Monk Office, the only locally owned office supply company on Vancouver Island, will be the presenting sponsor of the 2025 Douglas magazine 10 to Watch Awards, it was announced Thursday.
The Victoria-based business, with nearly 75 years of service to the Island community, has been a steady supporter of the annual awards celebrating startup businesses less than three years old that show outstanding potential, but this is the first time it has assumed a lead role as presenting sponsor.
“Being presenting sponsor is, to me, a real honour,” says Monk Office’s owner, president and CEO Caitlin McKenzie. “I love this event and I can’t express enough just the energy that this particular group has. It’s really inspiring.”
Page One Publishing, which publishes Douglas, welcomes Monk Office as it steps up for a major role at this, the 16th year for the event.
“These awards would not be possible without the support of our sponsors, and we’re delighted to announce Monk Office and Caitlin McKenzie as presenting sponsor,” says Lise Gyorkos, president of Page One Publishing. “Monk Office has been a champion of the Douglas magazine 10 to Watch Awards for many years and we are inspired by their leadership”
“Being presenting sponsor is, to me, a real honour. I love this event and I can’t express enough just the energy that this particular group has. It’s really inspiring.”
Monk Office is deeply rooted in the Greater Victoria and, by extension, Island business community. Under a three-generation family of owners, the business has 90 employees working at six locations — four retail stores that range as far north as Courtenay as well as a commercial showroom plus main warehouse and distribution centre in Esquimalt. It provides commercial office product supplies as well as office furniture, sells and leases copiers and printers with a full service team, has its own delivery fleet, commercial-grade copy centres as well as branched out into the fine arts supplies and framing sector.
McKenzie, who became sole owner of the company last year, has long been involved in business, both within and beyond the family. Born and raised in Victoria, she attended St. Michaels University School and Camosun College, obtaining a degree in human resource management.Growing up, she also worked in the family business, but recalls her father James urging her to get professional experience outside of Monk Office. “One thing my dad instilled in me from the get-go was, should you ever want to run or own Monk Office, you have to leave the business and accomplish certain types of things,” McKenzie says. “An education, work experience in such a way that it provides you with credibility and awareness, that if you were to come back you are your own person and you can apply what you’ve learned to the company.”
McKenzie, 41, left Monk in her early 20s for about a decade to work mainly in sales with the Oak Bay Marine Group, where she was also co-manager of a boutique hotel in the Bahamas. She returned to Victoria, and Monk Office, in 2016 and two years later applied for, and was hired, as CEO.
“When I became CEO, in my employment contract, I needed to immediately purchase a minimum of 10 per cent of the business,” she says. “My dad fundamentally believes in having skin in the game.”
McKenzie, an active athlete throughout her life, has served on boards like the Think First Local society and the Canadian Association of Family Enterprise.
Now, with 10 to Watch, she says she’s excited to help a new generation of businesses take hold and serve the community.
“I’m extremely inspired by entrepreneurs, though I’m not one myself — I did not start something from scratch — and the Douglas 10 to Watch really represents that for me,” she says. “The other reason why I support it is because it’s all about business, and my [particular] business is in business purely to serve people.”
This year’s awards will be announced in a special 10 to Watch issue of Douglas magazine and celebrated at an exclusive event on April 2nd.
Established in 2006 by Page One Publishing Inc., Douglas is Vancouver Island’s premier business magazine and media brand. Douglas is essential reading for business leaders and entrepreneurs in Victoria and on Vancouver Island. The in-depth, local coverage of key people and issues affecting our region has earned a highly engaged and loyal readership.
