Chatting with Mark Brand!

Keyanna sat down with Mark Brand at the 2012 UBC Student Leadership Conference to chat about why he loves Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and his “breakthrough” moment.

Arriving in Vancouver in 2005, Mark quickly fell in love with East Vancouver and all of its neighborhoods. A Gastown resident, business owner and general fixture since opening his first restaurant, Boneta, in 2007 to smash success within “Canada’s poorest postcodes, roughest block.” Brand has never looked back.

Since then, he has expanded with an award winning cocktail bar, traditional sushi bar, Vancouver focused gallery, locally driven clothing store/line and soon, will breathe new life into the iconic Save On Meats. Mark approaches each project with the firm belief that combining enterprise with social responsibility not only can be successful, but more successful than enterprise alone. Simply put, he loves his neighborhood and the people in it.Website: http://markbrandinc.com/