BY GABRIELLE
WhiteWater’s president & CEO, Geoff Chutter, has been awarded with both the Business to Business category and the overall Pacific Regional winner, in Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year 2019 Awards in the Pacific NorthWest.
The awards are among the most prestigious business recognition program in the world, designed to recognise business leaders excelling in innovation, showing a personal commitment to their business and communities, and more.
Geoff Chutter founded WhiteWater as a waterslide park in 1980 in Penticton, BC. The resort was one of North America’s first waterparks.
Chutter quickly went on to use his knowledge in the waterpark industry to create a company which designed and built waterslides and other water attractions. Henceforth WhiteWater was born.
Over the next four decades, WhiteWater evolved into an international business, with offices in Dubai, Shanghai and Barcelona, designing and manufacturing slides, wave machines, rides, play structures, and more.
During the awards ceremony, Chutter thanked those who had helped him get to where he is today, stating: “Thank you to my grandfather for exposing me to entrepreneurship my parents for introducing me to globalisation, and my colleagues for finding the right people. What we do is make families happy, and that makes us happy.
“I realised that being an expert in life was knowing just a little bit more than the fellow beside you. It all comes down to the people. To my colleagues at WhiteWater and the clients who have believed in us and supported us throughout the years, I say a tremendous thank you,” Chutter said.
Lui Petrollini, director of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Pacific Program, acknowledged how the judges admired Chutter’s positive approach to challenges and his unwavering perseverance and entrepreneurial spirit.
“When an economic downturn comes knocking, consumer discretionary spending is typically the first to go. But Geoff didn’t let this stop him in the early 2000s. Instead, he turned it into an opportunity and has made WhiteWater a force to be reckoned with ever since,” Petrollini said.