 鲜花( 85)  鸡蛋( 2)
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发表于 2015-2-28 22:16
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$ E0 w+ E: x* A4 ]0 C2 xwww.thestar.com/life/2014/06/16/ ... ites_her_story.html
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2014年的. 加拿大一大报 TORONTO STAR
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From Chinese village girl to Canadian CEO: Cold-FX founder writes her story. D j" M% O6 l, k3 ^
Jacqueline Shan says good luck and timing play a role, but hard work and resilience are more important factors in an immigrant’s success.
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“I didn’t know too much about Canada, but my first impression was great. It’s a very friendly country, with clean air,” Shan said recently while visiting Toronto to PROMOTE her self-published book, The Jacqueline Shan Story: Pursing a Dream, Never Giving Up.
4 V5 h5 }9 @5 V; |9 {: Y( X J% _$ d3 h“It’s very welcoming and has a lot of opportunities as long as you are willing to work hard.”
! V8 O7 G8 c$ GAfter completing her Canadian doctorate in 1992, Shan joined Pang in founding Afexa, a company dedicated to developing natural-source health products based on traditional remedies. In the case of Cold-FX, that involved identifying and extracting molecules from ginseng in an effort to soothe the symptoms of colds and flu.
% e: }- n" T4 W4 @3 P+ [) l1 E+ S/ O+ DBut it was a bumpy ride from the start. It took more than a decade for the company to get investors on board. Shan’s lab was on the brink of bankruptcy in the early 2000s. Remembering that dark time, her worst in Canada, still brings tears to her eyes.
& Q. s2 |" W9 y+ ~% T, \) w+ T) i“We almost went broke. We had to lay off people. I felt really bad for them. We had to sell our lab equipment,” she recalled.
) ?( ]# p# x& D0 h4 ~0 C0 ?, V" \“I was a scientist my whole life. Losing the money did not make me cry, but when I lost my lab equipment, it was like they took away what my whole life was about.”; A6 S, I8 z& J- k* s8 b
In 2003, with the help of a marketing team that successfully pitched the story of Afexa’s drug trial to the media, the company finally caught the eye of investors.
- W& F( g5 }5 z- V7 ` e; t. Q5 HBy the end of 2004, more than 4,000 Canadian pharmacies, food and health-care stores were stocking Cold-FX. Sales jumped 800 per cent within a year to $6.5 million, then $32 million in 2005. Sales reached over $40 million by 2006, making it the No. 1 brand for cold and flu symptoms in Canada.0 z$ `5 }4 v* x' ?, x) S
It was a high moment, Shan said, that crystallized the hard work she had INVESTEDin both science and enterprise.+ q% v8 t0 Q1 P& `* s
But Afexa’s quick rise was followed by a sudden fall as the publicly TRADEDcompany’s ambitious plan to expand to the United States crumbled. Afexa was sold to Valeant Pharmaceuticals in 2011.
q7 C- h: o5 l8 Q7 AIn 2012, Shan started a new company, Afinix, “a play on the word ‘phoenix’ as well as a continuation of the ‘A’ word I like so much.”
* [9 @6 ^" }4 `Her research lab now focuses on developing natural health products directed at anti-aging, ARTHRITIS, memory loss, menopause and andropause.$ W! I0 ]( K' O2 H
Shan, who turned 50 recently, said today’s immigrants to Canada tend to come from more privileged backgrounds and have higher expectations than the earlier waves of immigrants like herself. When she left in 1987, China was seeing only its first glimmers of an economic boom.
J- W |6 L. P, \, j$ f“There was less entitlement in my days,” said Shan, a mother of two teenage boys. “When you have a better life (in the homeland) than we had before, it makes you less resilient. By nature, immigrants have to work really hard. That’s the only way you can move ahead.” |
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楼主: easygoing
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发表于 2015-2-28 22:12
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