The five people who most influenced my career are, in chronological order, Mabel O’Brien, Randy Manning, Don Beach, Ed Marchant and Dave Matheson.
Mabel O’Brien
My formal schooling consisted of eight years in a little red (honestly) three-room schoolhouse in Morell, PEI, throughout which Mabel O’Brien was the principal. She was also my teacher (all subjects) for Grades 8, 9 and 10. As a teacher, she was inspirational and effective. As a principal she was tough, but fair. Here’s an example.
In Grade 7 we had been assigned topics for an essay. I don’t recall my topic, but I do recall working hard on it. We passed in our papers during a week when we had a substitute teacher – an arrogant ass from Charlottetown who clearly resented being sent out to what he considered the boondocks to teach a bunch of, in his eyes, second-class students.
A couple of days later, after having marked the essays, he was handing them back by calling out our names and having us walk up to his desk. When my turn came he decided to make an editorial comment, saying, “This was pretty good, Lyman. Who wrote it for you?” I replied, “I’m glad you liked it. Who read it to you?” At recess he marched me into Mabel’s room and demanded I be severely disciplined. Mabel asked why. He told her. She said, “Well, you asked for that rebuke, didn’t you?” And the matter was closed.
Mabel challenged, encouraged and inspired me throughout all those eight years. On my last day of school, she called me aside and told me to always remember that my future was pretty much in my own hands. And her influence didn’t end there. She continued to offer valuable advice over the years, both in person when I was home on vacation and in letters she occasionally wrote to me. When I was eighteen she urged me to take the Dale Carnegie Course, a piece of advice which turned out to be as important to my career as was obtaining my designation as a chartered accountant.
Randy Manning
Randy Manning, the Charlottetown office managing partner of the accounting firm H.R. Doane & Co. (now Grant Thornton) had, by far, the greatest impact on my career. In 1961, when The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario wouldn’t accept me as a student because I hadn’t completed high school, he convinced the PEI Institute to do so. Without Randy’s support and confidence I would never have become a chartered accountant.
Don Beach
Immediately after obtaining my CA designation I was back in Toronto working as a one-person tax department at TransCanadaPipeLines. Don Beach convinced me to get back into public accounting by joining him at McDonald Currie (now PWC). Public accounting opened doors for me that would never have been available in industry.
Don was also instrumental in Anne Murray becoming my client, another horizon-broadening part of my carer. Anne’s lawyer asked Don to take her on as a client, but Don was more interested in corporate work. As most of my clients were individuals, Don arranged for me to meet Anne and she became an important client for almost twenty-five years.
The first day I worked at McDonald Currie, Don introduced me to his partner Ed Marchant, saying he thought Ed and I would get along well.
Ed Marchant
Ed and I had both played senior hockey in the Maritimes; Ed for the Sydney Millionaires and I for the Charlottetown Royals, although Ed played there ten years before I did. We both obtained our CA designations without the benefit of a university education. When I joined McDonald Currie, I was already doing work for Glenn Hall, and Bobby and Dennis Hull were clients of Ed’s. When he found out about Glenn, and that I knew Bobby, Ed immediately assigned the Hulls to me. Though a keen hockey fan, Ed, like Don Beach, was more interested in corporate work. Ed’s action contributed significantly to my eventually having fifty-four NHL players as clients, becoming a member of the executive committee of Hockey Canada, and being offered the job as Alan Eagleson’s replacement as executive director of the NHLPA.
Ed immediately took me under his wing, offering sound advice whether I wanted it or not. Although his hatred of meetings was legendary, he showed me how to effectively chair and participate in them. He taught me most of what I know about negotiation, a skill that frequently came in handy throughout my career. It was Ed who pointed out to me that in any new situation the first thing to determine is whom you can trust; one of the best pieces of advice I ever received.
Dave Matheson
Dave Matheson, a senior McMillan Binch law partner whom I met when we both took the first Canadian Institute of Chartered Accounts/Canadian Bar Association joint in-depth tax course in 1967, is the lawyer I did the most work with from 1968 until my retirement in 2003. In 1975 Dave introduced me to Ron Strange, the Toronto managing partner of Touche Ross & Co. (now Deloitte), which resulted in my being a senior partner there for fifteen years, twice as long as I spent with any other organization. Most important of all, he’s been one of my best friends for over half a century.