Teresa Cascioli, chair/CEO, Lakeport Brewing, Hamilton

In 1999, Teresa Cascioli took the reins at the Hamilton-based brewery and managed it out of bankruptcy protection. Today, Lakeport has taken on the big boys: it is the third-largest brewer in the province and continues to build on its profits, with gross revenues that rose 51% in its fourth quarter, to $32.6 million from $21.6 million a year earlier. The company’s success is due in part to its aggressive ’24 for $24′ pricing strategy, and has vaulted Cascioli, who once worked as the City of Hamilton’s manager of finance, into one of the top businesswomen in the country.

Recognition, of course, has followed. Her awards include nods by Profit and Chatelaine magazines as a top female entrepreneur. In 2004, Cascioli was named Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young LLP in the Turnaround Category and in 2005 the Canadian Professional Sales Association inducted her into the Sales Hall of Fame. Just in March, she was the keynote speaker at the HSBC Women of Influence Luncheon Series, hailed as a ‘maverick in the competitive environment of the Canadian beer industry.’