FANSHAWE COLLEGE FallALUMNI 2005 NEWS Cover Story: Cara Vogl, Director of Public Relations and Advertising, Le Château Stores of Canada Page 4 Inside: Tips from the Inside Page 8 Class Notes Page 19 Distinguished Alumni Page 22 cast of FANSHAWE COLLEGE falcons ALUMNI NEWS Managing Editor London Convention Centre Karen Monahan Editor Simone Graham Graphic Design Trish Tully, Flair Creative Alumni PERKS Michael Wickett Cover Photo David Raposo Fanshawe College Alumni Association Board of Directors This Cast of Falcons Randy Dafoe – President works together at the Betty Holme – Vice-President Jennifer Baxter – Treasurer London Convention Directors: Bev Anderson, Catherine Centre at 300 York Chester, Wendy Curtis, Don Donner, Street in downtown Jean Drummond, Jordan Hobbs, Walt Jeschenig, Gail Malcolm, Karen London. The Centre Monahan, Melissa Smart, was established in David Wyatt 1993 to attract national Alumni News is published twice and international a year by the Fanshawe College conventions and host Alumni Association and Fanshawe College, London, Ontario. meetings, events and It is distributed free to Fanshawe trade shows of all sizes. The multipurpose facility has College alumni; others may subscribe for $10 per year, 70,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space and is owned by the City plus GST. of London. The culinary team is flexible, capable of serving a meal to 20 or Publication of information about individuals, organizations or companies 2,000, whatever the customer may need. does not imply endorsement by Fanshawe College or the Fanshawe College Alumni Association. We welcome, but cannot The London Convention Centre employs many Fanshawe graduates who be held responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or artwork. work various hours and shifts. These are a few members of the team with Please enclose a self-addressed envelope with sufficient postage for return. Fanshawe credentials. In the back row, from left to right going up the Submission deadlines are January 1 and July 1. No part of this magazine may stairs: Rebecca Dodd (Law and Security Administration 97); Joanne Serra be reproduced without the publisher’s (Executive Secretarial 80) and Betty Holme (Human Resource Management written consent. Fanshawe College 01). Standing and seated in front from left to right: Andrew Guillle Alumni Association (General Arts and Science 05); Sonia Garcia (Culinary Management 05); 1460 Oxford Street East, P.O. Box 7005 London, Ontario N5Y 5R6 Yolanda Alvarez (Culinary Management 95); Paul J. Bendzsa (Audio Tel: 519.452.4285 Visual Technician 91) and Mike Kelly (Radio Broadcasting 01). Out-of-town: 800.661.ALUM Fax: 519.659.9393 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: www.fanshawec.ca/alumni Mailed under Publications Mail Agreement Number 40063557 This publication is available in an alternate format. For information, please contact the Alumni Office. 2 Fanshawe College Alumni News Fall 2005 Marking sports fields made simple Brent Baker: Simplistic Lines When Brent Baker (Farm Equipment Technician 92) was pre-mixed paint in larger sized 1,000 litre totes. He also growing up on his family’s farm, he liked to tinker with developed a stand so the paint could be dispensed with a anything mechanical. Not surprisingly, his first job in spigot to fill the lining machine. Today, the paint side of his high school was with a farm equipment dealership. business accounts for well over half of his annual profit and After earning his diploma from Fanshawe, he continued involves more than 200,000 litres of paint each year. working with D&S Downham Equipment in Stratford, Today, Simplistic Lines Inc. is still family owned and Ontario as a Farm Technician. located between Stratford and Mitchell in Ontario. Brent The job involved providing on-site service and he credits his father, Elton, and his neighbour for helping enjoyed dealing with hydraulics, electronics, new him get started. His dad continues to be active with the products and especially customizing equipment to meet company. The customer base is made up of municipalities the needs of the customer. In the mid-1990s, he became and universities located in the Greater Toronto Area and interested in developing a product himself – building a south-western Ontario and sales have doubled in the past better mousetrap so to speak. year. For more information, visit www.simplisticlines.com. “At the time, a neighbour was involved with a soccer club and they were looking for a better way to make the lines on the field,” explains Brent. “When I started to explore the idea, it was clear to me that municipalities and sports clubs weren’t really happy with what was on the market.” Brent felt he could improve on the existing technology so he began tinkering with various ideas in his spare time and getting his own business started. It took a lot of field-testing but he ultimately developed a professional user-friendly field marker with low operation and maintenance costs. Three years later, he had the confidence, product line and customer base to launch out on his own, leaving D&S after 13 years. Brent’s system uses a unique plumbing feature that reduces the amount of paint needed while also making clean-up easier. It has a battery-operated pumping system with quick connect/disconnect charging terminals and it travels on a tandem suspension. These innovations allow the machine to make smooth, straight lines on any terrain, with minimal operating effort. Brent also saw an opportunity to improve on the way paint is handled by municipalities and sports clubs. “It was hit and miss for employees to have to mix and dilute paint every time,” explains Brent. “It was messy and then you had tons of five gallon plastic paint cans piling up, making more waste.” Brent worked with a paint manufacturer to develop Fanshawe College Alumni News Fall 2005 3 feature alumni A fashion forward career at Le Château The trip from Masonville Mall to The Fashion Merchandising program to the President before taking on the Montreal has been an interesting ride at Fanshawe fulfilled that interest and position of Assistant Buyer in the for Cara Vogl (Fashion Merchandising gave her the skills and knowledge to Accessories Division when a senior 92) and while there’ve been a few land a full-time job. She started out buyer suddenly left. bumps along the way she’s pretty well with the GAP in Toronto where she That whole whirlwind of opportunity pleased with how it’s turned out so far. was Assistant Store Manager. She and challenge prepared her well for the As Director of Public Relations and returned to the Le Château fold in May next step. In 2000, she was promoted Advertising for Le Château, Cara works 1993 when she accepted an Assistant to Marketing Manager overseeing a from the company’s head offices in Manager’s role in Toronto; six months team of six people responsible for Montreal. Le Château started with one later she became a Store Manager. planning and executing corporate store in Montreal in 1959 and has since Her natural talent, energy and marketing strategies, advertising, grown into a sophisticated retail empire professional attitude soon brought publicity, special events, graphics and with 184 locations across Canada and her to the attention of the Operations media relations. five in the United States. The company Department at Le Château. They were “So much has changed in the has more than 2,800 employees. looking for someone to fill a newly- company even since those days,” says “I started working part-time at developed junior position Cara. “Five years ago we had one in store support. fashion designer; now we have more “The job they offered than 20. Today our in-house buying me wasn’t very well and design team delivers fresh fashion defined but I knew I looks in a four-to-six-week cycle which needed to take the is considered extremely fast in the chance,” says Cara, retail industry. Vertical integration gives who picked up us an edge and flexibility that other stakes and moved retailers just don’t have.” to Montreal to take With all of this rapid growth, the on the challenge demands on the marketing department in February 1994. grew as well. To better manage the “Working behind image of the increasingly successful the scenes was company, Cara took on another something I’d newly defined position in 2002, always been that of Director of Public Relations interested in doing. There were many and Advertising. This made her an Le Château when I was 18 at different culture shocks to deal with integral driver of the company’s the Masonville store in London,” recalls once I was there, both personally and overall brand shift strategy which had Cara, who attended Sir Frederick professionally. So I just put my head started moving the company towards Banting high school in London before down and worked. Luckily it turned out more unique designs, appealing applying to Fanshawe. “I wasn’t sure to be a position that involved a lot of to a broader customer base, while where college would take me but I was travel, store visits, special projects… a improving both product quality and interested to see what more there was little bit of everything.” store environment. Today, she oversees to the fashion industry, how product After three years in that role, she an annual marketing budget of several gets to the store and the machine that became Assistant to the V-P of Sales. million dollars and manages the media operates behind it all.” Then she spent a year as Assistant placements, public relations, events 4 Fanshawe College Alumni News Fall 2005 and web site content, while still maintaining a role in store making me the strong person I am today.