I enjoy writing... especially when I have a passion for the topic. Here’s a collection of recent and past musings, reflections, and white papers.
From an ancestral perspective, I’ve technically lived in Alberta since 1908, when my Great Grandfather’s horse died in Edmonton (pop.9350) en route to Vancouver from Halifax. Shortly after his arrival and only three years before the incorporation of his first business, Alberta’s reliance on oil began its long and tumultuous, boom-bust, one-hundred and twenty-five-year history.
I found myself in uncharted territory in 2015, shortly after my sister passed away at 39 years old following a long battle with Cancer. As with most of my peers in business and athletics, I considered myself to be resilient.
We went to Lake Louise to escape Zoom and the suffocating, Covid-inspired Edmonton winter. It's hard to feel trapped when you are gliding o skates on a glacial lake, breathing fresh mountain air under big open skies.
The leadership team Lululemon recently asked me to share some thoughts over Zoom with their membership group (approx. 7000 strong from Edmonton, Chicago, Denver, and Toronto) connected to a speaker-series focused on internal soul-searching and resilience. Here’s a quick summary of my talk.
A few weeks ago I took a stroll downtown - from my (now basically deserted) shared office space in Manulife to my (now closed forever) favourite Italian café, Al Centro - a few blocks away. Over the course of my walk, I was struck by a feeling of emptiness exasperated by the nearly empty streets (with the exception of a young man who appeared to be entranced with the prospect of stealing a broken down bike locked to a yield sign).