Shahrzad Rafati was only 13 when she decided she would one day build a global business.
She also knew that she wouldn't be able to achieve her dream if she stayed in her native Iran.
So at the age of 17 her drive and confidence managed to persuade her parents to let her move by herself to Vancouver to go to university.
Shahrzad arrived in the city on Canada's Pacific coast in 1996 with just one suitcase, and only a limited grasp of English.
"I couldn't communicate what I wanted to say [when I arrived], and I think that was probably the biggest challenge," she says. "But I was determined to make a success out of my life."
