This weekend marks the close of my first year as editorial director of Advisor.ca and Investment Executive. Appropriately so, given how thankful I am to work with the editorial team behind these two extraordinary platforms.
I left financial journalism is 2004, after being recruited by Sun Life to lead the marketing launch of its Total Benefits brand. For me it was an opportunity to learn about the business from a new perspective. I was a bit of a square peg among the talented marketers I worked with there and at RBC Insurance over the 17 years that followed.
Still a journalist at heart, I figured my best bet was to try to bring the voice of the customer to whichever table I was invited to. Both organizations welcomed that, which I’m also thankful for.
I promised myself that when the right opportunity presented itself, I would return to what I’ve wanted to do since I was 16 — journalism that people care about.
Which is to say that I’m also thankful for Advisor.ca and Investment Executive readers. Your passion for the long-term financial futures of Canadians is genuine and admirable. We see our role as an extension of precisely that. Our goal is to advance the industry for the benefit of its clients.
When that requires criticism of one or more stakeholders, we do our best to report fairly and get the story right. That seems obvious, but it bears stating given the rising mistrust of journalists.
What I’m most thankful for these days, professionally, is how dedicated my team is to doing good, hard work.
Alisha Hiyate for example — the best managing editor I’ve ever worked with and a professional who cares deeply about the quality of our reporting.
Michelle Schriver, speaking of quality reporting, brings remarkable integrity to everything she does.
James Langton files multiple pieces a day in his sharply acerbic style, and still finds time to make us laugh.
Jonathan Got represents us in Ottawa, and brings endless curiosity to his work.
Katie Kier and Roland Inacay have built our series of Report Cards into a must-read program that holds industry executives to account.
And Noushin Ziafati, the kind of bright young professional who makes you wish you could start your career all over again.
I’m grateful to each of them, and proud to call them colleagues. Happy Thanksgiving.