Stephen Callender started his career working in a Scarborough window factory shortly after arriving in Canada from his native Barbados in 1979. He joined the Ironworkers Union (Local 721) in the early 1980s and completed his apprenticeship. Prior to starting up his own business, Stephen was a supervisor for a prominent curtainwall company and worked on numerous notable projects including the BCE Place in Toronto.
By the early 90’s the recession hit, and Stephen was out of a job, and while trying to figure out his next move, he started a business in the middle of a recession.
After a couple of iterations, Bass Installation was formed in 2003, and Stephen Callender became the company’s sole owner in 2004.
Bass Installation installs glass on skyscrapers and boasts some of the Toronto’s tallest and architecturally complex structures within their portfolio. The First Canadian Place, Bay-Adelaide Centre, Shangri-La Hotel and Condo, The Eaton Centre’s TEC Bridge, 1 York Tower, 16 York Tower, and the almost completed CIBC Square Tower, are just a few of their projects.
Stephen has seen the value that relationships have brought him throughout the years. It is the very relationships that have helped him to where he is today, which led to the start of the Afro Canadian Contractors Association (ACCA) of which Stephen is the President. The ACCA was founded in September 2020 and launched during Black History Month (February 2021) with the primary goal of increasing the presence of black-owned contracting companies in the Canadian construction industry.