In Brief: Business writer. Writing and speaking on energy, strategy, and law. Also, on the existential angst inherent in all work, particularly in the professional-creative life. Always on edge, with edge.

Interested in: Changing the world. Or at least, your organization. Your life? Maybe, just the way you’re thinking, in this moment…

Key Platforms

November 2003—November 2015: Freelance writer and regular contributor to Alberta Venture, Venture Publications’ premiere business magazine for the province of Alberta.

December 2011-present: Intermittent contributor to Canadian Business and other Rogers publications, including Profit, chiefly on energy issues.

August 2000—November 2012: Freelance writer with and regular contributor to Lexpert, Thomson Reuters’ business magazine for lawyers.

Lexpert, the magazine that changed the way legal affairs was reported in Canada, and created the niche of “business of law” writing, was my key platform for more than a decade. You will find me in virtually every issue between 2000 and January 2013. My favourite contribution to the magazine was my monthly Last Word column, in which I alternately skewered and flattered the Canadian legal market, with intermittent digressions into broader business/political issue. My flagship feature was the annual Top 10 (Canadian) Deals of the Year, which, every January, would make me every Canadian business lawyer’s least favourite person.

When I sang my last song, my editors at Lexpert gave me this:

There’s More

I’ve also written for The Globe and Mail’s Law Page and The National Post’s Legal Post, straight business for Canadian Business, broader business/lifestyle publications such as Enterprise, Avenue, Calgary Inc., and Unlimited, as well as niche publications on insolvency/restructuring, biotechnology, and corporate social responsibility. If you look very hard on the web, you might find some of my travel/lifestyle writing and even fiction, including a story that was nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

Past Lives

Marketing Director/Communications Leader, Bennett Jones LLP (1998-2000). My informal but intensive MBA.

Business English/Writing Instructor, Pusan, South Korea (1996-1997). My personal contribution to the corruption of Korean youth and the English language.

Editor, Research Links, Parks Canada’s Science and Management Publication (1994-1996). The Internet was in its infancy. It took us weeks to figure out how to distribute Research Links via email.

Editor, The Gauntlet, the University of Calgary’s independent student newspaper (1993-1994). The job that started it all… before I was 18.

Education

MA, Cultural Anthropology, the University of Calgary
Thesis: Hana, Tul, Three, Four: How Canadian Instructors Are Changing the Korean Martial Art of Taekwon-do (Find this fascinating? I turned it into a short article for the Journal of Asian Martial Arts in 2001; here’s an annotation)

BA (Honours), Anthropology, the University of Calgary

Languages

Fluent in English and Polish. Passable in Spanish. Unforgivably atrocious in French. Once conversant in Korean and Japanese… should revisit those. First second language was Arabic… third language was Creole-Bulgarian and fourth was Italian… but that’s a story best told over a glass of wine.

Personal passions 

Affordable housing for all: Member, Sunnyhill Housing Co-operative, Chair, SHC Member Selection Committee, Member, SHC Social Committee & Delegate, Canadian Federation of Co-operative Housing

Unleashing the storyteller within, for myself and others: Nothing By The Book and Nothing By The Book/write-talk-learn

Out-of-box education and life-long learning: blogger at Undogmatic Unschoolers and facilitator at Nothing By The Book/write-talk-learn

That flood thing: Presenter, performer, and support volunteer, Rising Above: Sunnyside School/Trickster Theatre Flood Anniversary Project & Volunteer Coordinator for Sunnyhill, Flood 2013

Once upon a time: Coach, Alberta Women’s Black Belt Team, Chinook Taekwon-do Women’s Green Belt Team, Instructor, Chinook Taekwon-do, University of Calgary, Captain, Alberta Women’s Black Belt Team, Volunteer, Emily’s Backyard, Alberta Children’s Hospital

 

REFERENCES

Editors love me. Clients adore me. Readers? I always evoke a response. Fullsome references available on request; sample recommendations viewable on my LinkedIn Profile. Select readings from my hate mail file also possible.

 

Looking for me?

Excellent. Click here for coordinates.

Portfolio (you are here): CalgaryBusinessWriter.com