Canadian Filipino businesswoman Maria Santos-Greaves was among six honoured in this year's surrey Women in Business Awards.
Santos-Greaves, president and operations director of Surrey Hearing Care, won under the Entrepreneur category. Surrey Hearing Care provides hearing care services, including hearing evaluations and digital hearing aids, assistive listening devices, and counselling.
The Surrey Board of Trade hosted the 13thannual awards on May 13. Anita Huberman, president and CEO of the board said, “The Surrey Women in Business Awards recognizes women that are making Surrey such a dynamic and vibrant city.”
Of Santos-Greaves’s achievements, the board noted, “With over 25 years of experience and sheer determination, Maria built a clinic from the ground up. Initially only having one location with three staff, Surrey Hearing Care now has four locations with 15 diverse employees.”
Santos-Greaves started the hearing care centre in 2009. Having experienced hearing loss since her 20s, she made it her personal mission to help the hard of hearing. “I understand the severity of hearing impairment and how vital hearing is to be able to communicate with my loved ones and enjoy life to the fullest.”
A graduate of the Philippines’ Centro Escolar University, Santo-Greaves holds a diploma in Hearing Instrumentation at MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta, and from the International Hearing Society.
When Santos-Greaves immigrated to Canada from the Philippines, she started working in a dollar store, sold registered education savings plans and worked at a call centre. She then became an audiometric technician at Fraser Health, before venturing out on her own.
Santos-Greaves is also a member of the board of directors of the Multicultural Helping House Society, a non-profit organization that provides help to new immigrants in Canada as well as the Canadian Medical Mission Society.
The awardee is also the proud single mom to her only son Sebastian who is believed to be the youngest certified hearing specialist across Canada. Sebastian Santos-Greaves also works with his mother at the Surrey Hearing Care.
Other winners at the awards were Kathrin Matadeen (Professional), Rochelle Prasad (Emerging Leader), Florence Sufen Kao (Social Trailblazer), Vandna Joshi (Not-for-Profit), and Alexandra Haukaas (Corporate/Leadership).
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