Michael Graydon, Mike Lovsin and Brent Cator named 2026 Golden Pencil winners
The Food Industry Association of Canada has announced the recipients of the 2026 Golden Pencil Awards.
Brent Cator, president and CEO of Cardinal Meats; Mike Lovsin, chairman, Freson Market Ltd.; and Michael Graydon, chief executive officer of Food, Health and Consumer Products of Canada (FHCP) are this year’s winners.
Cator, Lovsin and Graydon will be recognized at the Golden Pencil Awards ceremony on Nov. 23 in Toronto, following Canadian Grocer's GroceryConnex conference.
Presented since 1957, the prestigious Golden Pencil Award recognizes individuals who have made a significant and worthwhile contribution to improving the Canadian food industry as well as their communities.
Past winners of the Golden Pencil Award include: Michael Medline, formerly Empire Company Ltd. (now The Woodbridge Company Ltd.); The Grocery Foundation’s Shaun McKenna; Unilever Canada’s Gary Wade; Pattison Food Group’s Jamie Nelson, Summer Fresh Salads’ Susan Niczowski, Metro’s Carmen Fortino, Kruger Products’ Michel Manseau, Joey Longo of Longo’s, former Nestlé exec Steve Fox, Burnbrae Farms’ Margaret Hudson, Farm Boy’s Jean-Louis Bellemare and Jeff York and Pattison Food Group/Save-On-Foods’ Darrell Jones.
