What CEOs Need to Know about Suicide
Bill Elkington, President of JV Driver Group of Companies, shares his personal story about losing his daughter from suicide and how the Erika Legacy Foundation is supporting, educating and promoting a culture of change in how we talk and think about mental health and suicide. Bill and Chris Maksylewicz, Executive Director of the Erika Legacy Foundation, shares the importance of understanding the science behind mental helath, the key risks CEOs need to be aware of and the action CEOs can take to support individuals having suicidal thoughts.
Bill has been at the forefront of growing JV Driver from a two-person operation on Vancouver Island to a large, multi-national corporation offering construction services and engineered products in all sectors.
JV Driver’s core values are Take Care of Each Other, Be Innovative, Build Great Things and Have Fun. Along with its core values, JV Driver is driven by a mission to Think Different, Build Better for its people and clients; this mission was spear-headed by Erika Elkington.
Bill won the Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the Prairie Region in 2010 and JV Driver also received the Canada’s 10 Most Admired Corporate Cultures 2010 award. JV Driver is consistently recognized as one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies.
Chris Maksylewicz leads the fight to reduce the risks of suicide and mental health so that our communities and the people within them can become the best version of themselves.
The Erika Legacy Foundation is a public, Canadian foundation, started in 2016 by the family of Erika Nicole Elkington. The Foundation;s main function is to raise funds and provide financial support to Canadian programs for suicide prevention, thru its three pillars: scientific research; inspiration; and action.