People magazine runs its annual list of the sexiest man alive. Here in Report on Business, there's a compilation of the deals of the year coming soon.
What if those two lists were married up? What if we paused for a moment to point out a handful of executives on the Street worth watching in the coming year?
Everyone working in financial services these days faces tough times. But here are five CEOs (actually six individuals, but the RBC hot seat is shared) who are dealing with unique challenges.
Doug McGregor and Mark Standish, co-CEOs, RBC Dominion Securities. There's only one way to go when you're No. 1, and it's not up.
Mr. McGregor and Mr. Standish began the year sharing the top job at Canada's largest and most successful investment bank; Chuck Winograd stepped down last October when he hit the mandatory retirement age of 60 and the legendary Tony Fell "retired" as chairman in 2007.
Their simple challenge is making a co-CEO structure work. On that front, there's every indication two strong personalities blend well.
The larger test is expanding the dealer's operations at a time when investors take a decidedly dim view of revenues and earnings from investment banking. Parent Royal Bank gets a bigger bang for each buck of profit it wrings out of retail branches and wealth management, so that's where capital will be deployed.
Further complicating the task facing Mr. McGregor and Mr. Standish is the fact that RBC Dominion is near the limits of what it can achieve in the domestic market, meaning growth must come in global arenas, where the Royal Bank brand is associated with a Scottish institution.
Courtenay Wolfe, CEO, Salida Capital.
She created the on-line side of Dell Canada, and sold all sorts of computers. Now she's got to sell all sorts of investors on the wisdom of continuing to back hedge funds.
Ms. Wolfe takes the reins at Salida after the $1-billion money manager's headline fund, an all-star performer for seven consecutive years, took a drubbing on resource stock holdings and its exposure to Lehman Brothers' failure. Smaller funds have been forced to close following this market meltdown. The Salida team is determined to bounce back.
Ms. Wolfe and colleagues are stressing a portfolio of funds with various styles, and the new CEO is getting favourable reviews as she makes the rounds with backers to explain there's far more to Salida than just energy and mining acumen.
Bruce Kagan, CEO, Blackmont Capital.
Mr. Kagan has the good fortune of being buddies with his boss, CI Financial head honcho Bill Holland. But the best of friendships can't obscure the fact that as a mid-sized, independent dealer, Blackmont is in that awkward middle ground between boutiques and bank-owned firms.
This investment dealer needs scale to prosper. It's not at all clear just how Blackmont's boss will bulk up, when parent CI Financial is better served by spending its capital on expanding mutual fund operations.
Paul Reynolds, CEO, Canaccord Capital. When the resource plays were booming, there was no better place to be. Canaccord's international reach and retail network set it apart from rivals, and Mr. Reynolds was the best paid executive on Bay Street.
But 2007 is an era ago. Canaccord is now wrestling with a comparatively high cost structure and retail network that can't generate trading commissions - things that Mr. Reynolds can control - and the commodity downturn, which no CEO can fix. Canaccord could also use scale. Mr. Reynolds, meet Mr. Kagan.
Judith Robertson, CEO, Belzberg Technologies.
Belzberg has tons of cool trading technology. Unfortunately, so do a great many bigger, better capitalized rivals. Founders of the 15-year-old firm were widely known to be shopping the franchise in the past, but never cut a deal.
Enter Ms. Robertson. She has made her bones blending cutting-edge trading networks with the people on trading desks who actually buy and sell stocks, as CEO of Markets Inc., which launched pioneering alternative Canadian marketplace BlockBook, and several new units at Barclays Global Investors. Now she's taking the reins at a turnaround play, backed by Belzberg's single largest shareholder, the occasionally activist folks at money manager Goodwood.