2023

Martie Kruger, Immigration Consultant, Martie Kruger Immigration Canada

Martie Kruger is a Canadian Citizen who emigrated from South Africa in 2008.  Martie and her family are now happily settled in Brandon, Manitoba, and while a part of her heart is in South Africa, the place of her birth, she has created a fabulous life for her and her family in her new home.  As Martie will proudly tell you, she is “Canadian….made in South Africa!”. Never content with a dull moment, Martie completed her real estate course in Canada , and became licensed as a Realtor.  She also completed her immigration law course and became a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant in 2015.  She profoundly felt the need for people considering Canadian immigration to have a helping hand from someone who had personally experienced the immigration process.  She has served as Chairperson of the Board of Directors for Westman Immigrant Services (WIS), a not-for-profit organization that helps new Canadian immigrants settle and adapt to their new country and  as Chair of The Board of Directors for the YWCA. The result of her personal experience as an immigrant, and her extensive work with refugees and immigrants at WIS, has enabled her to offer understanding consulting services to people and their families who emigrated to and have and settled in Canada.  Assisting people in achieving their dream of living and working in Canada is Martie’s passion.  Martie and her husband Pieter are frequent hosts to new immigrants to Canada, offering a friendly place to share a meal and work through the challenges of living and working in a new country. Martie has assited many employers in Canada, to employ South Africans, some as temporay foreign workers and other as permanent residents.

Anita Warriner, Executive Director, International Rural Exchange Canada @irecanada.ca

Anita Warriner has been a host for the non-profit International Rural Exchange since 2003 and has served as Executive Director since 2010.  Anita and her husband Foster have recently retired from farming, and part of the bounty of the last harvest was recognizing the contributions of the many trainees that worked on our farm over the years.  The skills and energy brought to our farm were invaluable, and the relationships formed will last a lifetime.

Prairie Fava, Hailey Jefferies, Glenboro, MB @prairiefava 

Hailey Jefferies is President and Co-founder of Prairie Fava. Cale and Hailey Jefferies established Prairie Fava to act the link between fava bean growers and food processing and manufacturing companies as well as the consumer.  As the “fava bean company”, the company is committed to value-added development of fava from “ fava to fork”.  Under her leadership, Prairie Fava continues to be recognized as an up-and-coming agri-food processor and was awarded the “Start-up of the Year” in October 2019 by the Manitoba Chamber of Commerce. Hailey has been instrumental in securing sales of whole fava, fava splits and fava flour from food manufacturers and processors in North America, Japan and Korea. She led Prairie Fava’s contribution to the development of a successful application of over 19 million in matching funding to Protein Industries Canada in collaboration with Roquette Canada.  From 2017 -2020 Hailey sat on the board of Manitoba Pulse Growers and Pulse Canada.  Hailey is a voting member on the Prairie Grain Development Pulse and Specialty Crops Committee which is responsible for evaluation of pulse and special crop candidate cultivars for registration in Western Canada. She also holds a position on the quality subcommittee for Prairie Grain Development Pulse and Specialty Crops. She has Bachelors of Applied Business (George Brown College, Ontario) and has worked as a medical device sales representative.