London Inc. Weekly

Written by Kieran Delamont, Associate Editor, London Inc.

Wayne Dunn recipient of inaugural Order of London award

Philanthropist Wayne Dunn is the first person to be named to the new Order of London, an honour created to celebrate the city’s bicentennial this year. The award was presented on Canada Day, with Dunn being honoured for his immense and multi-disciplinary output in terms of philanthropic activity. “It’s really hard for me to wrap my head around all the various causes and organizations that Wayne has so generously helped,” said former London Chamber of Commerce CEO Gerry Macartney. “Twenty-seven years leading the Business Cares Food Drive, raising millions of dollars and more food than Loblaws sells in a year, [and] the founder of the Sunshine Foundation Golf Classic, culminating in a $1.3 million County Heritage Stephenson Hunt Endowment for Children with severe disabilities.” The list goes on: Dunn also founded the Dunn with Cancer Run following the passing of his daughter, and has served on a numerous boards, including the Saint Joseph’s Foundation Board and Junior Achievement, and is a laureate in the London Business Hall of Fame (Dunn is the former co-owner of Crane Dunn Holdings Inc. and co-owner of County Heritage Forest Products Ltd.). “The guy just never stops,” Macartney told CTV News London. The mayor, who was on hand to present Dunn with the honour, added “[Wayne has] contributed to the city in so many different ways, whether it’s leadership in business, or philanthropy, even in the face of tragedy.”

The upshot: Whatever you think about the city needing an Order of London — we already have an annual Mayor’s Honour List, after all — it’s impossible to argue the selection of Dunn for the inaugural award, and a heartwarming choice on Canada Day. Glen Pearson also praised Dunn’s work, particularly with the annual Business Cares Food Drive. “It’s just something about the characteristics of that man. I think he’s put his fingerprints on what the needs are in London, and he’s put his identity on how he believes it should be met, and the two came together,” Pearson said. As for Dunn, he accepted the award with his trademark humility: “I’m so honoured. There’s no question about it. I’m thankful, but I’m so surprised,” he said, adding, “I’ve had an army of people. It’s all of the people around me that have really got me to where I am right now.” 

Read more: CTV News London

London joins federal Housing Design Catalogue program

London has joined a federal housing program that will offer potential homebuyers a catalogue of pre-approved designs with the aim of speeding up permitting and construction. The Housing Design Catalogue program, an initiative of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), allows builders to select from a range of 50 pre-approved housing designs, with the idea that city hall will have pre-approved many aspects of each home, thus speeding up the paperwork required to build. “One of the things we’ve heard from builders many times is: ‘We build the same thing over and over again in different cities, so why do we have to go through the full process in each and every city?’” said Mayor Josh Morgan at a news conference. “It’s a benefit for city staff, developers and it’s also a benefit for people who want to move into a home and are waiting for that supply to come on the market in an affordable way.” Local MP Peter Fragiskatos, on hand to promote the city’s participation in the program, added, “Instead of focusing on lengthy reviews, what we focus on is a builder taking a look at a particular design that makes sense for the community or particular neighbourhood, and going ahead and building.”

The upshot: A lot of thoughtful work has been put into this housing catalogue, particularly on the design front; one of the implicit hopes tied up in this idea, given that many of the designs are duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes, is that these designs can make it easier to add what the CMHC calls “gentle density” without sparking neighbourhood pushback. Whether builders will take up the torch on this program and use the designs to spur more volume of construction will be another matter. From an architectural standpoint, home designers who worked on the catalogue are optimistic that the plans will be easy to sell to the public. “This is a cheap and mass-produced solution, and compared to other cheap and mass-produced solutions, whether they be condos or suburban subdivisions, they look fine to my untrained eye,” said housing researcher Carolyn Whitzman, speaking to Canadian Architect magazine. Whitzman cautioned, however, that this is more of an ancillary piece to the affordability puzzle, aimed more at pushing supply towards middle-class homebuyers than adding affordable housing. Architect Janna Levitt told Canadian Architect that “these are architecturally designed houses for a group of people across the country who will have never lived in an architecturally designed house.” 

Read more: London Free Press

Country Paws opens $10M DogPlex

Country Paws has opened the sprawling new $10-million Country Paws DogPlex in the southeast end of the city — the first step on their path to running a “doggie empire,” the owners say. The facility is an upgrade on Country Paws’ prior facility on Wilton Grove Road, which the company — owned by Skylar, Jaymie and Michelle Crook — sold about five years ago. The new facility is substantially larger and more elaborate, and include an open concept “canine lounge,” a 15-acre off-leash space and 4,000 square feet of swimmable water features, according to plans posted to Country Paws’ website. “A doggie empire is my dream,” Michelle Crook told The London Free Press. “We’ve been doing this for 20 years and our world is all about dogs. We’re passionate about dogs.” Jaymie Crook added that the bigger space — the old site was around 6,000 square feet, while the new one is 20,000 square feet — will help them be able to accommodate the kind of high demand they see for pet boarding (particularly around holidays). “The demand for dog care is ridiculous,” he told the Free Press.

The upshot: It’s not often that doggie daycare and other related pet business stories see capital figures quite like this one — $10 million for the new facility is a substantial outlay, after all. The Crook family have made a few smart business decisions over the years, though, so talk of a “doggie empire” might not be much of an exaggeration. The family sold their old site to a developer in 2021 (likely for a pretty penny), which they used to open a factory for their dog treat business, Bosco and Roxy’s, which they then sold to an American buyer in 2025. According to the Free Press, the family bought the Bradley Avenue land that the new site stands on around 12 years ago. “We had a decision to make: rebuild or shut it down,” Jaymie Crook said. “We looked at other properties, but there was nothing better.”

Read more: Country Paws | London Free Press

LBMX announces key executive appointments

London-based tech company LBMX Inc. announced two new names to its executive leadership roster this week. The company announced it had named Lauren Snyder, who was previously with TrueCommerce, as chief customer officer, and Echo Bell, who has a long résumé from the tech industry including senior roles at Enable and Assent, as chief product officer. “Lauren and Echo bring proven leadership, deep expertise, innovative creativity and a passion for helping customers succeed,” said Craig Carpenter, LBMX’s new-ish CEO (he took over in early 2026). “Their additions strengthen our ability to deliver an even more connected, responsive, and impactful experience for the buying group community.”

The upshot: LBMX, the world’s most comprehensive buying group automation and intelligence platform, finalized a major platform expansion with LMC (the largest forest products and building materials cooperative in the United States) in 2024, and these two hires — both coming with significant tech sector pedigrees — give the appearance of a company looking to continue to grow aggressively, even at a time when many SaaS companies have wobbled a bit (or their share prices, at least) under threat of expanding AI use. Notably though, both these new hires come from AI companies, so it looks like LBMX is hoping to shore up its platform in that area. “Lauren and Echo each bring unique strengths, but they share a common focus on delivering value for customers,” said Carpenter. “As we continue to grow, their leadership will help ensure we remain deeply connected to the needs of our customers while continuing to innovate in partnership with them.”

Read more: Canadian Press

Aduro Clean and AstroTurf sign MOU for synthetic turf recycling

Clean tech firm Aduro Clean Technologies has signed a memorandum of understanding to look at the possibility of recycling AstroTurf. According to a press release, the MOU between Aduro and the AstroTurf Corporation establishes a framework for Aduro and AstroTurf to evaluate how Aduro’s patented Hydrochemolytic Technology can support a technical and economic pathway for recovering the plastics that make up the turf. “This collaboration with AstroTurf allows Aduro to work directly with a recognized name in synthetic turf to better understand the full end-of-life challenge,” said Ofer Vicus, CEO of Aduro. “Working with AstroTurf gives us an opportunity to connect our chemistry with real-world product knowledge, field recovery considerations and the practical requirements needed to evaluate a more complete recycling pathway.” Beyond the two companies agreeing to work with one another on turf recycling, nothing is signed or established yet.

The upshot: Recycling AstroTurf and the various other types of synthetic turf is hard. Like, hard, hard. “Where do the millions of square feet of synthetic turf go to die?” asked a 2019 article in The Atlantic about the pileup of turf waste. “The answer: The same place scrap tires went before — to landfills, rural and urban stockpiles, ravines, deserts, woods and empty lots.” It notes that as the first generation of synthetic turfs (themselves meant to be a recycled product made from tire waste) have reached the end of their lifespan, disposing of them hasn’t been easy. “Working with Aduro gives us an opportunity to evaluate another pathway for difficult-to-process turf materials and to better understand how advanced recycling technologies may support circularity in our industry,” said Robert Mitchell, vice president of development and strategy at AstroTurf. “This is an evaluation stage, but it is an important one as customers, communities and regulators continue to look for more complete solutions for synthetic turf systems.”

Read more: Canadian Manufacturing

Dispatch: July 3, 2026

A summary of recent business appointments and announcements, plus event listings for the upcoming week.

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