A look into the hard work and dedication behind The 2026 Franchisee of the Year award winners
By Mei Linh Cheng and Alyssa Thulmann
Gold – Traditional Franchise
The Enright Family, Boston Pizza
The Enright family’s professional relationship with Boston Pizza goes back nearly 40 years. In their search for restaurant franchise opportunities, Richard and Kim Enright visited Boston Pizza at the 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication in Vancouver, B.C., a world’s fair also known as Expo 86.
The Enrights were so impressed by Boston Pizza’s operation and the people involved that they “thought that it would be a good place for us to set up roots for five or 10 years,” shares Richard. The owners of the franchise at the time, Jim Treliving and George Melville, “were so enthusiastic,” says Richard. “They knew they had a winning concept, and I wanted my family to be part of that success.” Since then, the family business has continued to grow.
In Abbotsford, B.C., the Enrights opened their first Boston Pizza franchise. For 10 years that location saw a great run with the Enright family, who were eventually involved in the ownership of approximately four other units with various partners. “Things were going along really well,” says Richard. But a call to adventure was on the horizon, offering to shake things up.
Boston Pizza wasn’t seeing much growth in the province of Manitoba at that time, but the Enrights saw the potential and thought that it would be a good opportunity for their business. Jumping in with both feet, they moved to Manitoba, joining the existing marketplace in Winnipeg and propelling the brand to significant growth in the region.
Today the Enright Group owns 15 Boston Pizza franchises across Manitoba, and the family-run team has grown to include Richard and Kim’s children: their son Jonathan Enright and their daughter Karley David. “As a franchisee, well, as a dad, my proudest accomplishment is that my two children have joined my wife and I, and they are excelling at what we do,” Richard says.
In sharing his proudest moments as a Boston Pizza franchisee, Richard continuously goes back to the connections he has with the system, his team, his staff, and his community. “We just had a long-term 23-year employee retire yesterday, and to be able to celebrate moments like that and go back and recall all of the great times that we had together … ” says Richard, “you gotta have fun.”
Their success has also allowed them to give back to their communities. Over the years, the Enright Group has raised well over $1 million for various local charities, including the Children’s Hospital of Manitoba, CancerCare Manitoba, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Manitoba, among many others. They have also supported many local youth sports programs and community groups.
For the Enright family, winning the CFA’s 2026 Franchisee of the Year award was unexpected, but they’re brimming with pride not just for themselves, but for their entire team and the Boston Pizza brand as a whole.
For the Enright family, “the best part about it is that the fabulous people in our head office, our general managers and the great management teams at each store, and all the dedicated people that work for us, they feel marvellous about it as well. So they can feel proud about the place they’re working and they see that what we’re doing must be right, because we’re getting recognized.”
“I believe that becoming a franchisee is the best way to get involved in a business,” he adds, noting that the support from the franchisor and the nuances of the franchise business model are key drivers of success in the industry. Not only do franchisees gain access to fully developed systems, products, and processes, but they’re also “able to lean on this much larger community” of other franchisees who share similar experiences and advice.
“You know, we’re all in this to succeed and the franchise helps you to succeed much better, and we’ve exceeded our expectations. Through that, we’ve been able to help so many other people,” says Richard. He thinks about those who’ve been employed by their many locations over the years—the kids they’ve helped through their high school and university careers, the moms who’ve earned enough money to buy the new appliances they need, the older employees who’ve picked up shifts to supplement their income, “and doing it all in a fun way where they can enjoy themselves and camaraderie and fellowship.”
After nearly four decades with Boston Pizza, the Enright family continues forward, bigger and stronger than ever.
Gold – Non-Traditional Franchise
Carmen Siciliano, Paul Davis Restoration
When Carmen Siciliano learned he was a finalist for Franchisee of the Year, he had a “great feeling … but you never know.” Ironically, when he heard his named announced as the Gold Winner (Non-Traditional), he was nervous, and recalls his wife being “scared I was going to break down, but I managed to go through it.” As he walked up on the stage to receive his award at the CFA National Convention in Ottawa, Siciliano recalls feeling like he was at the Oscars. “I wanted to make sure I kept that envelope,” he adds.
Siciliano’s franchising journey began unexpectedly when he bumped into a Canadian franchisor, Bill Robinson, now president of Paul Davis Restoration, in a mall. Before this, Siciliano hadn’t known franchising in this industry existed. After a few minutes of talking, Robinson offered Siciliano an opportunity to open his own Paul Davis Restoration location, believing he would be a good fit for the business. Likewise, Siciliano recognized this as an opportunity to “own a business and move forward.”
However, the year was 1999, and the Y2K scare was looming. “Nobody wanted to open a business thinking all the computer systems would be blowing up on January 1, 2000,” Siciliano recalls with a chuckle. Twenty-six years later, it’s now clear that the Y2K scare was just that: a scare. But back then, just to be safe, Siciliano opened his first location in February of 2000.
Over the next twenty-six years, Siciliano built up his experience and eventually purchased three more Paul Davis locations. He’s clearly passionate, not just about business ownership, but the service he is able to provide. “We help a lot of people in their worst time,” Siciliano says. “[When] they don’t know what to do, we get the call, and we sort of put a plan together how we’re going to help them … I didn’t understand that at the beginning, but now after 26 years, you know, that’s what keeps you going.”
For Siciliano, one of the hardest things about running a restoration business is finding the right people, because the business model “is 24/7, 365.” He explains that quick response times are important when people are struggling. “[When] you know help is going to be there in 30 minutes, it provides a sense of relief knowing you’re not alone.”
For Siciliano, the most rewarding and most challenging elements of franchising are two sides of the same coin. He shares that the best part is working with those right people that are committed to helping others. “[N]ext thing you know, they’re one of your vice presidents and they’re now training other people,” Siciliano says with joy. Seeing people he works with move into leadership positions is “always a big thrill.” When asked if he would consider them friends, Siciliano immediately nods: “friendship is the right word.”
To those who are interested in franchising, Siciliano advises, “you have to pick a franchise group that aligns with your own personal characteristics and value systems.” He also advises potential franchisees to maintain a good working relationship with their franchisor. While disagreements may happen, he stresses that for “the type of person that enjoys conflict and wants conflict, [franchising] in general is not where you want to be.”
Silver – Traditional Franchise
Lorelei Burgess, Oxford Learning Centres
The day Lorelai Burgess heard she’d won the Franchisee of the Year Award she was in Mexico, attending the annual Oxford Learning conference. Burgess recalls, “I got a phone call later that night to let me know that I had won silver, and I was very excited.” When asked how she felt receiving the call, Burgess says she was humbled: “It’s certainly an honour to be considered among the other finalists.” Coincidentally, it also happened to be both Burgess’s birthday and the reopening date of an Oxford Learning location that had suffered extensive smoke damage from a nearby fire a few weeks prior, making for a big day.
Burgess describes her journey with the brand as “a bit of a unique story.” It started in 1999 when her parents had just purchased an Oxford Learning franchise. “[My parents] had lost their director, and I said, ‘Oh, I can fill in. And I can help you out until you find somebody,’ really having no intention of staying. And that was 26 years ago.”
Three decades ago, Halifax-based Burgess never imagined becoming a franchisee. She says, “I did not envision this for myself when I first started, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Burgess studied business in university and aspired to attend law school, but eventually she realized she had a talent for managing the business. Since helping her family, she has grown as a franchisee by opening another location and assuming a position on the brand’s Franchisee Advisory Committee.
Throughout the years, Burgess has actively given back to the community by helping children become more confident in school, and as a result, at home and with their friends. Burgess explains, “when that one child is lacking confidence and unhappy, that bleeds over to a family or spills into a classroom … what we do has an impact that has this ripple effect that affects communities.” She adds that ensuring children feel good about themselves can help them stay out of trouble.
Oxford Learning is a community focused not just on helping children, but others within the franchise network as well. “[Being] a business owner can feel quite isolating,” Burgess shares. It’s probably why in the 26 years that she’s been with Oxford Learning, she says the best part of franchising is “the people, to be honest. I mean, it’s the network, the collaboration, it’s the other franchisees that you meet and have the opportunity to work with and to bounce ideas off of.”
When the pandemic hit, Burgess immediately acted and began online classes before most educational centers. Burgess says her biggest success is remaining open when the world shut down. She says “I didn’t lay anybody off… I had a lot of conversations in those early days about ways that we can do this and why we have to do this for our students. We had to be there, so we really looked at changing things up.”
Another challenge for Burgess came when a unit two doors down from her Bedford, Nova Scotia location experienced a fire, causing smoke damage and rendering the centre and some of its contents unusable. “That was probably one of the most challenging times that I’ve experienced because at that time, we didn’t know if anything was recoverable,” she says. But the next steps after disaster are always the most important; Burgess allowed herself “a good cry,” then put her head down and said, “I’m not going to sit around and feel sorry for myself. I just got up and got moving, and we ended up finding a temporary location within the week.”
Her resilience has paid off, as that late-night phone call proved. As a top-performing franchisee in the system, she’s received the President’s Award, Sapphire Award, and membership in Oxford’s exclusive Blue and Gold Club for top five system-wide performers. Now, she can add another award to her mantle: Franchisee of the Year.
Silver – Non-Traditional Franchise
Juan Arboleda and Paola Montoya, JDI Cleaning Services
In 2001, Juan Arboleda and Paola Montoya moved to Canada from Colombia with their two children. They first became acquainted with JDI Cleaning Services when they were looking for part time jobs and met with a local franchisee about a job opportunity. While working for the brand as cleaners, Juan, who was an accountant in Colombia, did some research on the company. As he took a look at the numbers, Juan liked what he saw. It wasn’t long before he and Paola were speaking with the franchisor and investing in a unit of their own.
In 2006, the pair bought their first local JDI franchise in the Mississauga/Oakville region; by 2008, they’d invested in their second Milton/Brampton location and welcomed their third child. From this point on, they continued to grow their business and their relationship with the brand.
In 2015 they were offered an opportunity to purchase the Regional Franchise (a model similar to an Area Developer) for the Milton/Brampton region, a new challenge that would involve selling local franchises. They considered the offer before ultimately deciding to go for it: “We love what we do. We love the company. We love the franchise model, let’s do it,” Juan says, explaining their thought process.
After five years of continued success, Juan and Paola purchased the Mississauga/Oakville Regional Franchise, making them the regional directors responsible for two areas. Now they continue in that role, selling franchises, training franchisees, and becoming an integral presence in the JDI system. Their son Simon and his fiancée Katarina have even joined the team, signifying the strength of their family business, which has grown to 12 local franchises in Milton/Brampton and 14 in Mississauga/Oakville.
“Every year is better than the year before,” shares Juan. “When we just closed our fiscal year on April 30, that was amazing … the best year for us in all [our] history with JDI in terms of sales.”
They also won Franchisee of the Year, Silver, at the CFA’s annual Convention. “It’s a very nice feeling when you’re recognized for everything that you do for those many years,” shares Paola.
“The atmosphere for the whole night, that was amazing,” Juan adds, mentioning the awards gala where they first found out that they had won silver in the non-traditional franchise category.
For Juan and Paola, one of the best aspects of franchising is the support they receive from the brand, listing “the support [of] the head office, the financial department, the sales department, account receivables, the invoicing … Local franchisees can focus on the day-to-day service.”
As regional directors, the couple gives back to the system by supporting their own local franchisees. Some franchisees look for more guidance and reach out regularly while others check in less frequently—it all depends on the individual and their needs. “Every day is different,” says Juan, “and this is the part that I love about our work in our regional franchise, is [the] diversity.” Paola, who deals more in quality control, adds that she loves being in the field, speaking with customers, assisting franchisees, and problem solving any issues that come up.
As they grow their JDI regional franchises, Juan and Paola have found a balance between the brand’s established systems and their personal approach. Juan explains that “as a franchise company, we have some rules to follow. But at the end of the day, [Paola and I] have a very friendly style with our local franchisees. Like, they know that we are in the same team, they know that we are here to support them, to share our knowledge, and all these years of experience that we have.”
Bronze – Traditional Franchise
Elijah Mack-Stirling, Kekuli Café
When Elijah Mack-Stirling first got the email telling him he was a finalist for Franchisee of the Year, he thought to himself, “’What’s going on right now?’ … I called my franchisor because she was my nominator and I was like, thanks for this … and then I called my mom right away too. I was like, ‘Mom, you’ll never guessed what happened!’”
When Mack-Stirling first started his journey with Kekuli Café, a B.C.-based Indigenous cuisine franchise, in 2024, it was as an employee. “I had no idea what to expect walking into this job and for me, it was just like, ‘Oh, this is amazing,’” he recalls. In 2014, Sharon Bond-Hogg, CEO of Kekuli Café, who was working at the Westbank (West Kelowna) location, approached Mack-Stirling with an opportunity to become the brand’s first franchisee. He recalls being 21—”turning 22!”—when that opportunity was presented to him, and adds that he “can’t tell you what it feels like to be a 21-year-old being offered a restaurant.”
Mack-Stirling sat with the offer for a day before calling his mom for advice. He remembers saying, “I have no idea what I’m doing.” Immediately, she said, “Well, you’re going to do it. You’re going to do whatever you want anyways, and I’ll just support you.” It was then that Mack-Stirling realized becoming a franchisee was what he’d always wanted to do.
Now, he owns two locations in British Columbia, one in Merritt and the other a 45-minute drive away in Kamloops. His second franchise opened in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mack-Stirling says, “I started the paperwork and I kept rolling with the punches and everything was lining up for me.” By 2022, he was able to open the doors to his second location, which will be four years old this coming June.
Kekuli Café is the first Indigenous fast-casual café franchise in Canada, and with that comes challenges. Mack-Stirling shares that “nobody has done this for an Indigenous cuisine franchise, so it’s hard to follow the status quo of franchising, because there’s nothing like us.” He adds that he always feels it’s important that his business is “following culture and protocol, making sure we don’t lose sight of that, making sure we’re following industry standards, learning how to work with Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, [and] trying to bridge the gaps.”
Besides being the first franchisee in the system, Mack-Stirling admits that the most challenging part of opening his own Kekuli Café location was “understanding financial literacy.” As a young person new to the administrative side of running a business, there was a lot to learn about the financial aspects of franchising. On the other hand, one of his favourite things about being a franchisee is being able to work with other Indigenous people while still having a proven system and model. Mack-Stirling says that having that support from signing the papers to opening your doors is what makes franchising so much more beneficial than going it alone.
Believing in yourself is just as important as others believing in you. While it’s important to have a community to support you, Mack-Stirling adds that “you can have all the people in the world that believe in you, but if you don’t believe in yourself that you can do it, then you [have to] take a step back and appreciate those little moments.” So, for potential future franchisees, Mack-Stirling’s advice echoes his mother’s: “Just do it. It’s worth it … Jump in and do it.”
Bronze – Non-Traditional Franchise
Gary Prenevost, FranNet of Southern Ontario
Gary Prenevost’s journey into the franchising world began with plants. His family ran one of Toronto’s largest interior landscaping businesses, and Gary worked with one of their clients to sell them the plants they needed for a building they’d recently purchased. As he worked with the client, providing them with his services and getting to know them, he learned that this client happened to be a training franchise. Eventually, they recruited Gary to join their business in the role of franchise sales.
“After seven months of selling franchises, already crushing my numbers and my goals, I went to the founder and said, ‘What else you got for me?’ He says, ‘Nothing. Buy yourself a franchise.’ So I did,” shares Gary.
It was in 1992 that he bought his first franchise. He started with management training and sales training, and built that company up to 110 franchisees, taking over as franchisor with his partner in 1997. Then, in 2002, he divested of that business, and invested in a different franchise: FranNet.
He’d first come across FranNet as one of his lead sources when he was selling training franchises. “I saw too many people buying franchises prematurely, where they were buying their dream, without understanding enough about the work it takes to [find] success in the businesses they were buying. I saw FranNet as a way to really help people be better educated about their decisions, about making sure they got the right business, that it leveraged their skills and it aligned with their purpose and their passion, and that they could build the type of business that they want,” he says.
Gary knew he’d chosen the right system in FranNet before he was technically in it. “Before I bought it, I knew. I knew it was the transition from what I used to be doing to, instead of selling franchises, to guiding people through to make the right decision,” he says. “We have a very, very serious responsibility. We are playing with people’s lives. We are playing with their kids’ lives. If we are ‘selling franchises,’ I think, it’s the wrong way to approach it. The franchisors should be awarding franchises, it’s mutual evaluation. Both sides really understand what the optimum fit is, and that’s where there’s tremendous joy when it comes together.”
He also understood the importance of being actively involved in the franchising community, where he started working and volunteering with the Ontario Regional Advisory Council in 1994. He also served on the Canadian Franchise Association (CFA) Board of Directors from 2009 to 2025.
Throughout his career, Gary’s been incredibly involved in the franchising world, and is even a USA Today Top Ten Author for his book The Unstoppable Franchisee, published in 2023. “One of the things that drove me crazy—it still does—is why do some franchisees just absolutely do brilliance with the system and other franchisees in the same system struggle? And I saw that pattern across all industries, across all brands…” Gary explains. “And so that was the goal, was to write to find that invisible thread that connected success across all brands.”
FranNet provides its franchisees with significant support and networks to facilitate growth. Not only has Gary been involved with the brand’s franchisee advisory council, he says, but he’d attend meetings with other top performers in the system. “By leveraging the knowledge shared during the first top performer meetings that we had, I was able to literally double my business in under one year and the next year I increased it by 50 per cent again. I wouldn’t have been able to do that without my peers supporting and pushing me … The franchisor’s leadership team helped us create that environment.”
Looking to the future, Gary plans to continue his upward trajectory: “I have the coolest business in the world: I get to help my clients change their lives! On top of that, I love learning. I love growing. I can’t see myself slowing down … I love the intellectual engagement. When we stop learning, our brains start atrophying.”
