voice of experience

24 1989 - 2014 25 years of publishing excellence The world according to John Billionaire seafood baron insists that business, not government, must lead out of its economic malaise Story by Stephen Kimber Photo by Mike Tompkins

“ The problem with doing profiles…” John Risley begins, and I realize I’ve already lost control of this particular interview before I even ask my first question. “I mean, look,” he continues, kindly enough, “this is your editorial licence, not mine.”

It had all seemed simple enough back in July Canada;” the driving force behind the evolution 2013 during an editorial meeting in St. John’s. In of Ocean Nutrition, the 16-year-old - 2014, Atlantic Business Magazine would celebrate its based company that had become the world’s largest 25th anniversary – no mean feat in the publishing producer of Omega-3 fatty acids by the time Risley business anywhere these days – and editor Dawn sold it last year to Dutch-based Royal DSM for Chafe and I were trying to figure out an appropriate $540 million; and a major investor in Columbus editorial way to mark that milestone. I’m not sure Communications, a 10-year-old Barbados-based which of us came up with the idea to profile a series company providing cable TV‚ digital video, high of key Atlantic Canadian business makers and speed internet access‚ digital telephones and economy shakers, but we quickly agreed John Risley corporate data services in 42 countries in the had to be one of them. Caribbean, Central and South America. Risley, after all, is a member in good standing in These days, Risley lives with his wife Judy in Canadian Business magazine’s Top 100 Wealthiest a 32,000-square-foot Georgian-style mansion on Canadians, the billionaire co-founder of Clearwater a 300-acre sweet spot of ocean-fronted land near Seafoods Inc., “one of North America’s largest idyllic Chester, N.S., that once belonged to the vertically integrated seafood companies and the founder of Sunoco, the American petrochemical largest holder of shellfish licences and quotas in giant. When he needs to go somewhere, or just get

Jan/Feb 2014 atlanticbusinessmagazine.com 25 away from it all, he can hop aboard OK, so what then? the reality that we’re growing our one of his small fleet of corporate We are sitting this morning in the economy at a lesser rate than we’re aircraft or sail away in a luxurious Clearwater boardroom above a much- growing our expenses. Our balance 240-foot super-yacht “equipped with renovated and expanded fish retail sheet is getting worse – debt up by a a helipad and a grand ‘country-house’- store on Halifax’s Bedford Highway billion dollars! style interior.” looking out on a spectacular view of “The idea that the business Even though he turned 65 last April, Bedford Basin. Risley, greying, tousled- community can sit back and say, ‘Oh, Risley shows no signs of slowing haired and dressed in an open-necked Premier A is gonna save us, or Premier down. There’s this other business buttoned-down shirt and casual pants, B is gonna save us… Ain’t gonna he tells me this morning he can’t still looks boyish, not to mention happen! When was the last time we talk about, a “small,” $35-40 million boyishly eager to stir things up. had that kind of leadership?” investment he’s making, the details of “I think, and it’s just a suggestion to I mention Frank McKenna, the which he hopes to be able to announce you and Dawn,” he says, “that, instead former premier who soon. of doing a profile, you should get the was a favourite of the business Not bad for a guy who got his start perspective of six business leaders community. “Frank was a great back in the 1970s peddling lobster on the future of Atlantic Canada. thinker,” Risley admits. “He had the from the back of a… I think that would be much more vision with the ability to sell it.” Oops. interesting…” But Risley is much less sanguine “I don’t want to read another article,” about the current crop of politicians Risley tells me, “that says my brother- “ This has tradition- he’s met. Darrell Dexter, the recently in-law and I started selling lobsters off defeated NDP premier of Nova the back of a pickup truck.” ally been a region Scotia? “Get him in a corner and Uh… he knew what needed to be done, In 1986, the first time I’d profiled which has waited but he couldn’t embrace it because a much younger Risley for Canadian for government to he couldn’t sell it.” Stephen McNeil, Business, I wrote about those first pick- Dexter’s Liberal successor? Risley up-truck days back in the late sixties. lead and business would rather not talk, on the record “Each morning that summer, [Risley] at least, about a man he could end drove his rented truck 250 km to Nova followed. We have to up having business dealings with. Scotia’s Northumberland shore fishing come to grips with But even if he turns out to be a communities, dickered with fishermen McKenna in the making, there is at the wharves over the price of their the fact government the longer-term question. “Who day’s catch and then hustled back to takes their place? Frankly, it doesn’t the store in Bedford to sell his lobsters just isn’t capable of matter because government generally for slightly more than he had paid for leading. I mean, look doesn’t have the skill set, doesn’t them. Risley’s brother-in-law, Colin have the horse sense to do what MacDonald, a medical student who had at the recent [Nova needs to be done.” once worked as a plumber’s apprentice, Scotia] election. Which brings us to… business. agreed to help him launch his store. When you ask John Risley what ‘Colin was lying under the tank business leaders should be doing, he fixing some pipes at three o’clock one The Cliffs Notes version of John points to 4Front, a recent series of morning,’ Risley recalls, ‘and he finally Risley’s personal take on the future private-sector-led annual conferences said, with more expletives than I’ll use, of Atlantic Canada is that it’s long on the Atlantic economy. ‘Why in hell am I doing this?’ And I past time for business leaders to step Co-sponsored by BMO Financial said, ‘Because you now have a 50 per up and do what governments can’t, Group and regional corporate law cent interest in the business. That’s won’t, or don’t want to do. firm McInnes Cooper, and featuring why.’ That was the foundation for our “This has traditionally been a blue-chip advisory committee partnership. It’s still no more formal a region which has waited for chaired by John Bragg and including than that.’” government to lead and business such regional/global corporate Between then and as recently as followed,” he explains. “We have heavyweights as John Irving, Rob last May, when the Globe and Mail’s to come to grips with the fact and Don Sobey, Gerry Pond and, of Gordon Pitts pronounced Risley “as government just isn’t capable of course, John Risley, the three annual lean and hungry as 40 years ago leading. I mean, look at the recent conferences put the spotlight on what when he and his brother-in-law Colin [Nova Scotia] election.” Nobody Risley sees as fundamental dilemmas MacDonald were selling lobsters out talked about the huge demographic Atlantic Canada must face. From too of the back of a rented pickup on problems this province faces. Nobody many ivy-on-the-walls universities Halifax’s Bedford Highway”, journalists talked about health care spending “in the face of the growing role of have traded shamelessly on that still that’s out of control. Nobody talked the internet and online education” compelling, still true, rags-to-riches about the fact we have the worst to the “irreversible” depopulation of tale. P-12 education system in the country. rural Atlantic Canada. “We still have “I don’t want to read that again,” That’s not subjective. We have the a hugely disproportionate number Risley says flatly. “And I don’t think worst goddamn math scores in of people in rural areas. How do anyone else does either.” the country! Nobody talked about we maintain infrastructure in rural

26 1989 - 2014 25 years of publishing excellence Atlantic Canada while we develop new infrastructure in urban Atlantic Canada and do it with no new money because the population hasn’t changed?” The key, of course, is to find ways to grow the economy. But that doesn’t just require new capital, Risely argues. “There’s a huge amount of activity around tech- You’re in the based start-ups in urban areas. The community thinks all we need is capital, capital. All we have to construction business. do is throw money at these kids and everything will be OK. They’re wrong… It’s about mentorship, We’re in the business cultivation and support.” Business leaders, like those involved in 4Front, can help by mentoring new entrepreneurs so of helping you grow. they don’t make beginner mistakes, he says, and by providing the right resources at the right time so they can learn from senior business people who already know from experience, for example, how to set up a manufacturing operation in The construction industry in Atlantic China. “We can provide them with that Canada is in constant motion. And at Grant support,” Risley says. But 4Front was about more than Thornton LLP, we understand the market business helping other businesses. It pressures our clients face—whether they’re was also about changing the future course of the region. The conferences expanding, divesting, financing or leasing. were “designed to position Atlantic Canada as a leader in navigating the new economic landscape.” Our team of audit, tax and business advisory Led, of course, by business. professionals help owners, developers, Consider education. investors, management firms and REITs “On my property in Chester,” Risley tells me, “I employ a lot of manage risk and financial challenges, as well young people, maybe 15. They’re as help unearth opportunities that can lead making… I don’t know what they’re making, but let’s say it’s to growth. We do it for businesses—large $30,000 a year. These kids, with the right education, should be and small—every day. making $100,000. Instead of riding lawnmowers or raking leaves, they should have a blowtorch in If you’re in the construction industry, let us their hands, or be operating an help unlock your potential for growth. excavator… I may have to pay more to get my leaves raked. But that’s OK. “The company I referred to” — the one Risley told me he couldn’t tell me about — “it has 85-90 tradespeople earning $150,000 a year each. And the company is www.GrantThornton.ca desperate to find more people.” Although the business is not Audit • Tax • Advisory currently based in Atlantic Canada, Risley says it will have a Nova Scotia ©Grant Thornton LLP. A Canadian Member of Grant Thornton International Ltd

Jan/Feb 2014 atlanticbusinessmagazine.com 27 This Ad prepAred by: ryAn edwArds ClienT: GrAnT ThornTon File nAme: ATlAnTiC business mAG- jAn 2014 Ad #: GT-13-244 Trim size: 4.625” x 9.875” Colours: CmyK division after he acquires it. “So could to go to eastern Europe to get these “So the business community is we start with the vocational schools? people, and not on the basis of a going to have to lead that debate. We’ll say, ‘look, here’s the deal.’ Let’s work permit for six months. We need Frankly, the issue is access. We’re go for a two-year program. We’ll pay to bring them and their families here, not dealing with waiting times, and the students an honorarium, to show provide them with language skills. the numbers are going to get worse our seriousness and guarantee them We can’t ostracize them because they because the demographics are going a job if they successfully complete speak with accents. We have to do to get worse. The data is not lying. the program. Let’s start with 20 kids more than accept” new immigrants, The unions say we can’t have a each in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick Risley argues. “We have to embrace private system operating alongside and Newfoundland. That’s 60 people. them.” the public system because all of Say we hire half of them. That’s 30 “[Darrell] Dexter asked me at one the good people will go work in the people a year we’d be putting to point, what sort of [immigration] private system… That’s nonsense, work at good wages. If we sit down quota do we need? Four thousand a quite frankly. with the vocational school and they year? Forty-five hundred?” He raises “My point is that business leaders say, ‘Well, we don’t have the budget,’ his voice. “We need 25,000 a year for have to stand up and take the flak on or, ‘We don’t have the expertise,’ the next… 10… years!” he shouts. these issues. It’s a tough one because then we sit down with government. “To make up for what we’ve lost [to not a lot of people want to step My point is this: business,” he says out-migration], to keep pace with forward and take the heat.” He stops, again, “has to take the lead.” what demographics is doing to the smiles. “I’ve never had that problem.” What about running for political population, to grow our economy.” He doesn’t. office himself, I wonder? He shakes his head. “You don’t have to move “ I could have done so into politics yourself,” he says. It’s a It hasn’t been easy, or matter of using clout wisely. “When much more, so much necessary, to ask a question as the universities come to people like faster if I’d gone on Risley has led me on his whirlwind me for donations, we have to start monologue of the future as saying, ‘Use your resources more and gotten a graduate envisioned by John Risley. But I do wisely. Until you figure it out, we’re degree, whether an have a question or two. not giving you our money.’” MBA or a law degree, For starters, how to reconcile Has he done that himself? (Risley Risley’s current world view (about has honorary degrees from Dalhousie if somebody says I the importance of education, for University and the University of don’t have to [get a example, in order to get his leaf- , has had a degree] because Risley raking employees into skilled trades, Dalhousie student residence named or his call to open our doors to any after him and was recently described didn’t… That’s bull- immigrant with a Master’s degree) in a Globe and Mail article as “a shit. Guys like me will with the reality that Risley himself big donor” to Dalhousie.) “Those dropped out of university short of conversations are beginning to tell you that was a big his undergraduate degree with no happen,” he insists. “I’m becoming loss, a big mistake.” training to speak of? more interested in these questions as “I could have done so much more, I get older. I have more time now than so much faster if I’d gone on and when I was 40. Then, it would be: ‘Go He stops. “Where will all these gotten a graduate degree, whether away, don’t bother me, I’m too busy.’” people work? Well, that’s the point. an MBA or a law degree,” he tells me. Besides educating young people Let the business community take “I can’t do anything about that but, for jobs that need filling, Risley says care of that. But we need to throw if somebody says I don’t have to [get Atlantic Canada desperately needs the doors open. Skilled tradespeople? a degree] because Risley didn’t… to up its immigration ante. “The Anyone with a Master’s degree? Let That’s bullshit. Guys like me will politicians don’t see it as a cause them all in. And then let the business tell you that was a big loss, a big célèbre because the population at community create the jobs.” mistake.” large doesn’t see it. People think, ‘Oh, Besides its own vested self- And yet, because Risley and I are immigration. They’ll take our jobs. interest in developing a tailor-trained roughly the same age, both college Why do we want them?’ There’s no workforce for its own needs, Risley dropouts, one slightly more successful understanding we absolutely have to says business leaders need to “run than the other, I feel compelled to have more people; we’re in desperate block and tackle for the politicians” make the point that when we were at need of people with skills at all on such controversial issues as Dalhousie, there were 100 others who levels.” health care reform. “We’ve had no did get those law degrees and MBAs The company he’s planning to fundamental debate on health care Risley speaks so admiringly about invest in (the one he can’t talk about), because if politicians try to have who never achieved even a fraction is in a “sector poised for explosive that kind of debate, they come out of the financial success Risley has. growth. To work in this business, with burned fingers. People worry Where did his entrepreneurial people will need robust technical about whether universality is going instinct come from if not from school? training. And we won’t be able to to be compromised… The unions “I don’t know,” he shrugs. “I train them fast enough. So we need complain… remember when I was a kid, the

28 1989 - 2014 25 years of publishing excellence ATLANTIC CANADA’S AGENCY PROVIDING teacher would ask, ‘what do you want to do when you grow up?’ CONTENT SOLUTIONS And I’d say ‘I want to make a million dollars.’ I’d get scoffed at … ha, ha, IN AN E-COMMERCE WORLD chuckle … and that would piss me Relationship off, frankly. It was, ‘You watch!’” Architects Brand Storytellers. And now he’s a billionaire, I say. Let us tell yours. Content “Look,” he replies seriously, “this Management is really important. Everyone judges Digital material success and happiness… Marketing OPEN Social Media that old lotto ticket bullshit: win Management 709.697.0734 • [email protected] this money and you’ll be happy www.towngroup.ca for the rest of your life. Money and happiness have zero to do with each other. Frankly, I admire the guy who can check out of his job responsibility at four in the afternoon, go home and play with his kids, do their homework with You have one minute to find the risk them, go out with his buddies and play a hockey game… I never did.” that could end your business. “Do business guys have a lot of friends?” he asks rhetorically. “We know a lot of people but do we spend any time hanging out. I’m working. Is that an addiction? Or just that I like a challenge? Who knows?” Is he happy? “Yeh, well, ah, you know, look, I’m healthy and I’ve got a lot of people working for me. I’ve got a lot to be happy for. But I can’t make up for the fact I wasn’t around for my children. I can’t make up for the fact I have four grandchildren and I don’t see enough of them… I like to work. I work all the time. The bloody computer! Now, even when I take a vacation, half of every goddamn day I’m working. I’m not happy about that, but…” he laughs. “I don’t know what to do. It is a kind of addiction.”

So too is Atlantic Canada. As frustrated as he may be with some of what he sees around him, “I’m not ambivalent about it. All Atlantic Canadians live here because Business Continuity Generational Risk Risk Reduction we love it. But because you love it, Claims Management Hazard Risk Strategic Hiring Cyber Risk Productivity Talent Management you want better for it.” Fleet Management Reputation Wellness Is he optimistic? “I’m naturally optimistic,” he says. “I’m here and I’m Your business is changing. Technology is changing. Customers are changing. not prepared to give up and go lie on And so are the risks that you deal with on a daily basis. Most of these risks can’t a beach in the Caribbean and read be managed with an insurance policy. You need a broker who is looking ahead, helping you prepare for the new risks business face today, and in the future. about it. I’m not going anywhere.” John Risley certainly hasn’t done Introducing the Risk Reduction Approach™ – created by Wedgwood Insurance. badly for a guy who started his We’ll ask questions, challenge your thinking and help you discover new ways to manage and control the risk in your business with a Risk Reduction Plan™. business career selling lobsters from the back of… wedgwoodinsurance.com Feedback: [email protected], 709.753.3210 | 1.888.884.4253 [email protected], @ABM_Editor, @AtlanticBus, @skimber, #VoiceOfExperience, #JohnRisley

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