Linda Hughes is one of the most unexpectedly surprising people I’ve met. Soft spoken, conservatively dressed, she displays not a hint of swagger. That may be the best guise for a journalist whose job it is to witness, to unobtrusively observe, to win the trust of sources who will reveal their secrets. >
Former real estate tycoon Harold Milavsky on what it’s like to be a banker in one of the world’s biggest Monopoly games >
f the great question of the day is how to reconcile business and environmental concerns, Roger Smith may come close to embodying some practical answers. The former Faculty of Business dean at the University of Alberta has a solid commitment to the perspective of business on economic issues. But he also has an environmental view, serving on the board of the Alberta Branch of the Nature Conservancy of Canada and the Alberta Conservation Association.
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If the Grey Eminences column is about retired CEOs, Jean Paré wants me to know that she doesn’t qualify; she’s not retired, doesn’t believe in it, never will. While others retire or switch to less onerous vocations in the volunteer sector, Paré, 79, is still an active force in the company she founded in 1981. >
Eric Newell didn’t invent corporate social responsibility, but the company he ran is arguably its greatest Alberta exemplar. >
If ever there was a perfect model for a true-to-life, grassroots entrepreneur, that model is Herb Belcourt. Neither ethnicity nor lack of formal education was a barrier in a career which embodies the kind of entrepreneurship that validates and makes the enterprise system thrive. >
The first thing that Dr. Ruth Collins-Nakai wants to get straight with me is that she was not the CEO of the Canadian Medical Association. I had explained that Grey Eminences is based on seeking out retired CEOs to glean some small part of the wisdom they’ve accumulated over the years. >
Nick Taylor is in his sweats when we meet in what he describes as his “hole-in-the-wall” office on Calgary’s 8th Avenue, across the tracks from the high-flying business towers that define the city. Not that, from his computer-equipped “hole,” he’s backed away from being a player, not only in the oilpatch, but in the politics of the day. He’s pushing 80 now (he’ll become an octogenarian in November) but retirement doesn’t seem to be part of his vocabulary. >
“We,” he says, meaning Albertans, “are not adolescents any more. We have to act like an adult, and we have to stop this whining and complaining and bitching…. We are now adults in this [Canadian] community and we’ve got to start living like adults, not blaming everybody else for things that are our responsibility.” Jim Gray is nothing if not direct. His steely grey eyes flash as he leans forward, two fingers rapping the table to underline the point. >
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. “My name is spelled Alex, but I am called Alec,” I am instructed by Thomas Alexander McPherson, MD, PhD. >
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