As well as his adopted country, Mr Edwards (51) still considers New Zealand home, particularly the quiet, rural East Otago countryside where he grew up.
Back home this month to visit family and to attend his daughter, Caitlyn’s, graduation from the University of Otago, he reflected on how that upbringing had stood him in good stead, keeping him grounded.
He is development manager at Panattoni Development Company in Canada. The business operates from 48 offices in the United States, Canada and Europe, and is one of the largest privately held, full-service real estate development companies in the world.
Since its inception, it has developed more than 51million sq m of space, including more than 19.6million sq m of build-to-suit projects.
Panattoni Developments recently completed an automated, five story, 269,000sq m warehouse and sorting facility, to be occupied by Amazon Canada, in the Edmonton region. It was one of the largest single-phase industrial facilities developed in Canada.
Business was always an interest for Mr Edwards and one that continued to evolve from his days at East Otago High School, where he did well in mathematics and economics. He attributed some of that interest to his father, Norman, who was Palmerston’s pharmacist for 37 years.
After leaving school, Mr Edwards completed a commerce degree, majoring in marketing, at the University of Otago.
During his university studies, he got a job at T.L. Begg and Sons (now Stirling Sports) and the experience was very beneficial, as he was able to put what he was learning at university into practice in a business environment. It led to an interest in retail, something he gravitated towards.
While at university, Mr Edwards met his wife, Sharleen, who was born in New Zealand and grew up in Canada. The couple went for a holiday to see the Commonwealth Games in 1994 and decided to move there.
He spent the first six months working for a hunting company in northern British Columbia — "the real wilderness".
From there, he applied for a job in an electronics store and worked his way up to store manager for an electronics chain, similar to Noel Leeming.
Sport had been a long-time interest; he played "everything" at secondary school, which tended to happen at a small school, and squash to a fairly high level at university.
His next job was at sports company Sport Chek, which he likened in size to The Warehouse in New Zealand, where he worked his way up to regional manager, responsible for 13 stores.
That was a lot of fun. While very corporate, each store was entrepreneurial.
He had always been fairly goal-oriented and that type of environment suited his personality — "believing in yourself, you can get something done".
With two children, Caitlyn and Cameron, Mr Edwards was at the point on the corporate ladder where work was very consuming and he wanted a job which would create more work-life balance.
He took a job with the municipal government in Edmonton, a city which had just built a large recreation centre and needed someone to run it. Being a "wintry city", a lot of recreation had to happen indoors.
The role allowed him to spend time with his children during the important years of them growing up, and it also catered for his sporting interests.
Getting involved in the business community, due to the sponsorship component of the role, saw him decided he wanted to get into the economic development side of the council.
During his three years in that role, he had to enable a deal between his municipal government, the provincial government, a developer and a land owner to get a deal done to build a "massive" factory in the county, "knowing literally nothing about real estate".
The developer later asked if he would be interested in a career change and that was when he started working for Panattoni, coming up four years ago.
Describing it as "a ride", Mr Edwards said he went into the job with no real estate or development experience, although he knew municipal government quite well, and a lot of people in that world.
It was very entrepreneurial and it was all about managing people and having the right people, he said.
Most of what it did was large warehouse space; these were major projects, the scale of which was not like anything seen in New Zealand — even Auckland, he said.
It was exciting — not in the fact that it was building warehouses, but the strategy behind picking the right piece of land at the right time and building the right building and picking the right tenant.
There were "a lot of dollars" involved in the business and he believed his East Otago upbringing kept him grounded.
Covid-19 had been positive for the business as demand for online shopping "went through the roof". Interest rates were low and it was easier to get investment approval.
Retail and office investment went down as investors leaned more towards industrial. Supply chain issues also meant a requirement for more storage of product.
Canada was a progressive country and the couple loved it. It was a country that provided opportunities for those who wanted to take them, but it had issues "like every other place does".
Being fairly close to the mountains, he enjoyed being able to "get out there and ski and hike and do whatever".
New Zealand still felt like home, too, and, while the couple had not decided their long-term plans, they wanted to be by the ocean and mountains.
He had a sense of pride about New Zealand, a country he believed "punches above its weight".
"For a small country, it produces a lot of things that change the world".
What he particularly missed in Canada were Kiwi fish and chips, ice cream and the country’s cafe culture.
