Darryl Arvai, corporate controller, Shopify

Darryl Arvai
Darryl Arvai
Editor's Note

Each year, OBJ and the Ottawa Board of Trade honour 40 of the region’s top young entrepreneurs, business executives and civic leaders and recognize them for their professional achievements, expertise and community service.
Click here to see the full list of the 2021 recipients and click here to watch the special broadcast honouring the year’s recipients.

2021-06-09

Business: E-commerce

Born: West Lorne, Ont.

Biggest business achievement: Helping the company raise billions of dollars in financing, including its 2015 IPO.

OBJ360 (Sponsored)

Biggest obstacle overcome: Continuously scaling finance operations in the face of massive merchant, vendor and employee growth.

Biggest influences: My parents – they both modelled for me the value of hard work and family. My father has grown a small concrete business he started 35 years ago to more than 100 employees today. My mother worked full-time at a factory and managed to feed and support me and my three amazing siblings.

Biggest lesson learned during COVID-19: Try and find positives in hard situations. Working from home has afforded me the opportunity to have lunch with my wife and kids, Facetime distant family more often and have greater ownership over my time.

Charitable involvement: The Ottawa Centre Minor Hockey Association and the Ottawa Sting Minor Hockey Association

First job: Planting tobacco on my grandparents’ farm

Advice I’d give the younger me: Plan for the future but live in the moment.

Favourite pastime: Playing, coaching and watching hockey

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