A fond farewell to Muneesh

After seven-and-a-half years as our director of government affairs and communications, Muneesh Sharma is moving on to a new role outside of BOMA.

Since his position was created, governments have reduced unnecessary regulatory and financial burdens on our members and have provided tens of millions of dollars in incentive programs, financing options and tax reductions. Governmental organizations have also contributed more than $2 million directly toward BOMA BC's programs, services and initiatives that directly benefit our members.

Muneesh helped create and launch the BOMA ALERT Emergency Mass Communication System, the BOMA Energy Management and Advisor Programs, the Greater Victoria 2030 Resiliency District, and BC's Commercial Property and Facility Management Industry's Labour Market Development Strategy. All of these initiatives put the commercial real estate industry's concerns at the heart of the government's mandate and focused on issues of importance to our sector.

He was instrumental in achieving positive changes to the City of Vancouver's permitting and licencing programs, which will save all of our members substantial time and money. He has helped steer BC's Building Code and Energy Step Code toward a more favourable approach and has sat as the development industry's representative on the City's Urban Design Panel for the past six years to ensure our voice was heard when considering new developments. He focused on making the regulatory burden smaller for your businesses while creating more incentives to help further support our sector.

Muneesh connected us to entertaining and thought-provoking luncheon speakers, brought informative, educational updates from representatives of regulatory bodies, and helped to make our events as fun and memorable as possible. Along with providing good value and resources to members, he ensured that the commercial real estate sector's voice was heard on all significant regulatory matters.

He will be remembered equally for his tacky costumes at our dress-up events as he will for his fun approach to dealing with members. While we will miss Muneesh as he moves on to his new role as executive director of the Robson Street Business Association, we know he will continue to stand up for our members and all of B.C.'s business community.