From a purely selfish point of view, the “Great Financial Crisis” provided me with inspiration for a great deal of top-notch copy. The Year The Penny Dropped (November 2009, Alberta Venture) was among the most interesting.

Featuring Gervais Goodman, partner with the human resources consulting firm Goodman, McDougall & Associates Ltd., Paul Gryglewicz, then-consultant with Hay Group Limited, Scott Munn, a partner with Hugessen Consulting Inc., Lisa Slipp, a worldwide partner with Mercer and head of the company’s executive remuneration segment in Canada, Bob Henderson, then-vice-president, human resources, with Flint Energy Services Ltd., Rick Nixon, CEO Midlake Oil & Gas Limited, Marc Lattoni, a founding member of Calgary’s Total Reward Professionals, Brien Perry, compensation manager at Enerplus Resources Fund, and Arden Dalik from the Wynford Group.

Excerpt:

The old formula was easy. “It was getting to the point of ‘How many wheelbarrows of money would you like?’” says Gervais Goodman, partner with the human resources consulting firm Goodman, McDougall & Associates Ltd. in Millarville. Today? Everyone questions everything, and is called to the mat to justify everything.

I had collected enough material on  this story to write a book. Well, at least a novella. Some of the extras ended up here, in The Skinny on Executive Pay.