You have to attend an Ivy-league school to make it big in business, right? Randy Pilon is having none of that. This Sheridan marketing grad leveraged his education — and gumption — to build a multimillion dollar company from scratch.
“It always bothered me that people with college degrees were considered second-class citizens,” Randy Pilon recently told the Globe and Mail.
Clearly, he didn’t buy into the stereotype, and has spent his working career proving its irrelevance. After graduating from Sheridan’s Faculty of Business in Marketing, he rapidly ascended Bausch & Lomb Canada’s corporate ladder, eventually becoming vice president of operations. In 1998, he made his bold move, launching his own company that focused on developing newer, better disinfecting agents in the war against microbes for healthcare and other applications. That brainchild became Virox Technologies Inc., now a leader in the field and winner of the prestigious Canadian American Business Council Award for Business Excellence.
Despite earning his MBA and taking Executive Education programs since his Sheridan days, Randy maintains a soft spot for the school. Today, he is one of Sheridan’s greatest backers in terms of time, expertise and money.
Among many contributions to Sheridan, Randy serves on Sheridan’s Board of Governors. He donated $500,000 to the school, part of which helped build a new facility for the Faculty of Business (the fabulous and new Hazel McCallion campus in Mississauga).
And he gave $200,000, plus his expertise and enthusiasm, to launch the Virox Future Forum at Sheridan. Now in its fifth year, this roundtable of experts ― Randy included ― gives graduating business students a look into emerging trends in the work world and advice on pitching business ideas. Three $1,000 scholarships, supported by Randy and Virox Technologies Inc., are drawn and awarded to student entrepreneurs in attendance.
Randy is more than one of the leaders in Sheridan’s goal to reinvigorate undergraduate education in Canada. He is living proof that a Sheridan education can take you wherever you want to go.
