporate teams. His proven track record in operating highly efficient, and
profitable businesses while developing top industry talent.