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Solar Joe and the soccer star: a MEDA match made in Cuba

Readers with long memories may recall MEDA’s solar oven project in Cuba in the mid1990s. At that time, Canadian environmental entrepreneur Joe Froese (sometimes known as “Solar Joe”) devised lowcost solar ovens made from recycled printing press plates. Under MEDA’s sponsorship he moved to Cuba to build and test-market the ovens to be used in homes as well as in medical clinics and daycare centers. Part of the reason for the initiative was that Cuba no longer received cheap oil from the recently-collapsed Soviet Union and many Cubans had taken to using unsafe fuels.

A total of 218 domestic solar ovens and 49 institutional ovens were produced during the two-year project, providing Cubans with a clean source of heat for cooking and other applications such as sterilizing medical instruments. In the meantime, Froese married a Cuban woman, Esperanza, who then accompanied him back to Manitoba and started her own travel business.

Fast-forward to the present: The couple now has two children, one of them 14-yearold Kianz, an emerging soccer phenomenon whose potential is sadly under-utilized in Canada’s fledgling soccer culture. To help the lad develop his prowess, the Froese family recently migrated back to Cuba, where soccer reigns. The move paid off, as Kianz made it onto the Under-17 Cuban National Team and recently played in the FIFA U-17 World Cup qualifying matches in Jamaica.

Froese’s story caught the attention of Lesley Hughes, a veteran Winnipeg journalist. Together they are writing a book — titled Marrying Cuba — which is expected to be published soon. Froese says the book’s Foreword will be written by his former boss, Ron Braun, who was MEDA’s executive vice-president at the time.

The book is described as follows: “Marrying Cuba is ... an intimate look into a forbidden world — Fidel Castro’s Cuba as it slouches toward its end. Author Joe Froese is a Canadian businessman and entrepreneur who married into a Cuban family and discovered that, for better or for worse, he had married the country, its history and its future. Here he shares his struggles to understand ‘Cubanismo’ ... everything Cuban ... life, love, birth, death, money, the ever-present state, and the Cuban love-hate relationship with the Maximum Leader. We go with him into the hospital, the classroom, the bank, the graveyard. As in any marriage, we see joy, affirmation, confusion, disappointment and heartache. Most of all, we share Joe’s discovery that human beings can never escape the changes we make for love. Marrying Cuba will leave readers deeply interested in the changed Cuba to

Canadian Mennonite University (CMU), Winnipeg, will offer a new business degree this fall — Bachelor of Business Administration Co-op (BBA Co-op).

The four-year BBA features a co-op component option, which will involve six terms of work placement in addition to eight academic terms. Students will be able to complete the degree, including the work terms, in five years.

Gordon Matties, dean of humanities and sciences, says the new program aims to not only equip students for workplace performance but also provide opportunities to “reflect constructively and critically in the process of shaping worldview and character.”

Students will grapple with tough ethical decisions common in the marketplace and explore justice considerations as they engage the world.

“These commitments are relatively unique to the program,” says Craig Martin, assistant professor of business and organizational administration. “We will be going beyond traditional courses

Kianz Froese, 14, sports his Cuban National Team jacket, which his proud father describes as “a real trophy. You can’t buy one, you earn it.” Former Cuban president Fidel Castro wore an identical jacket when he appeared on public television a few years to dispel rumors that he had died.

come...and better prepared to understand her.”

We’ll keep you posted on the book’s progress, and the unfolding story of the unplanned impact of an early MEDA venture. ◆

Canadian Mennonite University launches new degree in business

in business ethics and legal regulation.”

Martin, who will head the program, adds that the BBA Co-op will offer a stronger work experience component than other business programs in the province. “What is unique is the amount of co-op experience students will get,” he says.

Besides more experiential learning, students will have more opportunity to gain work experience and earn money to pay for their education, says Matties.

The seeds of the BBA Co-op program go back to before the founding of CMU in 2000, says Matties. “CMU supporters in the business community have been encouraging us for years to move in this direction.”

CMU offers undergraduate degrees in the arts and sciences, business, communications and media, peace and conflict resolution studies, music, music therapy, theology, and church ministries, as well as graduate degrees in theological studies and Christian ministry. ◆

Board member fills new MEDA position

Sid Burkey, a current member of MEDA’s board of directors, has been selected to fill a new staff position as Chief MEDA Engagement Officer (CMEO).

The new position was created following a major organizational review that recommended combining several departments under one umbrella. Burkey will provide leadership and strategic direction for MEDA’s resource development, marketing,

Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) have prompted new marketing tactics that camouflage the nature of “aging” products designed for them.

Marketers have caught on that Baby Boomers don’t like to admit they are older, but still want goods and services that will help them navigate the later innings of life. The new strategy includes flattery, euphemism and maybe even a little deception.

Baby Boomers, who begin to turn 65 this year and reportedly account for half of consumer spending in North America, don’t want to be reminded that they are getting older. That’s why subtlety is a premium skill among those who flog everything from bathroom hardware to adult diapers.

Companies are “overhauling product lines, changing their marketing and redesigning store layouts,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

Among the tactics: larger typefaces in marketing materials; lower shelves and better association engagement and MEDA Europe teams.

Burkey is a long-time supporter of MEDA and has served on the MEDA board since 2005 where he is currently on both the nominating

Sid Burkey

Marketing to Baby Boomers: nuances for the later innings

lighting in stores; carpet on aisles to reduce slippage. Packages are changing for better grip: indented sides on canisters, more grooves on lids and handles on paper coffee cups.

Language is being adjusted. A bathroom grab bar? How about a “Belay” shower handrail, suggesting the vigor of rock-climbing. Medical alert systems? “Companion services.”

The biggest revolution, however, may be the marketing of incontinence diapers, whose market is expected to rise 20 percent with the Baby Boomer bulge. The actors in commercials are getting younger, and the product itself will be available in trendy prints and packaged to look like regular underwear in the shopping cart.

“Past generations were more accepting that they had a condition, and this was the product that they have to wear,” says the brand director of a leading adult diaper firm. “The boomers don’t have that attitude. They demand and expect more.” ◆ committee and MEDA executive committee. He is also a member of the Sarona Asset Management board and the Sarona Frontier Markets Fund board. He has founded, co-owned and led three businesses. He was founder, president and chair of Danbred North America, an international genetics company, until its sale in 2004. He is currently part-owner and president of Burkey Farms, Inc., a family-owned diversified agribusiness, and was engaged as part-owner and vice-president of Digitec, Inc., a full spectrum design and manufacturing business that provides wireless and web-based monitoring and controlling technologies, until its sale in 2010.

“We are delighted that Sid is joining our executive leadership team,” says MEDA president Allan Sauder. “Sid brings a wealth of business and leadership experience, a significant depth of understanding of MEDA and our constituency and a demonstrated heart for our work.”

Burkey is based in Dorchester, Nebraska, and will fill this role on a half-time basis until the end of June 2013. ◆