Over the past three decades, Danny has held senior positions in business, law, government, and politics.

He is currently Counsel to McInnes Cooper – advising on business matters, Collective Social Responsibility and Aboriginal Law.

He has been lead counsel in cases at all levels of court, including the Supreme Court of Canada.

He acted as an advisor to Justice Canada and the United Nations, and consultant to the governments of Thailand, Jamaica, Tanzania, and Ukraine.

In Nova Scotia, he was the province’s Chief Negotiator on Aboriginal rights between 2006 and 2014 in the Made in Nova Scotia Process. 

Danny helped author We Choose Now: A Playbook for Nova Scotians, a ten-year plan examining the economic future of the province.

He was the chair of the Nova Scotia Restorative Justice Program, the Smart Justice Network of Canada and Envision Halifax.

He also sat on the board of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and St. Francis Xavier University. 

Danny leads an active life beyond his work as a husband and father. He is the co-founder of a wilderness retreat focused on personal development.

I spoke with Danny Graham at my office in downtown Halifax and our conversation covered how he became involved in politics, his passion for restorative justice, his decision to leave to care for his wife during her cancer treatment and his views on the current state of political discourse...

His NDP involvement began as a researcher for Manitoba NDP MP David Orlikow in the late 70s. For the next few years, Dan played several roles for the NDP in Manitoba at both the federal and provincial levels.
Drawn by an offer from Alexa McDonough, Dan welcomed an opportunity to return to Nova Scotia in the mid-80s where he served as Chief of Staff and Communications Director for a decade.
When Alexa became federal NDP leader, Dan served 2 years as the Principal Secretary of Canada's NDP and a special advisor to the federal caucus. Returning to Nova Scotia in 1998, Dan went on to guide the party as Chief of Staff under leaders Robert Chisholm, Helen MacDonald and eventually Darrell Dexter.
I met with Dan to talk about his career at his home overlooking the public gardens in downtown Halifax.

Using clean, effective templates, the software eliminates unnecessary, repetitive functions and helps sell ideas. It is quickly gaining acceptance among a broad spectrum of users, growing Proposify's revenues to 4 million dollars annually.

But it hasn't been an easy process. Kyle's story is fascinating. Growing up in Cole Harbour in the Jehovah Witness faith, Kyle was presented with unique challenges and opportunities alike.

Kyle's is an entrepreneurs story, from starting his own agency to support a young family through personal struggles to building his concept using stalwart determination.

I met with Kyle at his cool downtown open concept office space on Barrington Street in Halifax...

His career, however, extends back into his high school years when he hosted the teen-oriented consumer affairs series Street Cents from 1989 until 1996. He then went on to host, co-produce and write for his own teen-oriented talk show, Jonovision, from 1996 until 2001.

He's appeared and starred in many television series and movies over the years becoming one of Canada's most well known young actors.

Now in his 40's, Jonathan has shifted focus, most recently co-writing a book and developing a podcast with his friend and drummer for the band Our Lady Peace Jeremy Taggert.

Canadianity, a compendium of vignettes of the country is top ten on the Globe and Mail's Canadian non-fiction bestseller list and the podcast, Taggert and Torrens.

In our conversation we talk about his early year, his decision to leaver Trailer Park Boys as well as his thoughts on reinventing himself and the impact of the Nova Scotia government's decision surrounding the Nova Scotia Film Tax Credit.

Jonathan is married and has two daughters, Sugar-Daisy and Indigo and lives a few minutes outside Truro, Nova Scotia which is where I sat down with him for a chat...

Born and raised in the tiny community of Berry Mills, New Brunswick, Jared Steeves started his training in being an antique auctioneer literally at his father’s knee.

Starting his own business, Key Auctions at age 18, Jared has built it into one of Atlantic Canada’s top three auction houses.

During his career, Jared has uncovered some remarkable treasures in Maritime estates including the discovery of a painting by the early 20th-century American wildlife artist Carl Ruingas which sold for over 100,000 dollars.

But his business tells only part of the story… now age 30, he’s already travelled to 67 counties and now is fully engaged in international humanitarian work on two continents.

I met with Jared in downtown Moncton…

Gerry Pond is the Chairman and Co-Founder of Mariner Partners Inc. and the Co-Founder of East Valley Ventures. He was CEO of NBTel and president of its successor, Aliant Telecom before he moved into the tech startup field.

Gerry is perhaps best known for his successes in the tech world with two New Brunswick startups Q1 Labs and Radian6. Collectively, they sold for a billion dollars in 2011.

Following these successes, he co-created the industry group Propel ICT, which runs the Launch36 tech startup accelerator, and established the University of New Brunswick’s Pond-Deshpande Centre in 2011 with the help of “Desh” Deshpande, an American billionaire tech entrepreneur.

He has also co-founded a number of other successful ICT start-ups in Atlantic Canada, including iMagicTV, Brovada Technologies, Shift Energy and Cirrus9. He is a Director of Upside Foundation, the New Brunswick Business Council, and the National Angel Capital Organization.

Gerry Pond has received many honours, including the 2003 Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal, Atlantic Business Magazine’s Top 50 CEO Award in Atlantic Canada in 2003 and 2005, an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of New Brunswick, an Honorary Doctor of Commerce from Saint Mary’s University, and he was inducted into the New Brunswick Business Hall of Fame in October 2007.

He has been recognized with the 2017 EY Atlantic Lifetime Achievement Award, the prestigious Wolf Blass Lifetime Achievement Award and he was awarded the first-ever Business Development Bank of Canada Entrepreneurship Champion.

Most recently, Gerry was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada. I met with Gerry at my office in downtown Halifax…

Jeremy White and his wife Melanie were looking for a summer retreat in Cape Breton after honeymooning in 2008. What they found were a new way of life and a successful small business.

Big Spruce Brewing sprung from a passion for craft beer and a serendipitous real estate buy in Nyanza.

Jeremy's background was in international engineering and while living in Nicaragua, they stumbled upon an opportunity to relocate to Nova Scotia.

He had been a home brewer for years, and have wanted to scale his production up to a commercial level for a long time.

With favourable condition for growing hops and an industry that has been taking off in the region, they opened up Nova Scotia’s first certified organic on-farm brewery. Big Spruce quickly established itself as a local favourite.

Jeremy has made his views known broadly about the public policy challenges facing the craft beer industry publishing this open letter to the people of Nova Scotia.

In our wide-ranging conversation, we talk about the challenges of starting the brewery, his ongoing frustration with regulatory issues and his views on the future of craft brewing and the Atlantic Canadian economy.

I spoke with him in the brewery in a beautiful setting overlooking the Bras d'Or Lakes in Cape Breton.

Denis Joseph Patrick Ryan. Irish musician turned successful businessman,

He is one of Canada's leading performers, helping establish traditional Celtic music throughout North America, England, and Australia.

Denis was born in Newport, County Tipperary, Ireland, immigrating to Toronto in 1969.

Eventually moving to St. John's, Newfoundland, he founded what became one of Canada's most well known traditional bands, Ryan's Fancy. In 1983 the group was disbanded and he turned his attention to the stock market and other business interests.

Ryan moved to Halifax where he and his family have resided for more than 35 years. I sat down with Denis in his home near the Public Gardens in downtown Halifax.

In our conversation, we cover topics as wide ranging as his time with Ryan's Fancy, his involvement with craft brewing in the 1980's and Nova Scotia Crystal.

Halifax Magazine

Show Notes:

Saeed El-Darahali is the driving force behind the SimplyCast team, who built the company from the ground up to what is now an industry-leading marketing platform that serves clients in over 175 countries.

He has over 10 years of management experience in the IT industry, with an interest in strategic partnering, corporate financing, strategic growth, operations, and sales and marketing management.

Saeed, as you will hear, is passionate about technology and about helping people reach their goals.

He enjoys sharing his experiences with start-up companies, offering insights into growing a business and becoming successful.

Saeed holds a Masters of Business Administration, a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, a Certificate of Human Resource Management and Minor in Economics, all from Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Saeed is featured in the Sobey School of Business’s Success on My Own Terms campaign.

I met Saeed in his office in what he has dubbed... Silicon Dartmouth

That launched a career of serial entrepreneurship resulting in the founding of AMJ Campbell Van Lines, Premiere Executive Suites, Premiere Van Lines, Premiere Self-Storage, Premiere Mortgage Center, Oceanstone Resorts, Moore Executive Suites and Atlantic Signature Mortgage and Loan.

He is the author of two inspirational books, On the Move and You Don’t Need a MBA to Make Millions where he shares his journey and provides practical advice for entrepreneurs.

Tim has received The Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal, The Distinguished Service Award from the Canadian Mover’s Association, and the Certificate of Merit, Entrepreneur Category, in the Canada Awards for Business Excellence.

He's been honoured multiple times as one of the Top 50 CEO’s for Atlantic Canada and awarded a tribute as Master Entrepreneur of the Year, Atlantic Region.

An active philanthropist, Tim has given back through mentoring and charitable activities, including Junior Achievement of Canada, Best Buddies of Canada, the Canadian Olympic Association, the Alzheimer Association of Nova Scotia, the Mental Health Association of Nova Scotia and the Stephen Lewis Foundation.

I met with Tim at his ocean-side home in Chester Nova Scotia, where we sat down to talk about his life and his philosophy of doing business...

Today, I’m talking with a native Nova Scotian who has earned a reputation as one of the best bladesmiths in the world…Murray Carter.

At 18, Murray Carter set out from Nova Scotia to see the world. A major first stop on the tour was a nine-month stay in Japan where he had arranged to be hosted by a karate dojo.

The stopover turned into an inspiration for Murray who would go on to apprentice with a 16th generation Yoshimoto bladesmith for six years.

Such was his dedication to the craft, Murray was asked to take the position of number seventeen in the Sakemoto family tradition of Yoshimoto bladesmithing.

He moved to the United States and continued hand forging one of a kind blades in Oregon. He continues growing his Carter Cutlery business on a reputation of creating some of the finest blades in the world.

I caught up with Murray at his family’s summer home in the beautiful setting of Petite Riviere, on the South Shore of Nova Scotia. We sat in the kitchen of his comfortable guest house, where we talked about his fascinating journey...

Socials

 @CarterCutlery

 www.facebook.com/CarterCutlery/

 Video

How to Videos 

Profile of Murray Carter, Bladesmith

Carter Cutlery and the History of the Yoshimoto Bladesmiths

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An Alien of Extraordinary Ability Murray Carter with Tim Ferriss

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Bladesmithing with Murray Carter

Rob Steele built his entrepreneurial career in auto-related industries throughout the 1990s. The Steele Auto Group, is now the largest and most diversified auto group in Atlantic Canada with 900 employees, and 17 dealerships in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador, representing 22 brands.

The Steele Auto Group is recognized as one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies.

Rob’s other hat is President and CEO of Newfoundland Capital Corporation or Newcap. Since taking the job in the early 2000’s Rob has focused on the radio business, and now controls 95 radio licenses across Canada with 1000 employees.

Rob also sits on the boards of Stingray Digital, Montreal, and Atlantic Signature Mortgage, Halifax.

Rob has a strong passion for music. He’s been a Past Co-Chair of the East Coast Music Awards Event Committee and continues to be involved with the ECMA’s in an advisory capacity. He also serves on the Advisory Committee for Junior Achievement of Nova Scotia, and is also a Director of the Halifax Mooseheads Hockey Club.

Rob is a strong supporter of giving back to the communities and both Newcap Radio and the Steele Auto Group are very actively involved in many charitable causes and Rob is personally active with the Alzheimer’s Society, the Mental Health Foundation, Family SOS, Daffodil House, Feed NS and the Arthritis Society. He was named Outstanding Individual Philanthropist of the Year in 2014 by the NS Association of Fundraising Professional.s I met Rob at his home near the Kearney Lake Road and we sat down on a beautiful afternoon on his patio to chat…

*In our conversation, Rob mentions a unattributed poem called the Creativity of Living. The quote is as follows; 

The man who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The man who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been before.

Creativity in living is not without its attendant difficulties, for peculiarity breeds contempt. And the unfortunate thing about being ahead of your time is that when people finally realize you were right, they’ll say it was obvious all along. You have two choices in your life; you can dissolve into the mainstream, or you can be distinct. To be distinct, you must be different. To be different, you must strive to be what no one else but you can be . . .

There is some investigation of this quote, attributed to several figures, available at http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/10/18/follows-crowd/

On this episode I’m delighted to sit down with former Syrian refugee, medical student and entrepreneur, Tareq Hadhad

In the election of 2015, then candidate for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged if his party won the election, his new Liberal government would begin effort to bring 25,000 Syrians displaced by the war to resettle in Canada.

Among the families selected were the Hadhads.

Tareq had been studying medicine and his father was running a well establish chocolate manufacturing business in Damascus when hostilities broke out in Syria. After essentially losing everything in fire fights, looting and airstrikes, the family fled to Lebanon, eventually being selected to come to Canada as part of the Syrian refugee program. They were sponsored by a community group in Antigonish.

Theirs is a success story by almost every measure. In fact, their hard work, investment, crowd funding project, and community support has resulted in the construction of a full scale chocolate factory in Antigonish. Their story was celebrated by the Prime Minister as an example of success in a speech to the UN Refugee Summit.

There are a great many aspects of the Syrian conflict that might be explored, however on this occasion I simply wanted to meet with Tareq to get a sense of his family’s experience and the resettlement process in Atlantic Canada. I met him in the back of the original tiny chocolate making facility on the side of the road next to their modest family home. We sat down on a couple of squeaky chairs for a chat…

On this episode I’m delighted to sit down with the President of the Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC), Don Bureaux

As President of NSCC, Don Bureaux serves as the chief executive officer for the operation of 13 campuses, with over 120 programs, and approximately 24,000 students and 2,000 staff.

Don Bureaux has been president of NSCC since 2011 but his commitment to adult education spans over two decades working with adult learners at colleges and universities as well as professional designation granting organizations across Canada and internationally.

At NSCC, he works to bring the college’s vision – transforming Nova Scotia one learner at a time – to life.

Don holds a certificate in Adult Education and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Acadia University and an MBA from Heriot-Watt University in Scotland. He’s Chartered Professional Accountant, Certified General Accountant and holds an international designation as a Certified Business Counsellor through the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

He’s been granted his Fellow Chartered Professional Accountant (FCPA) designation by CPA Canada and his Fellow Certified General Accountant (FCGA) designation.

In 2015, 2016, and 2017 Don was named one of the Top 50 CEOs by Atlantic Business Magazine and serves on the boards of many not-for-profit organizations in Nova Scotia.

I dropped into visit Don in his office at the Leeds Street campus of the NSCC in North End Halifax

During our conversation he references a book Road to Character by David Brooks. Click for the link and below, you'll find a link to a YouTube video of a Ted Talk on one of his principle areas of discussion, the difference between resume virtues and eulogy virtues.

Don and I began by talking about his childhood...

To watch the Ted Talk with David Brooks, click here

On this episode I’m delighted to sit down with author and social business innovator, Barb Stegemann.

Barb Stegemann was born in Montreal, Quebec and holds degrees in Sociology and Journalism from the University of King’s College.

Barb built her own boutique PR firm while living in British Columbia and created innovative, award winning campaigns winning numerous marketing awards from the Economic Developers’ Association of Canada
After Barb’s best friend Captain Trevor Greene was wounded in Afghanistan in 2006, she set out to support his mission of economic empowerment creating a new business model that supports trade with nations experiencing war or strife.

She launched The 7 Virtues Beauty Inc., a company that began by sourcing essential oils distilled from legal crops to provide an alternative to the illegal poppy crop for farmers and began manufacturing perfume.

The fragrance line brought to reality the essence of her best selling book, The 7 Virtues of A Philosopher Queen; that women can flex their buying power to affect change and reverse issues of war and poverty.

Barb successfully pitched and landed a venture capital deal on CBC’s Dragons’ Den and has been building her company with mentor Brett Wilson.

Recently the story has been told in the documentary feature Perfume Wars which has won accolades at film festivals across Canada and the United States

She been named one of the Top Most Powerful Women in Canada and received the Women Innovator’s Award from the US State Department for the Economy of Canada.

She is one of the few Women in Canada to have been made an Honorary Colonel for the Royal Canadian Air Force and is the first female to receive this honour for her base, 14 Wing Greenwood...and was award an Honorary Doctor of Letter from the University of New Brunswick.

Barb and her partner, Mike Velemirovich, live in Halifax, which is where I met up with Barb to talk about her life...

On this episode I’m delighted to sit down with one of Canada’s best Editorial cartoonists, Bruce MacKinnon

Bruce has been nominated eight times for a National Newspaper Award (NNA), winning five times. He also received the NNA inaugural Journalist of the Year award for 2014.

Among many other honours, Bruce has also been awarded 17 Atlantic Journalism Awards for editorial cartooning…including Journalist of the Year in 1991 and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000;

He’s been given an honourary doctorate by St. Mary's University for his work in the field of editorial cartooning and is a member of the Order of Nova Scotia. In 2013 he received both an honourary Doctor of Fine Arts from NSCAD University and the Friend of StFX Award from St. Francis Xavier University.

In 2014 he won the World Press Freedom Award.

Bruce is also a very good musician. In 2015, he and his son, Jamieson (Jay), won The Coast’s Best of Halifax Reader's Choice Award for Best Cover Band. You can catch them regularly appearing at Durty Nelly’s on Saturday afternoons in downtown Halifax.

Bruce and his wife Peggy live in Halifax, and I dropped by his house where he was finishing up one of his daily cartoons for the Chronicle Herald...

On this episode, the Commander of Maritime Forces Atlantic and Joint Task Force Atlantic, Rear-Admiral John Newton

Rear-Admiral Newton began his career in the Navy in 1983, after trying his hand as a geologist out west.

He completed tours with the destroyer HMCS Iroquois, HMCS Preserver, and HMCS Montreal gaining a specialty in Canadian maritime sovereignty through countless fishery patrols and three Arctic sovereignty missions.
In 2000, he completed a year of Joint military studies at the Command and Staff College Toronto, followed by advanced military studies in 2004.

Rear-Admiral Newton has deployed on NATO missions of the Cold War, and UN peace support operations, including the Gulf War in 1991, Haiti in 1993, and the maritime embargo of the former Yugoslavia in 1995. He also served at National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa as Director of International Plans in the Strategic Joint Staff.

Beyond professional duties, Rear-Admiral Newton focuses strongly on his family, strives to maintain a balanced work-home life in his home in Lunenburg. I dropped in to visit the Rear Admiral Newton at his office at the Navy Shipyard on Halifax Harbour