2020 Markham
Kim Campbell, MKMARIN Trade Services Inc founder and president, inspires others with her diversity of life and work experience. She was born and raised in Scarborough and moved to Markham in 2004. Kim is a graduate of the University of Toronto and started her career as a Customs Officer at Pearson International Airport.
Her company, MKMARIN, is a niche trade services company that offers tailored brokerage solutions to large organizations in North America. Among other industry and community acknowledgements, MKMARIN won the 2015 Trade Compliance Innovation CATIE Award. This recognition, created by the Canadian Association of Importers and Exporters, is given to Canadian companies and individuals who have demonstrated international excellence and made a difference in trade and compliance.
Kim feels that we are all connected to one another. At the same time, she believes that not everyone has the same opportunities, and paraphrases a quote she loves, suggesting there are two lotteries one can win in life—your family and the country you are born in—and considers herself very blessed to have both.
Kim’s had the privilege and gift of travel most of her life; with this though, comes the painful awareness that some people don’t even have the necessities of life. This makes their journey that much more challenging, and if Kim can provide her support, she’s more than happy to do so. Most of her financial giving is based on the basics, imparting that if people did not have to worry about food, water, and shelter, they could focus on education, mental health, and work.
As a young girl, she started as a Candy Striper at the local hospital gift shop and, believe it or not, emergency check-in on Tuesday nights. Helping those in need and being the first point of contact for many visiting the ER, Kim learned so much, notably that communities truly need to have volunteers where funding is not available.
Kim recalls a very memorable humanitarian experience, visiting a little school in Serengeti, Kenya. In the grade 1 class, there were the same number of boys and girls; however, as the children got older, the number of girls remaining in school diminished greatly, as their families couldn’t afford to educate all of their children. Kim now sponsors many of the children there, to help them stay in school, knowing that education especially for young girls is the only way to change the cycle of poverty and lack of opportunity.
Kim’s charitable work at home, including with 100 Women Who Care Markham, and abroad, has led to many wonderful friends around the world, giving her tremendous appreciation for all generations and cultures who are continuing to make meaningful contributions throughout their lifetime.