January 2007

A Confederation of Dunces

With all that fuss over last month’s anointment of a new Liberal leader, I was afraid Ed Stelmach’s election as Progressive Conservative leader would go unnoted in the rest of Canada >

Small is Beautiful

In these boom times when grand statements are de rigueur, it’s nice to see a little restraint once in a while >

Trusty Performers

The tax brouhaha provides a buying opportunity for some better-run income trusts >

Trust the Ambition

Visitors to the headquarters of CV Technologies Inc. discover a curious blend of science and marketing along the second floor of a brown brick building in the Edmonton Research Park >

The Resident Tax God

Grant Zawalsky is one of several dealmakers at Burnet Duckworth & Palmer >

The Legal Mayo Clinic

The legal market has never been this busy or this competitive >

The Italian Job

Born near Naples, Carmelo Rago came to Canada as a 10-year-old boy to reunite with his father who had moved earlier >

The Incestuous Oilpatch

Lawyer firm-hopping doesn’t shock anyone anymore, but when Robert Desbarats left Bennett Jones for the Calgary office of Osler last February, jaws dropped >

The Importance of Having Earnings

It isn’t often a company will turn away money. But in the mid-1990s, as head of what was then called Alberta Microelectronic Corporation, Chris Lumb did just that >

The Dealmakers

Meet the Calgary-based corporate lawyers who make most of the big oilpatch mergers, acquisitions, offerings and asset sales happen >

The Brother and Sister Act

Lauded as one of the most hard-working, aggressive and entrepreneurial corporate lawyers in Calgary, Brock Gibson is junior in years and experience to his fellow Blakes partner Pat Finnerty, but just as busy >

Slowdown Ahead?

#5 in an 8-part series on economic perspectives by Alberta business owners >

Sharing the Spotlight

Ask the people on the other side of the table who represented Petro-Canada in the scuffle for Canada Southern, and you won’t get a straight answer >

More than a Midwife

There’s a corner table in the lounge of the University of Alberta Faculty Club that signals to others in the room that when you sit there, the conversation is private, that you want to be left alone >

Did You Hear The One About The Management Consultant

Say what you will, but management consultants are cashing in as short-staffed companies realize the value of outside advice >

Card Sharks & Computer Brains

When Darse Billings pulled up to the poker table at the Mirage hotel in Las Vegas lugging a huge suitcase behind him, he knew exactly what the other players were thinking >

After the Hue and Cry

For Alberta’s royalty trusts -- the 30-odd income trusts engaged in oil and gas production that have come to occupy the middle ground between the majors and the juniors –- it is hard to imagine that 2007 could be any worse than 2006 >

A Deficit of Savvy

This year the Alberta government will spend $5.6 billion educating Alberta’s 590,000 kindergarten through grade 12 students >

The Producers

The old Currie Barracks, west of Calgary’s downtown, is the de facto hub of Alberta’s film and television industry >

Where Are the Fastest Growing Now?

Ever wonder what happened to that oil and gas company that made that thingamajig? >

Riding The Boom

Alberta’s fastest-growing companies are obsessed with the care, feeding, job satisfaction and all-around comfort levels of their most desirable and unpredictable assets: their technicians, accountants, clerks, machine operators, sales pros, drivers, pipefitters, secretaries, project managers and tool cutters >

The Fast 50 - Alberta’s Fast-Growth Champions 2007

In a time and a place where growth is expected, these companies stood out. Not just by growing their revenues, but also their assets, their profits, their workforce, their goodwill and their intellectual property >

January 2007