People on the Move: Soula Burrell joins Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association
Increasing up in the services marketplace, Soula Burrell uncovered at a youthful age the artwork of hospitality and of producing confident that others ended up effectively taken treatment of.
Her parents, both of those really hard-functioning Greek immigrants, started out from the base when they each individual arrived to Canada — her mom doing work in a manufacturing unit and her father washing dishes at a diner — until eventually they met, married and saved plenty of money to run their have cafe, inevitably selecting little town daily life in the Ottawa Valley. Nicholas and Eleni Boretos ran Nicholson’s in Pembroke for 35 many years.
“I generally liked obtaining to know our patrons,” stated Burrell, 58, of her many years of operating at her family’s restaurant. “The fundamentals of serving have adopted me during my profession. My career has been all about serving people, it’s normally been about provider.”
This earlier summertime, Burrell stepped absent from her work as govt director of the Women’s Enterprise Network (WBN) of Ottawa to come to be director of membership for the Higher Ottawa Household Builders’ Association (GOHBA).
GOHBA is the voice of the building, land enhancement and experienced renovation field in the Ottawa space. Its customers involve builders, renovators, designers, trade contractors, suppliers and financial establishments. It also hosts an annual housing design awards gala, occurring this 12 months in a digital structure on Nov. 19th.
Burrell said the builders’ affiliation had approached her with a task offer you. It was based on a referral built by Eugeniya Tsetlin-Paliga, previous board president at WBN and a chief in the authentic estate finance division of industrial banking at CIBC.
Burrell appreciated the truth that the work she’d be undertaking for GOHBA would be much extra fingers-on with its 400 members than her mostly administrative responsibilities at WBN, a volunteer-driven businesswomen’s networking group that noticed incredible advancement in membership and sponsorship assistance under her a few-yr leadership. She aided to raise its public profile, developing its LinkedIn presence by 800 %. As very well, WBN appreciated the premier attendance ever at its Businesswoman of the Yr Awards supper held in 2019. Burrell is also happy that WBN grew to become a lot more diversified and inclusive during her time there, generating a lot more seats on its board for gals of color.
These days, Burrell will work in a sector dominated by males. Not that she’s complaining. She appreciates men’s ability to compartmentalize and to target on the task at hand. “I have achieved so many terrific people from the builder business.”
Higher than all, she likes her new boss, GOHBA executive director Jason Burggraaf. She very first achieved him, incredibly briefly, at a fundraiser for Harmony Household, an Ottawa women’s shelter, in February 2020, not realizing at the time that they would shortly function alongside one another.
“His management is leading-notch,” reported Burrell. “He’s just one of the very best folks I have ever labored for in my existence.”
At GOHBA, Burrell is the go-to particular person for assist, no matter whether it is aiding a builder in desperate require of a renovator or aiding a renovator who’s making an attempt to keep track of down creating materials, which have been in shorter offer all through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m the particular person to call if you need one thing,” explained Burrell, who enjoys issue solving and getting rid of roadblocks for people today. “I appreciate to see the result, to see what happens when two straightforward, trusted and fantastic business men and women join and satisfy each other’s needs centered on my advice.”
One particular of the other big difficulties now going through the housing field is a labour lack in the trades. There requires to be much more young persons trying to find a experienced labour career, she explained. “I think starting to be a tradesperson is a job for everyday living. There’s no superior protection appropriate now, in my viewpoint, than in getting a tradesperson.”
Burrell formerly worked as govt director of the Nepean Chamber of Commerce from 2007 to 2012, adopted by normal manager of the Hellenic Community of Ottawa from 2013 and 2016. She joined the WBN in 2018 and stays “a big supporter of girls in business”.
She and her husband of 28 several years, Anthony Burrell, Chief Warrant Officer with the Canadian Armed Forces, have two adult little ones, Eleni and Neikko.
People today on the transfer across Ottawa
Julia Knox has joined Sobeys as senior vice president of merchandising solutions and retail. The 2018 receiver of a Forty Less than 40 Award was previously senior vice president of eCommerce and chief purchasing officer at Huge Tiger.
Seasoned qualified fundraiser Danielle Robinson has joined BMO Private Prosperity as its new director of philanthropic advisory providers. She’s ideal acknowledged for staying president and CEO of the Ottawa Senators Basis for much more than 14 years. The corporation left the hockey club in the summer of 2020 to become the Ottawa-Gatineau Youth Basis, which Robinson served as president and CEO for at minimum another calendar year.
Kevan Kaylan has joined blackiron company as its new innovative director. He was formerly the imaginative team head of St. John’s-centered promoting and communications agency Concentrate on, operating on strategies for Newfoundland Tourism, outdoor clothing manufacturer Patagonia and Parks Canada.
Mushtaq Kazani has come to be the new CEO at Habitat for Humanity Increased Ottawa. He formerly worked within the Aga Khan Advancement Community, wherever he assisted to rework the Ismaili Tariqah and Spiritual Education and learning Board (ITREB), a group-primarily based education and learning firm.
Shannon Bain is the new director of advertising and marketing and communications in company and neighborhood partnerships at Queensway Carleton of Healthcare facility Foundation. She’d been the senior manager of fundraising advancement for the TELUS Welcoming Foreseeable future Foundation. She also worked for the OSEG Foundation and Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation.
Janice Nicholson has joined Bluesky Approach Group as its vice president of electronic. She was most not too long ago director of communications for Stem Mobile Community and, prior to that, was senior director of marketing and advertising for Senators Sports activities & Entertainment.
