After two decades of working and playing on the Peninsula, Michael Levy is moving on.
The South Surrey home where he has watched his children grow up, business develop and career expand is being packed up this week as he prepares to relocate to Vancouver.
“I’ve really quite enjoyed my time out here but it’s time for a change,” Levy – a well-known financial analyst and radio personality – told Peace Arch News Wednesday. “This is not a community for an active single parent with no kids at home.”
But the father of six adult children hasn’t cut all of his ties to the community – he still owns half of White Rock’s Border Gold, which he started with his late wife, Carol, more than 15 years ago.
The corporation is a product of Levy’s business savvy, which he began developing after joining his father’s Vancouver coin business in the early ’60s at the age of 21. Levy bought his father out eight years later, expanding the store to include stamps and collectibles.
With knowledge gained by venturing into the gold-bullion and brokerage businesses, Levy opened a collectibles and currency exchange with Carol in the early ’90s in South Surrey, where they had moved to raise their family.
“We moved out here because we didn’t want the Vancouver lifestyle. We wanted to bring up our children in more of a calm atmosphere.”
The store was successful, he said, leading to the opening of two more branches in Surrey and Abbotsford.
“We were known for the most competitive rates, best services. We had people lining up to buy currency.”
The currency exchange kept “under the radar” for quite a few years, he said, before catching the attention of larger corporations, and being fully bought out seven years ago.
Levy continued to run Border Gold out of the same location, just recently moving it across the street to 15234 North Bluff Rd. after selling half the business to Vancouver Bullion and Currency Exchange.
He said the business has grown to be the largest direct distributor of gold Maple Leaf coins for the Royal Canadian Mint in Canada, and the third largest in the world.
Levy’s experience in the industry has led to work in the media, and he provides financial and business analysis for various radio shows and TV newscasts. He said one of his strengths is “being able to explain the complicated in plain English” – a skill he finds useful when doing presentations across the country about 12 times a year.
But Levy isn’t all about business, especially when it comes to being a part of the White Rock/South Surrey community. He has volunteered with a number of organizations, including the chamber of commerce, South Surrey community policing, Peace Arch Hospital’s foundation, Child Development Foundation of B.C. and the Surrey mayor’s economic advisory committee.
He and Carol were also founding parents of Southridge School, and their children played an array of sports in the area.
“When you take from a community, you must give back,” he said. “You can’t expect to do business and not give anything back.
“This community gave us so much as a family.”
And the family will always be giving back in the way of an ongoing Southridge School bursary made in honour of Carol, who died suddenly in 2007 from a brain tumour.
“We leave that as a real legacy for her,” Levy said, noting she “worked endlessly” for the school – and her family. “She was the pinnacle of family. So if there’s success to be attributed to the children… it was her dedication to family and our dedication as a family to our kids.”
Now that all his children have left home, Levy is following suit. He will be moving to a house near UBC that has room for his kids during their summer break from university.
He said he is looking forward to returning to the city he grew up in, where he has a whole other history.
“I’m somewhat saddened to leave here, but excited,” he said. “I’ve got almost a new life out there.”