Lawrence Chew – Classification Speech
I realized two things when I sat down to write this: first, my last classification speech was 18 years ago — and wow, a lot has changed. Second, Rotary has had a much bigger impact on me than I’d ever really stopped to appreciate.
So, let’s start at the beginning. I was “born yesterday,” 46 years ago, in Vancouver. My dad was a real estate agent, my mom a nurse, and they still live in the house I grew up in. I went to Vancouver College, where two things happened that changed my life: I accidentally joined the school band (I raised my hand with no plan and ended up playing saxophone — a decision that shaped everything that followed), and I met my friend Fred Lee, who later introduced me to Rotary.
Music became a huge part of my life. By high school graduation, I was gigging every weekend, sneaking into clubs we were technically too young to play in, and competing in UBC’s Battle of the Bands (we came second!). My band, The Milk Chicks (not what you think — it’s a reference to a gang in A Clockwork Orange), recorded an album that’s still on Spotify, toured Canada in two vans with 12 guys, and generally lived the rock ’n’ roll dream — for three years, anyway.
Fast forward: music is still with me. In 2012, I joined my current band — the one I still play with today. We even have a Christmas show coming up on the Sunshine Coast.
Back to Fred Lee: he invited me to co-found the first community-based Interact club in the Lower Mainland, and for a high school kid, it was amazing — real meetings, real projects, and a group of friends I still see today. That led to Rotaract, where I became president, and eventually to RYLA North in 2003 — an experience that literally changed my life.
RYLA gave me lifelong lessons: the “warm fuzzies” wall (where we wrote anonymous compliments to each other) and the power of calling out “victim” behavior — no excuses, take responsibility. Those lessons shaped how I lead, how I work, and even how I parent.
I later facilitated at RYLA, which is where I first met Chris Pugh, who made me think, “If this is what a Rotarian looks like, I could be one.” Our club later sponsored me to attend RYLA International in Sweden, and from there I backpacked with Rotaractors around the world.
RYLA also led me to improv — something I never thought I’d try. But I went on stage, loved it, and ended up performing with a troupe for years. Improv taught me resilience: you fail, the crowd goes home, and the next night you try again. That mindset has stayed with me ever since.
And then, through Rotary friends, I met Haley — my wife. We married in 2009, have two amazing kids (Casey, a gifted writer and bookworm now in Grade 8, and Remi, our musical ham, now in Grade 5), and life got busy for a while. I stepped away from Rotary but stayed connected.
Career-wise, I’ve been with the same company for more than 20 years — long enough that my career is now “old enough to drink” in the U.S. I started in filing, worked a couple of summers packing caviar in Alaska, then became an executive assistant. My boss told me I was too smart to stay in that role and encouraged me into marketing — where I discovered my passion for brand strategy.
Today I lead brand work for a company managing $17.5 billion in assets across Canada. My job is to shape what people say about us when we’re not in the room — creating clarity and consistency about who we are and why we matter. It’s a bit like improv for business: connecting dots, crafting messages, and helping people see the big picture. I even got to study brand value at Harvard, which was an incredible experience.
Now, I’m excited to bring those skills back to Rotary as PR Director — helping define what makes our club stand out and why people should join us.
So that’s me — in a very large nutshell. Musician, marketer, improviser, husband, dad — and Rotarian. Thanks for welcoming me back and for giving me the chance to reintroduce myself.
