INNOVATION November-December 2015

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Dr. Michael Wrinch, P.Eng., FEC The Professions Make the World a Safer, Better Place

Monique Keiran

Photo: Wendy D Photography

W hen APEGBC’s President for 2015/2016 was seven years old, his mother made a deal with a local TV repair shop to drop off unfixable TVs for him to take apart. It was a dream come true, and at that moment, Michael Wrinch—not yet P.Eng., FEC—knew he wanted to be a TV repair man. A decade later, however, his career choice was not well received by his parents. “It was suggested that I consider engineering, where I could design the TVs,” Wrinch says. “I protested the idea of going to university, so my mother got me my first, real job. For the summer, I worked at the local fish

factory, where I cleaned the chimneys and delivered fish guts to the fish fertilizer-processing company. After two summers, I retired from the factory and promptly applied to go to university.” In the middle of his engineering degrees, obtained from Memorial University of Newfoundland and the University of British Columbia, he took a year off to travel. “I spent time volunteering for Mother Theresa in Kolkata, India, and came to realize how lucky we Canadians are. We don’t worry about food, water or our health… in fact, we don’t have to worry about much at all. I saw things that are unimaginably sad, but I also

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