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| | Premier's Awards
George Brown College nominates five graduates for prestigious 2010 Premier's Awards.
 Dan Perdue
Dan Perdue is the President of Level 12, formerly LEAD Canada, providing corporate training and events to such high profile companies as Purolator, Lexmark Canada, Nestle, Cineplex, Hewlett-Packard and Canadian Tire. In addition, he offers high performance coaching for athletes and managers. Perdue recently partnered with Jean-Marc Généreux, world champion ballroom dancer and judge on the hit TV show So You Think You Can Dance Canada, to offer a workshop called The Rhythm of Success, which demonstrates the importance of people working together in rhythm. Perdue studied with Anthony Robbins and became certified in Neuro Associative Conditioning (NAC) by Robbins Research International, which Perdue describes as a "powerful set of strategies for conditioning human behaviour so you feel and behave in ways that consistently lead you in the direction of your vision and goals." Perdue recently renamed his company Level 12, which he says is metaphor for taking your life to a level higher than 10. One of Perdue's most popular workshops involves having groups assemble children's bicycles without instructions or proper tools and Perdue arranges afterwards for all the bikes (properly assembled) to be donated to at-risk children. About 300 children have received bikes through the program so far. Perdue also provides free performance coaching to an 18-year-old speed skater in Calgary who is aiming to compete in the 2014 Olympics. Perdue credits his time at George Brown for having a "huge impact" on his life, academically and as a result of his involvement in student government. "I took three years of accounting and one of my toughest subjects was cost accounting but every time I have to give a quote, I put my cost accounting hat on. Accounting is the foundation for business. It's so important. My accounting skills come into play in everything I do."
 Dennis Niebergal
Considered by many to be the grandfather of the electronic medical records (EMR) industry in Canada, Dennis Niebergal was the founder, president and CEO of CLINICARE Corporation, Canada's largest EMR company at the time of its sale last November. When he started the company in Calgary in 1984, CLINICARE was the first of its kind in Canada and Niebergal, working alone, had an uphill battle trying to convince physicians across the country of the benefits of automating their patient records. By the time it was sold, CLINICARE and its U.S division, Chartcare Inc., had over 50 competitors, employed 65 people and was responsible for the automation of over 3.5 million patient records through its EMR technology. Over the years, Niebergal and his company received many honours, including a number of industry awards and the distinction of being named one of the country's Top 10 health care IT companies in 2008. The site of CLINICARE's largest client, a clinic in Sault Sainte Marie, has served as a model of EMR, visited by many federal and provincial politicians as well as health care commissioner Roy Romanow. Now semi-retired, Niebergal plans to continue to advocate for technology in health care as a board member of health care organizations and has been certified by the Institute of Corporate Directors. Niebergal continues to act as an expert evaluator for the European Commission on health care IT research and development projects. Niebergal is a founding member and board secretary of the Canadian Health IT Trade Association, which merged with the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) to become ITAC Health. He has also volunteered many hours to participate in committees formed to establish industry software standards. In addition, Niebergal contributes to a number of professional organizations, provincial and nationally.
 Trevor Ritchie
Don't be surprised if someday Trevor Ritchie becomes the first Canadian chef to win the Bocuse D'Or, the world's ultimate culinary competition, established by the legendary French chef Paul Bocuse. Winning the coveted award, which has eluded Canadian chefs since the competition's inception in 1987, has been a dream of Ritchie's since he first became interested in cooking at the age of 15. That's when he entered his first cooking competition, with no coaching or training, and failed miserably. But he's learned a lot since then, graduating from George Brown College, earning a prestigious position as chef de cuisine at the Tiara Restaurant in the Queen's Landing Hotel at Niagara-on-the-Lake and winning a number of important culinary competitions, including being named world champion at the World Association of Chefs Societies Junior Culinary Challenge in Santiago, Chile in January. Ritchie, who won the 2009 Canadian Culinary Foundation National Junior Culinary Challenge to qualify for the world event, competed against chefs from 17 countries in a five-and-a-half hour, 'mystery basket' style competition. Called an "outstanding role model to other Canadian junior chefs," by Canadian Culinary Foundation President Judson Simpson, Ritchie has also won three national culinary awards -- two silver medals and one bronze – in the annual Canadian Skills Competition, an Olympic style competition for students and apprentices across the country. On the provincial level, Ritchie was the gold medal winner in the 2007 Ontario Challenge Cooks Competition. Admitting to a competitive spirit, Ritchie says he received tremendous support and guidance from the chefs at George Brown, an important factor in his success. "To be the best, you have to train with the best – that's how you get to the top," says Ritchie, who is paying it forward by volunteering as a technical coach for students competing in the Canadian Skills Competition.
 Mark McEwan
With four Toronto restaurants, a catering company, a $6 million gourmet food supermarket, a hit TV reality show, The Heat, his own line of takeout products and cookware, and a cookbook, it's hard to imagine a more successful chef than Mark McEwan. But the talented chef and savvy entrepreneur has no intention of stopping. Instead, he's signed on as head judge on Top Chef Canada, which launches next year on Food Network Canada. In addition, he's got a second cookbook ready to go and plans to open at least one more food store and restaurant over the next couple of years. His goal is to hit $100 million in annual sales and he's already more than halfway there. Surprisingly, McEwan almost didn't become a chef. Headed for a career in hotel management, he decided at the last minute to give cooking a try for a year and enrolled at George Brown College. He's never looked back. In 1983, he was appointed chef of Sutton Place, becoming the youngest chef in Canada to hold such a position. In 1985, he entered the restaurant business, opening Pronto with two partners and then opened his own restaurant, North 44, considered to be one of Toronto's finest restaurants, in May 1990. He opened Bymark and ONE restaurants in 2002 and 2007 respectively, followed by Fabbrica this year. Last year, he entered the grocery business with mcewan, a 22,000 square foot gourmet supermarket. He pitched his idea for a reality show behind the scenes in the restaurant business to Food Network Canada and The Heat was born, now entering its fourth season. McEwan donates food and the services of his company to numerous charitable events and organizations, believing that "you can't live in a community and make a living in it and not give back."
 Martha McKay
After 32 years of nursing, you might think Martha Mackay would be looking forward to retirement. Instead, the Vancouver cardiac care nurse has just completed her Ph.D. and is embarking on a new career as a clinician-scientist, combining clinically oriented research with her work in cardiac care at St. Paul's Heart Centre. Only about one per cent of nurses in Canada have their Ph.D. and very few are clinician-scientists, but Mackay hopes she's helping to pave the way for more nurse researchers in the future. "There's a perspective nursing has that no other discipline gets at," she says, "I believe it can be a real catalyst for change." Mackay spent years attending university while continuing to advance in her nursing career, earning bachelor's and master's degrees, and finishing her Ph.D. earlier this year. Already her research has attracted considerable media attention. Presenting her dissertation at a cardiology conference last year, Mackay and her results – which found that, contrary to popular opinion, women experience similar heart attack symptoms to men– were featured in media reports across the country. Mackay intends to continue to do research that is relevant to the lay public, focusing on cardiac patients' behaviours. Mackay was a clinical nurse specialist at St. Paul's for 14 years, planning, evaluating and improving cardiology programs in the Heart Centre. She has also worked as a critical care nurse clinician, nursing instructor and ICU assistant head nurse and general duty nurse. Mackay is the author of numerous published articles and has presented at many nursing and medical conferences, provincially, nationally and internationally. She credits her nursing education at George Brown College for giving her a solid clinical grounding. "The emphasis was on the practical, the clinical work. That's always been a priority for me and I think it started at George Brown."
The Premier's Awards
for
Graduates of Ontario Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology
The Premier's Awards is an annual provincial awards program created by the government to recognize the important economic and social contribution college graduates make to Ontario. Award nominees receive a bronze medal and direct a five thousand dollar bursary to the college of their choice.
There are 6 categories and one graduate may be nominated in each category:
- Applied Arts: Creative Arts and Design
- Applied Arts: Community Services
- Business
- Health Sciences
- Technology
- New Graduate
Nominees for the 2008 Premier's Award
- Randy Morton
- Sarah Hamel
- Stephen Harwood
- Percy Lezard
- Richard Boyes
Nominees and winners for the 2007 Premier's Award:
- Stephen Harwood
- Mackenzie Levert
- Elio Pacheco - 2007 Winner
- Tolu Quadri
- Bonnie Stern - 2007 Winner
Nominees and winners for the 2006 Premier's Award:
- Sharon Menow
- Kimberley Newport
- Daniel P. Blocka
- John Cartwright
- Vicky Cheng - 2006 Winner
Nominees and winners for the 2005 Premier's Award:
- Minaz Abji
- Adam Brazier
- Deborah Dudgeon - 2005 Winner
- Rosa Duran
- Beth Jordan - 2005 winner
Nominees
for the 2004 Premier's Award:
- Dan Blocka
- Cheryl Cecchetto
- Christine Cushing
- Sharon Menow
- Reg Murphy
- Peter Sealy
Nominees for the 2003 Premier's Award:
- Christine Cushing
- Adonis Huggins
- Reg Murphy
- Shaun Navazesh
- Tracy Rogers
For more information contact the Alumni Office at 416-415-5000, ext. 2106
or email
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Revised:
April 14, 2011
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