Fire hits carport, page burns eight vehicles
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reality check on teen suicide
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is brentwood station big enough?
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wednesday
November 21 2012 www.burnabynewsleader.com
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it’s that time of year again, when parties and gatherings call for good food. the NewsLeader has some ideas to help you get started. See Page A11
Vandals cutting city trees Staff believe homeowners trying to improve views Wanda Chow
wchow@burnabynewsleader.com
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Peter Blake, the CEO of Ritchie Bros. auctioneers, takes a coffee break outside the Kelowna Cafe, one of the employee amenities at their Burnaby head office. 21¯ MONTH
TERM DEPOSIT
Nemeth Ritchie Bros. named business ofEszter the year .30 Company CEO says secret to success: Do what’s right mario bartel
photo@burnabynewsleader.com
As Peter Blake walks from his corner office at Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers to the Kelowna Café, the company’s on-site bistro, he greets every passing colleague by name, from his assistant to the cleaning lady, her arms burdened with a thick roll of paper towels. It’s not every CEO of a leading
worldwide company who has a smile for every one of the 340 employees directly in his charge. Then again, Ritchie Bros. isn’t a typical employer. Even as it has grown from a single unreserved auction held in Kelowna in 1958 to a $4-billion-ayear company that conducted 339 industrial and agricultural auctions at 40 sites around the world last year, Ritchie Bros. is still, at heart, a bunch of working folks in flannel shirts picking out the slightest flinch
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in the crowd that indicates a bid on cranes. But the core values upon * Terms & conditions apply. Services Since 1940 •founder www.gvccu.com a tractor, a combine, aFinancial backhoe. which Dave Ritchie started Much of the bidding is now done the company remain the same, says online, through a sophisticated Blake. bid room where buyers are linked “He had a clear view of what he by computer to the live auction wanted to achieve,” he says. “Do through a virtual spotter who what’s right, operate as one team monitors the pricing activity on a and have fun.” busy monitor and barks bids into In fact, it’s those values that drove headphones. And the equipment the design of Ritchie Bros. new they’re bidding on now ranges from world headquarters in Burnaby’s surplus vehicles and logging trucks Glenlyon Business Park, where the to an entire mobile asphalt plant company moved in 2009. and giant industrial construction please see ‘IT’S AN INveSTmeNT’, A4
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Arbourists at Burnaby’s city parks department are on high alert after several years of people cutting down and trying to kill trees along the Trans Canada Trail and in the Capitol Hill Conservation Area. After the NewsLeader received a tip about a few trees being felled along the trail in recent weeks, John Devlin, Burnaby’s superintendent of parks operations, confirmed the incident and noted that it’s been an ongoing problem in the area for the past three or four years. The most recent incident saw about three trees cut down along the trail. City arbourist staff believe it might be related to a home in the 5600block of Highfield Drive, which lined up with the damage, but they can’t know for sure, said Devlin. “What happens quite often—well it happens a lot in that area—is homeowners are clearing for view. They take a little bit down at a time.” see We’re beINg, A3