Contact Us

Ruth Kelly is the president and CEO of Venture Publishing Inc., and the publisher and editor-in-chief of the award-winning Alberta Venture and Alberta Oil magazines and the online publication unlimitedmagazine.com. Venture Publishing’s custom publishing division also produces magazines for a variety of clients including Finning Canada, Alberta Cancer Foundation, Consulting Engineers of Alberta, Merit Contractors, Alberta Health Services, Edmonton Chamber of Commerce and Petroleum Services Association of Canada, among others.Ruth served as the 2005 chair of the board of directors for the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce and was chair of sponsorship for Edmonton’s bid for Expo 2017. She currently serves on the boards of the Banff Centre Leadership program and Travel Alberta. She is president of the Edmonton Business Council for the Visual Arts and chair of the Edmonton chapter of the International Women’s Forum. Ruth also chairs Epcor’s Community Essentials Council, which directs Epcor’s annual philanthropic activities.

Ruth was recognized as a Global Woman of Vision in 1998, a YWCA Woman of Distinction in the Entrepreneur category in 2003 and received the Advertising Club of Edmonton’s 2004 Fellowship Award for contributions to the industry and the community. In 2005, she was selected as the Allard Chair of Business by the MacEwan School of Business and received a Centennial Medal for service to the province. The Canadian Women in Communications selected Ruth for their 2008 Woman of the Year award, making her the first Albertan to receive this national honour. She also received an honorary degree in business from NAIT in 2008.

When Venture Publishing Inc. was founded in 1997, Anita McGillis was there. When she’s out on a sales call or even among office staff, Anita represents what the company is all about: a positive environment equipped to meet a diversity of challenges. She loves the personal aspect of being in sales and the creativity that the role involves. Anita serves on numerous boards within Alberta’s advertising community and was recognized for her commitment with the Advertising Club of Edmonton’s 2008 Fellowship Award. Count on her to deliver a thorough understanding of how imagery, words and ad placement interact to create an effective marketing strategy.

Joyce Byrne is the Associate Publisher of Alberta Venture and unlimited. Prior to joining us in February 2005, Joyce was publisher of the small but influential Toronto-based national title This Magazine and came to know Venture Publishing’s reputation through her work on the board of the membership association Magazines Canada. Joyce has been a director of Magazines Canada since 2002, sitting on the public affairs and small magazines committees, curriculum development task forces, and the professional development committee, which she chairs (2007-present). She has sat on program development committees for the Ontario Media Development Corporation, the board of Word on the Street (Toronto) — where she developed the successful Canadian Magazines reading tent, the board of Theatre Networks (Edmonton), and is the proofreader (at large) for the biannual literary magazine Taddle Creek.

Joyce is a frequent lecturer on business planning and marketing for magazines, and continues to be involved in the cultural magazine community through her volunteer work. In 2008-2009, Joyce will chair the Advertising Club of Edmonton (ACE) Awards, an annual awards celebration of the best creative produced in the Edmonton advertising community.

Kim Larson has worked in publishing around Alberta for the past 17 years.She has worked on various magazines and custom publications as a graphic designer and art director through out the Edmonton area. Kim is Art Director on Alberta Venture magazine where she works with her team to create compelling layouts that tell the story and engage the reader.

Michael Ganley joined Venture Publishing as editor of Alberta Venture in May 2011. Prior to that he spent six years as an editor with Up Here Publishing in Yellowknife, NT. His last position there was as editor of Up Here Business magazine, which was named Magazine of the Year at the Kenneth R. Wilson Awards for the business press in June, 2011.

Michael had a previous career as a lawyer, working for six years at firms in Toronto and Halifax before making the personally gratifying but financially unsound decision to switch to journalism. He has an undergraduate degree in English literature from Trent University, a law degree from Dalhousie University, and a journalism degree from the University of King’s College. He is married and has three children. Michael can be reached at mganley@albertaventure.com and @MikeatVenture

Max Fawcett is the managing editor of Alberta Venture magazine and a long-time freelancer whose work has been published in the Globe and Mail, the National Post, Corporate Knights magazine and Avenue. In a previous life he worked in federal politics after receiving his master’s degree in political science from Carleton University in 2004. He joined the magazine in 2010. He can be reached at mfawcett@albertaventure.com.

Associate editor Geoffrey Morgan was born, raised and educated in Calgary before setting out on a schizophrenic career path that has taken him from the South Korean mega-city of Seoul to the tiny town of Blairmore in the Crowsnest Pass and – with a few more stops in between – to Edmonton. As a graduate of Langara College’s journalism program, Geoffrey has written for a number of media outlets in Canada. Armed with an economics degree and the Canadian Securities Course, his interests lie in business journalism with a special interest in fraud reporting. Follow him at @geoffreymorgan on Twitter or email him at gmorgan@albertaventure.com.

Steve Macleod is Venture Publishing’s jack-of-all-editorial-trades. Working out of the Calgary office, he is an assistant editor for Alberta Venture and Alberta Oil, as well as managing editor for two energy-related magazines in the company’s contract division. A well-travelled Albertan, he was born and raised in Calgary, moved to Edmonton and graduated from the journalism program at Grant MacEwan. He began his career as a weekly newspaper reporter in Claresholm. He returned to Edmonton and worked as an editor for two national magazines focused on the trucking industry. Back in Calgary, he had a short stint editing children’s non-fiction books before joining Venture. He can be reached at smacleod@albertaventure.com.