Career Options
George Brown grad gets his feet wet in the growing business of bottled water'Kid with no direction' now a star"It's business that makes the world go round. Everyone says it's money, but it's actually business." |
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 [ 2008-03-12 ] |
Elio Pacheco is Evian North America's president, the latest in several leadership positions he's held in the business world. He attributes much of his success to George Brown College's Business Administration program.
That's what Elio Pacheco says, and as president and general manager of Evian North America, he should know.
Indeed, bottled water is very big business on this continent and worldwide. In the U.S. alone, Americans spent almost $12 billion on H2O in 2007, and consumed more than nine billion gallons of it. Evian's share of the North American business totalled around $300 million last year.
Pacheco's job is to ensure Evian stands out among the countless competing products on the market, which he's achieving, in part, by reminding consumers about the purity of Evian water.
"The differentiating aspect of Evian is it's a miracle of nature," says Pacheco, 42. "It's not processed - it's filtered naturally through glacial sands in the French Alps."
Pacheco is relatively new to the water biz, having joined Evian in January of 2007, but 20 years of leadership positions in the business world have made him adept at embracing new challenges.
ASCENT IN CORPORATE WORLD
His extensive experience and accomplishments have also recently earned the George Brown College graduate an Ontario Premier's Award for business. The annual awards are given to six college grads who've made outstanding contributions to the province in creative arts, technology, health sciences, business or community services.
Pacheco's ascent in business stemmed from an uncertain time in his life, on the tail end of a carefree year of post-high school partying and soul searching. An interest in business became cemented in 1987 when the Toronto native researched George Brown's Business Administration diploma program.
Over the next two years, Pacheco learned about business basics such as accounting, business law, management, marketing, HR and selling.
"What I liked is that it touched upon issues specific to business," Pacheco recalls. "Universities start with general curriculum, and then specialize. Here, it was specific from the get go."
Pacheco also appreciated the practical business knowledge and insights his teachers brought to the table.
"Most of them were veterans of the business world and were able to bring a lot of real-life experience to their teaching," he says.
Pacheco's first move upon graduating in 1989 was to begin working for the Canadian Management Centre, an affiliate of the American Management Association, a leading professional development organization. By the end of his five years at the CMC, Pacheco had become director of operations. He'd also, through his position, attended more than 120 business training programs across all business disciplines.
All of that knowledge, combined with his management experience, helped him take his career to the next level at leading global consumer goods company Danone, where he has held successive positions with increasing responsibilities.
So far, Pacheco has been involved in launching Volvic Natural Spring Water in Canada; overseeing the company's grocery brands in Canada, which include HP Sauces, Lea & Perrins and Grey Poupon; and re-establishing Danone's pillar biscuit and cereal brand, LU, in the U.S., achieving its highest growth in more a decade.
SHARP INSTINCTS
Currently, those sharp instincts are contributing to the other part of his main efforts at Danone-owned Evian, which involves promoting and enhancing the brand's environmentally friendly practices, such as eco-smart bottling that produces minimal waste, transporting Evian water to European ports by train to reduce pollution, and using bottles made with 25% post-consumer recycled content.
"We need to commercialize, market and produce brands in a sustainable way that gives back to society and back to the environment, and we need to communicate how we're doing that," he says.
After just a few months on the job, Pacheco's efforts helped the company achieve 6% sales growth in Canada.
But that's nothing compared to the return on investment in Pacheco's career since he graduated from George Brown.
"You're talking about a kid who had no direction. My exposure to the program at George Brown changed that," he says. "It solidified that I did want a career in business, and gave me some practical understanding of how businesses work."
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