Vancouver College Alumni & Friends Irish Christmas Luncheon

Join us for the 7th Annual Vancouver College Alumni & Friends Irish Christmas Luncheon at the Terminal City Club downtown Vancouver. This event is an excuse to step out from work early, network with other VC supporters and hear from an amazing speaker.

The first five events sold out quickly as space is limited.

Agenda:

11am Registration

11:45am Lunch

12:30 - 1:30 Keynote

1:30 - 3:00 Network & Socialize

Your ticket includes:

Delicious 3 course meal

Hosted Bar (beer and wine)

Speaker:

Rusty Goepel Biography

A co-founder of Goepel Shields & Partners, Rusty worked alongside a group of senior investment industry officers to successfully merge the firm with McDermid St. Lawrence to form Goepel McDermid. A leader in mid-market investment banking, Goepel McDermid was ultimately purchased by Raymond James, where Rusty continues to act as a Senior Vice President.

Rusty’s extensive experience in the Canadian investment sector has led to board roles on the Board of Governors of the Business Council of BC, the Vancouver Airport Authority, Telus Corporation, Baytex Energy and Amerigo Resources.

Rusty’s achievements have additionally been recognized with numerous awards and roles, including the Order of British Columbia; Golden and Diamond Queen’s Jubilee Medals for Business Leadership and Community Service; Chair of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games; Governor of the Vancouver Stock Exchange; Executive Committee Member of the Investment Dealer’s Association and President of the Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club.

Rusty is a frequent speaker at business and philanthropic events throughout western Canada. His allergies include three putts and bad wine.

Rusty's two sons graduated from Vancouver College and he is married to Lindy Goepel, the daughter of Jimmy O'Hagan.

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Chris Gailus Biography

Emmy-winning journalist Chris Gailus co-anchors the highly-rated Global News Hour at 6 on Global BC with Sophie Lui. He is the winner of back-to-back Canadian Screen Awards (formerly Gemini Awards) for Best Newscast, Large Market. In 2015, the Canadian Screen Awards crowned him as the country’s best local news anchor. In 2017, Chris was nominated with co-anchor Sophie Lui in the same category at the Canada Screen Awards.

Chris returned to Canada and the Global News family in 2006. Prior to that, he was host and anchor of the morning program Good Day New York at WNYW, the Fox news affiliate in New York and at the time, the most-watched, locally-produced morning show in the northeastern U.S.

Chris has nearly 30 years of experience in broadcast journalism and is a proud graduate of the Broadcast Journalism Program at Mount Royal University in Calgary where he made the Dean’s List for Academic Excellence and received the Jimmy Condon Scholarship to play basketball. After graduating in 1989, he worked in Lethbridge, Alberta as a reporter covering municipal and agricultural issues before moving up to news anchor and eventually winning a CanPro Award as anchor of the Best Small Market Newscast. He returned to Calgary in 1992 as reporter and anchor of CFCN’s weekend newscast before moving to Calgary 7 (now known as Global News Calgary) as one of its main evening news anchors.

In 2000, Chris moved to the U.S. to be the anchor of the morning newscast at the ABC affiliate in Dallas, Texas. He covered major stories such as the crash of the space shuttle Columbia and the subsequent investigation, the impact of the September 11th attacks on Dallas, and the deployment of U.S. troops from Fort Hood at the outbreak of the war in Iraq. He was nominated for a Katy Award, the highest honour in Texas journalism.

In 2003, he moved on to anchor Good Day New York at WNYW where he received a career highlight, winning a New York Regional Emmy Award for “Best Morning Newscast” in 2005.

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This is the 7th Annual Irish Christmas Luncheon.

In 2017, our inaugural event, our speaker was Finbarr O'Reilly (VC'89) an internationally acclaimed photographer.

In 2018 our speaker was Dr. Keiron McConnell (VC’86), a VPD Gang Squad member, shared his research on gangs in Vancouver, Toronto, Los Angeles, Chicago, and London.

In 2019 our speaker was Mel Zajac, a past Vancouver College parent, real estate developer and philanthropist. He joined Global News Anchor Chris Gailus for a fireside chat.

In 2021 our speaker was Tony Holler, a past Vancouver College parent, entrepreneur and philanthropist. He joined Global News Anchor Chris Gailus for a fireside chat.

In 2022 our speaker was Kevin Falcon (VC'81), the Leader of the Official Opposition and MLA for Vancouver-Quilchena.

In 2023 our speaker was Ken Sim, the Mayor of Vancouver.

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Any proceeds from the event go to the Vancouver College Alumni Association

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