The Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) held its annual fundraising luncheon this week in Toronto to give out some awards and highlight its charitable work. It featured a stellar lineup of legal liege Edward Greenspan as master of ceremonies and keynote speaker David Goodman, CEO of $60-billion money manager DundeeWealth Inc. and scion to father Ned Goodman's financial empire.
Advance talk was that Mr. Goodman, who by night sometimes does standup comedy in clubs, might favour the audience with a routine, but he gave a sober talk about barriers to financial literacy and work ethic. Instead, it was Mr. Greenspan, a friend of the Goodmans, who did the yuk-yuk thing.
Noting that early in his career Mr. Goodman joined the law firm Smith Lyons, Mr. Greenspan said: "At the end of the first day, he was named a partner." When he then joined Goodman and Co., "at 9 a.m. they started a search for a chief executive officer. At 9:05 David was selected. David's career has been nothing short of meteoric. This charity helps people overcome barriers to employment. I know of no one better qualified to speak to you today than David Goodman."
Mr. Goodman announced his company would contribute $50,000 over two years toward a financial literacy program.
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EAU CANADA
Expect cottage country real estate agents to be toasting themselves with champagne this week. Nearly every wealthy, worldly American worth cold-calling was exposed to the charms of Ontario's cottage country this past Sunday - courtesy of a glowing article in the New York Times Magazine.
Entitled Eau Canada, the article by Stephen Metcalf was a clever study of "how the very rich live the simple life" in Muskoka and Georgian Bay.
"I am here to tell you, there is nothing quite like a twilight cocktail on a Muskoka dock," Mr. Metcalf wrote approvingly, even while noting the presence of "actors, hockey players and captains of Canadian business that make up the local float-plane-and-helipad set."
As for the more rustic Georgian Bay, "Once Canadians went to Muskoka to escape Toronto. Now they go to Georgian Bay to escape Muskoka."
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