The Kelowna Chamber of Commerce is relaunching its ‘Top 40 Over 40 presented by BDO’, to celebrate those in the community over 40 years of age.
These are people who pose as mentors, champions and role models and who encourage and nurture the future leaders of the community.
The Kelowna Chamber highlights new honors between February and July 2021. Each year, the program alternates between Over 40 and Under 40 Honourees. This is the sixth year of the program as 2021 is a year of more than 40 years.
Brian Walters’ father ran a successful plumbing and heating business in Radville, Sask., until he fell ill.
He sold the company, but his health eventually recovered and he was able to return to his trade. Then he decided that working as a plumber in Kelowna would be much better than in Saskatchewan.
After graduating from KSS, Brian was hired by a neighbor who was the superintendent of the Crown Zellerbach plywood factory on Ellis Street.
Meanwhile, in 1978, his father re-started his own company called Ace Plumbing, which he bought from a friend for $1. Brian became his apprentice in 1979.
The work was slow at first, so the company did anything and everything to keep busy, including hand-pounding sand-point pits on Benvoulin Road.
He was approaching retirement and decided to sell the company and work for someone else.
Brian and his wife Corallee decided to buy his father’s Ace Plumbing business, which they did in 1985.
The moment that decision was made, the economy started to pick up and Brian marketed his business services using his father’s policy of always taking care of the customers.
He soon had nearly a dozen plumbers and apprentices working with him.
Ace was refurbishing the Eldorado Hotel when he fell behind in a traffic accident on Pandosy Street.
The seat of the truck broke and his back was seriously injured, preventing him from working.
So he went to the office and developed plans to do more quality work and train great employees without being on site to supervise them.
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