10 minute read
IAN TELFER
by Jason Boudreau
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Before we dive in, I first want to take a moment to extend my very best wishes and hope this finds you and yours safe and healthy. As a race, we are certainly experiencing times unlike any other. In this issue, I am both humbled and excited to bring you another story of a big-hearted entrepreneur with a passion to create transformation on the planet and leave it a better place for future generations- something I believe is important now more than ever.
In early March, 2020, just before the world went into lockdown, I was in Palm Springs and had the fortunate opportunity to spend some time with Ian Telfer, former Chairman and CEO of Goldcorp Inc. Ian is a well-known Canadian mining entrepreneur and executive with a successful career spanning over three decades. During his time at Goldcorp, Ian led the company to become Canada’s top gold producer, prior to its acquisition in April, 2019, by Newmont Mining for USD $10B. Over his career, Ian developed a passion for philanthropy. Sharing his success through giving back to those people and organisations that had made a difference in his life became a core focus for Ian, personally, and Goldcorp, as a company. Throughout this candid conversation with Ian, his focus, drive and unique ability to lead were abundantly clear. What came through even stronger though were his humility, kindness and generosity of spirit- qualities of a leader that people truly want to follow.
Ian’s life journey began in 1946 in Oxford, England. His father was a Scottish pilot in the Royal Air Force and had spent time living in Canada (Moosejaw, SK) training other Air Force pilots before being transferred back to the UK and meeting Ian’s mother on a blind date. The family lived in England until 1948 when Ian’s parents decided to move to Canada and after a five-year stint back in Moosejaw, they finally ended up putting down roots in Toronto.
Ian grew up in the upper-middle-class area of Downsview, where he remained until the end of high school. He shares, “I failed grade 13 and barely got into the University of Toronto”. Once he settled into U of T, he decided to join a fraternity and explains “I was voted Most Likely to Fail by my fraternity brothers”. Eventually Ian passed his final university exams, however, did not have a job lined up to take once he graduated.
Over the next five years, Ian held many different jobs, including selling pharmaceuticals and even life insurance for London Life. After a short stint in Europe for “fun and work”, Ian found himself in Ottawa working for Prentice Hall, selling university text books. “Then one day I woke up and told myself I’d better get my act together”, he recalls. He continues, “I always read Fortune and other business publications like that. One thing I noticed is that almost all CEOs started off as Brand Managers and then eventually became CEOs. I decided that I was going to become a CEO and start off first as a Brand Manager to get there”. Ian decided to go back to school to get his MBA. He wrote the GMATs and then applied to 10 different business schools in Canada, every one of them turning him down.
At this point, in 1974, Ian was still with Prentice Hall and shares, “I hated my job, I hated my life”. Then, on Labour Day of that year, he received a call from the University of Ottawa who remarkabley had an opening in the business school. “They also proceed to tell me that I have the worst marks ever for a graduate student and to please not embarrass them”, he laughs. Ian was so grateful for the opportunity and explains, “I showed up, worked my ass off and at Christmas, I received a scholarship into the MBA program”.
In the summer of 1975, Ian was working for Bata Shoes and had just met his wife to be, Nancy. They met on a blind date, just has his parents had back in 1944. By this time, Ian had been diligently been pursuing his brand manager aspirations, sending letters to stalwart companies like Colgate, General Mills, Lever and Proctor & Gamble. Ian remembers “at the time I was 28/29 years old. I got a bunch of interviews and both Colgate and Proctor & Gamble gave me job offers calling on Eastern Ontario drug stores. My response to them was, ‘I already did that job. Forget it, I’m not doing that again’”. He decided to reach out to some of his friends and seek their counsel on what he should do next. One of his friends suggested he get his Chartered Accountant designation, “so I did!” Ian continues, “In 1976 I wrote the CA exam and I Jason Boudreau with Ian Telfer, Palm Springs, 2020
passed! I started working right away at a firm called Thorne Riddell and then in 1979, a mining company called Hudson Bay Mining called. I took the job right away in the role of financial analyst”.
Ian worked at Hudson Bay Mining until 1983, when a chance arose that he couldn’t pass up, “so I moved to Brazil with Nancy and our one-year old son”. Ian shared, “I had an opportunity to work with Eike Batista, and we formed a company called TVX Gold. It was an incredible experience, we lived there for five more years, learned Portuguese, had a ton of fun and adopted our other son. At that time, TVX merged with INCO and I felt it was time to return to Canada, so in 1990, with our two boys”.
Shortly after returning to Toronto, Ian received a call from well-known mining entrepreneur Robert Friedland. Ian explains, “I was bored at the time so in 1993, I moved to Vancouver and joined Friedland in a company called Vengold. We raised money at one dollar, went to Venezuela, drilled and found…NO GOLD!. The stock then eventually dropped to five cents. We then decided to start a new project in Papua New Guinea through Vengold, run by Rio Tinto. The stock ran and then eventually gold prices dropped and the stock ended up at six cents”.
It was now 1999 and the internet was coming online fast. At that time, Ian decided to launch an internet startup called Itemus, using the same shell company as Vengold with the share price starting at six cents. He jokes, “at that time we asked, does Canada have an internet? The stock went on a nice run from six cents to five dollars and we invested in a number of different internet/IOT companies. Then, in July 2001, with the Dot-Com bubble bursting, the company went bankrupt”.
Ian was now 55 years old and he recalls that at that point in life, “I had two kids in Collingwood School and no job. I sold my house in West Vancouver and moved into a rental. Then, around 2002, I reconnected with Frank Giustra. We knew each other from the mining industry and Frank had called and told me he’d always wanted to work with me.” Ian and Frank then started Wheaton River Minerals and Ian remembers,
“we bought EVERYTHING. We kept on buying, acquiring a lot of assets, continued buying and acquiring and then, in 2005, we merged with Goldcorp”. After the merger, the offices were moved from Toronto to Vancouver. “It was incredible”, Ian exclaims,” when we started Wheaton, our market cap was $10M and at one point, Goldcorp hit a market cap of $50B. We grew from six to 20,000 employees”.
As the conversation segues from business to philanthropy, Ian mentions that what he is most proud of is that, “between 2002 and 2019, Goldcorp gave away over $100MM to charity. I was thrilled that we were able to have the impact that we did. I believed that for Goldcorp, it was just part of being a good corporate citizen and in Vancouver, there were very few large corporate citizens”. It was incredible to learn just how substantial Goldcorp’s contribution to the community truly was under Ian’s leadership. Ian reveals that, “as Goldcorp grew, the charities didn’t really know about us at first, and then every year, and the next year, and the next year, and the next year, they learned about us and our giving and requested support…and we were thrilled to do it! The difference with Goldcorp was that all of the other major companies like BMO, Telus, Rogers, etc. had products to sell to the public, we were just doing it out of the goodness of our hearts”.
As the company continued its incredible growth, so too did its focus on charitable giving. “I absolutely pushed it at Goldcorp”, remarks Ian, “we had an “eclectic” approach to giving, we did what felt good and really focused on staying in sync with our employees and the causes that mattered in their lives. As an example, we covered around 99% of the Special Olympics budget. We considered it as though we were “supporting friends” and my biggest concerns with the Newmont buyout were the future of the Goldcorp staff and the philanthropy”.
As the conversation turns from Goldcorp’s corporate philanthropic projects, to Ian’s personal interest in philanthropy, which he shares with his wife, Ian recounts a story about a unique call he received in the mid-’90s. “I’m in mining, living in Vancouver, it’s been about 20 years since I was at the University of Ottawa and I get a call from them. They ask, ‘is this Ian Telfer?’ Yes, ‘Did you go to the University of Ottawa?’, Yes, ‘We’re setting up a $5,000 scholarship in your name, have you thought about your criteria?’”. Ian recalls pausing for a moment’s reflection, before replying, “I want the scholarship to go to the student who is accepted into the MBA program with the lowest marks!”. After the faculty at the University of Ottawa heard about this, they put Ian on their “radar” and the next time the Dean was on a trip to Vancouver, he invited Ian to lunch, with the aim of establishing a line of communication between himself and the university.
Ian then fast-forwards the conversation to around 2005, “it was around the time the TV show The Apprentice started. I decided to create a posting for the MBA graduates that one student could apprentice under the CEO of Goldcorp. I go to the University of Ottawa, interview a bunch of students and up hiring a woman who turned out to be fantastic. We ran the apprentice program for only another year and both of them are still in the mining business today”.
In 2007, through the MBA apprentice program, Ian states, “I got to know the school and the school got to know me. Then, one day, the Dean says to me that no business school in Canada has been named after someone who went there”. This conversation then resulted in Ian making a significant contribution to his Alma Mater, with a donation of $25 million to the University of Ottawa’s School of Management. Following his generous gift, the name was changed to the Telfer School of Management. “The triple irony was”, Ian remarks, “the guy who got turned down, then gave a scholarship to the student with the worst marks, now has his name on the building!”.
Ian still returns to the school 2-3 times a year and effuses, “the students have a much stronger connection to the school when it’s named after a person. Invariably when I’m back there, someone comes up to me and says, ‘Mr. Telfer, I won your scholarship!’ and I can’t help but smile and laugh a little”.
Ian and Nancy’s generosity is felt throughout the community, both at home in Vancouver and across Canada. They have been generous supporters of Collingwood School, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Lions Gate Hospital to name but a few. Ian shares that “All causes are deserving causes. I believe personal philanthropy is about things that touch your heart”. Today, through their Fernwood Foundation (Fernwood Road is the first street they lived on Toronto), education and healthcare are the main focuses of their giving. “Philanthropy doesn’t need to be complicated”, says Ian, “today we just see things much more simply”.
At the conclusion of our engaging conversation, I asked Ian to share two key takeaways for anyone who wants to give back and become philanthropists themselves.
As expected, Ian’s words are resonant and make me think a lot about how to look at giving from a new perspective. “Focus on things that are impactful to you. Do something where you feel a close connection to it, where it’s close to your heart. And, I believe that to the extent possible, giving should be very public. When you do something, put your name on it! This will encourage others and inspire them to do the same!”.
JASON BOUDREAU CFP, CLU WEALTH ADVISOR Principal & Founder - VELA Wealth
