The annual Niagara 40 Under Forty Business Achievement Awards recognize young professionals who drive innovation, business success and community impact. The awards, hosted by Business Link Media Group, were presented at a gala event last Thursday. 

All of the recipients are impressive in many ways. We talked to three of the winners who are among those from Niagara-on-the-Lake being honoured. 

Dean Stoyka, winemaker at Stratus Winery

Dean Stoyka radiates exuberance when he talks about his work at Stratus Winery. As the winemaker, he loves to innovate and experiment in the cellar. He also manages the farm, with “a focus on sustainability and innovation, with respect for tradition,” he explains.

One innovation is an initiative to reuse wine bottles, working in partnership with a facility called Circulr in Kitchener. In the first year, he made 50 cases of wine in reused bottles.

Stoyka says the aim is to grow the volume at Stratus and encourage other wineries to adopt the same practice. 

In the vineyard, Stoyka says he doesn’t use any herbicides: “We actually have a special piece of equipment to seed crimson clover underneath the vines. It makes all these beautiful red flowers, and it makes a mat that outcompetes the other weeds. It doesn’t compete with the vine, because it’s actually giving nitrogen back to the soil.”

Community involvement is important to Stoyka as well.

“We work with the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority. Our whole staff gets involved. We’ve built bird boxes, and we helped them rehabilitate a pollinator garden around the Virgil dam, for example,” he explains. 

Stoyka says he’s very honoured “to be part of all these other really great business leaders and entrepreneurs.”

“The Niagara region has a massive entrepreneurial spirit. It’s been the hub for commerce for hundreds of years. I grew up in Niagara Falls around business leaders and local family businesses. So to be nominated and awarded is exciting and very prestigious. It feels great,” he says. 

“I was shocked and surprised, because I know how competitive it is. It’s great to shine the spotlight on Ontario wine tourism and manufacturing,” he adds. 

Julie Taylor, owner/pharmacist, Stone Road Pharmacy

“Caring beyond the prescription.” It’s written on the wall at Stone Road Pharmacy, and it’s in the DNA of the drug store Julie Taylor started up in 2019.

“It was seven months before COVID started. It was tough, but it actually gave us that opportunity to really show that care during a critical time when everyone was fearful and locked down,” she recalls. 

“Doing flu shots and COVID immunizations has been important to us. It gives us a lot of one on one interaction with people,” she explains.  

Taylor, who has lived in Virgil all her life, is a familiar face to many. She has been a pharmacist since 2008. She worked for Rexall for six years, and then she worked at Simpsons for six years before opening her own pharmacy. 

It’s still a relatively new business, and Taylor is juggling that with her growing family. Her two-month-old daughter is snoozing in the pharmacy office, and her three-year-old son is at daycare.

As the business becomes more established, she plans to get involved with sports teams and organizations in the community.

Taylor remembers when she found out she had won a 40 Under Forty award.

“It was a great surprise and honour. I found out on my daughter’s due date, actually. So when she wasn’t born on her due date, at least I had something happy that day,” she relates with a big smile.

“I know that I am the name on the award, but it’s really my team too, they’re amazing,” she emphasizes.  

Sam Maxbauer, master brewer & co-founder, the Exchange Brewery

It’s 9 a.m. at The Exchange Brewery, and while the doors aren’t open to the public yet, lots is going on inside.

Staff are in the back bottling a new amber ale, and master brewer and co-founder Sam Maxbauer is at work on his laptop. There’s always something going on.  

Since opening in 2016, the Exchange has aimed to be a positive force in the community. 

“We wanted to create a safe and inclusive place for everybody. So we’ve always been welcoming to everybody that comes into our tap room,” Maxbauer says.

The Exchange also supports many charities. “We’ve done a series of charity brews where we donate all the proceeds from that specific brew to a charity. We work together as a team to decide which charities.”

Maxbauer says proceeds have been donated to various charities, including Autism Ontario, Colorectal Cancer Canada, Canadian Veteran Service Dog Unit, Plenty Canada, MS Society of Canada, as well as Canadian Mental Health Association (Niagara chapter), LGBT Youthline and the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Foundation. 

Maxbauer himself also volunteers with the Master Brewers Association, which is a non-profit that facilitates learning.

The Exchange opened in 2016. “It’s been a long and sometimes slow process, especially in our construction stage, but, but we’ve made it through the pandemic, and we’ve been slowly expanding our distribution over the last 10 years. So we’re definitely here to stay,” he says with conviction. 

For Maxbauer, “it’s a great honour to be named one of the 40 under Forty.”

He reflects on the fact that there are many business owners and community leaders in the group, and he is glad to be one of those to receive the award.