The World Economic Forum released its 2016 Young Global Leaders list on March 15 and Vancouver-based Roy Hessel, who is CEO of Clearly, is one of the 121 honourees.
The list is meant to highlight influential people younger than 40 years old who are enterprising, socially minded and push boundaries to change the world.
Hessel told Business in Vancouver that he believes he was recognized for his work improving vision around the world.
“The cause that is really important for me is in vision care and bridging the gap between those who have access to vision care and those who need it and do not,” the 36-year-old said. “We’re solving through our omni-channel experience: our retail stores in Canada and multiple websites worldwide.”
Hessel is the only Vancouverite on the list and one of only three Canadians. The others are Onechild Network and Support Inc. founder Cheryl Perera, from Markham, Ontario, and Calgary Nose Hill MP Michelle Rempel, who is the youngest woman female cabinet minister in Canadian history given that she was 33 years old when former Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed her in 2013.
“This is really an opportunity, and responsibility, by joining a community of 120 young global leaders, to engage more proactively in addressing global causes,” Hessel said.
Perhaps the best known person on the list is American actor and investor Ashton Kutcher, who founded Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children, which is an innovation lab to address the sexual exploitation of children and the proliferation of child pornography.
Hessel arrived in Vancouver in 2014, after French optical giant Essilor spent $430 million to buy what was then Vancouver-based Coastal Contacts Inc. (Nasdaq:COA) – a venture that included the brands Clearly in Canada, Coastal.com in the U.S. and Lensway in Europe.
Essilor already owned the global brands EyeBuyDirect and FramesDirect.
Hessel runs all of those brands, which combine to employ about 900 people worldwide, out of his East Vancouver office in the Broadway Tech Park.
His recent focus has been on improving Clearly’s website, which he said has changed recently both to be more attractive artistically and to give customers more information.
He has been less keen to expand his company’s number of storefronts. There are two Clearly stores in Vancouver and one in Toronto.
Hessel said he has no plans for any more because he does not see tangible sales growth stemming from opening them.
Here is BIV's profile of Roy Hessel .
