Judy Bishop91裸聊视频檚 business career has been about riding waves of change in the high-tech industry.

And as she has immersed her past business acumen and experience into Kelowna91裸聊视频檚 burgeoning high-tech sector, she sees the signs of another big wave about to sweep across the Okanagan.

Bishop says the ecosystem developing in Kelowna, mixing start-up companies with the venture investment and company building skills of long-time tech industry players seeking the Okanagan lifestyle, will further enhance that foundation to meet the demands of an expanding industry.

91裸聊视频淚 don91裸聊视频檛 think we will recognize the change that will have occurred in this industry 10 years from now. There is a huge wow factor that is going to come into play here,91裸聊视频� Bishop said.

A big part of that wow factor, she says, will be the opening of the Okanagan Centre for Innovation now under construction in downtown Kelowna, which she says will be a huge symbol of the impact the high-tech world is making here,  drawing together start-up companies, investors and company development knowledge.

In B.C., she says, there are 550 high-tech companies and 7,000 people working in high-tech industries across the Okanagan. 91裸聊视频淚n our province, technology employs more people than oil and gas, mining and forestry combined. But the average person is probably not aware of that.91裸聊视频�

Bishop said even she was caught off guard when she began looking into the prospect of living in Kelowna and where she would fit in the local business community.

91裸聊视频淚 thought Kelowna was a technology backwater initially, and I admit that was my Vancouver chauvinism. Now I91裸聊视频檓 embarrassed that I ever let myself think that way.

91裸聊视频淎s I gained more insight into what is happening here, it was shocking to me how so few people outside the Okanagan understand the tiny tidal wave of successful companies that are already operating here. There is no question in my mind many of these companies can become world-class entities.91裸聊视频�

She knows what she91裸聊视频檚 talking about, having been involved at senior corporate management levels of the corporate tech industry growth dating back to the 1980s.

91裸聊视频淚 think the birthing rate of new companies here in the Okanagan, and getting them to toddlerhood has been great, but what has been missing is having the ecosystem to get them to later adolescence or adulthood,91裸聊视频� she said.

91裸聊视频淏ut there are people like me who are moving here, choosing to want to live here because of all the Okanagan has to offer, who can lend their experience and investment to support the further development of that ecosystem.91裸聊视频�

While she still has a place in Vancouver,  Bishop said she now considers herself a full-time Kelowna resident91裸聊视频�91裸聊视频漞ven my plants have made the move here91裸聊视频�91裸聊视频攚here among other things she serves as an executive in residence advisor for Accelerate Okanagan.

Bishop acknowledges herself as a highly motivated 91裸聊视频淎 type personality91裸聊视频� who loves the business world, but is someone with an eclectic list of outside interests91裸聊视频攐rchid breeder, wine connoisseur, freelance photojournalist, jam-maker, electric bass player in a rock band. And she can fly a plane.

Where does she find the time for all that? 91裸聊视频淚91裸聊视频檓 organized, I don91裸聊视频檛 watch TV and I don91裸聊视频檛 have kids so I have lots of time to do these things. I91裸聊视频檓 the kind of person that needs new information pounding through my head all the time or I get bored.91裸聊视频�

But still, getting into business was never her original intention as a career. Bishop was born in a northern Ontario community, to a francophone family who spoke very little English. 91裸聊视频淢y parents realized I couldn91裸聊视频檛 survive in an English-speaking school so they shipped me off to live with my older sister in Quebec where I could attend a French-speaking high school,91裸聊视频� she said.

Not particularly thrilled with the climate of Quebec, Bishop set her sights on Vancouver, studying biochemistry at UBC with the idea of going to medical school.

91裸聊视频淚 changed my mind at the last minute. I had received, and still have to this day, my acceptance letter to med school from UBC, but I realized at that moment that being a doctor was doing what my father wanted me to do, but that I really wanted to do something different with my life,91裸聊视频� she said.

That 91裸聊视频渟omething different91裸聊视频� led her to apply for a senior management position with a high-tech start-up company.

Ever since, Bishop says her business career has coincided with the ups and downs of the high-tech world.

Today, Bishop sees herself as bringing two distinct skills to the table from her past business experience: That of being a deeply trained negotiator and deal structurer, as well as being an experienced corporate board director.

91裸聊视频淚t91裸聊视频檚 easier than ever to start a company anywhere in the world,91裸聊视频� she said. 91裸聊视频淢oney has no country. It goes where opportunity exists for it to go to work.91裸聊视频�