Carmelita Tapia migrated from the Philippines to Canada in 1988.
She finished her accounting degree in the Philippines. She is married to Edgardo A. Tapia, a mechanical engineer, and they have two kids, Odessa and Earl Von.
Tapia is active in the Filipino community being the chairman of HISTORAMA,
The Rotary Club and participated in various dental missions to the Philippines.
On the business side, she is president of Asean Canada Business Council, which acts as the bridge to promote trade and investments between Canada and the 10 Southeast Asian countries.
Previously, she was president of Philippines Canada Trade Council. She is the Filipino business representative to Asia Pacific Gateway Committee of the Burnaby Board of Trade. She is responsible for organizing trade missions to ASEAN, first in 2003, then 2008 to Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines; and July 2013, to Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia. The trade missions zeroed in on education, health and wellness, skilled workers and immigration, power generating plants, commercial goods, and mining for both Indonesia and the Philippines.
Tapia had been a director of New Westminster School District #40 BC, which operated secondary and ESL schools in Wenshou, China. and Seoul, Korea, aside from being the vice-president of finance of family-owned Odessa Manufacturing, the only pollution control parts manufacturing facility in Western Canada.
Help to support Carmelita by voting for her at canadianimmigrant.ca/canadas-top-25-immigrants
Josephine Yam had to overcome the “lack of Canadian experience” just like us. She faced lots of barriers as a female, visible minority and immigrant. But she did not give up. She worked very hard to start a new life in Canada. Because of her exceptional qualifications, Josephine got exempted from the bar exams. She worked as a lawyer with a Toronto law firm and the Alberta government.
Today, Josephine is the CEO and Co-Founder of Building Breakthrough Boards (B3) Canada. B3 Canada’s matchmaking program puts corporate employees to serve on non-profit boards.
B3’s program provides people with leadership skills while they serve the community. A clear triple win for corporations, employees and the non-profits they serve.
Josephine is passionate about building a diverse and inclusive Canada for all of us!
Help to support Josephine by voting for her at canadianimmigrant.ca/canadas-top-25-immigrants