Advertising never boring Why did you decide to move from Australia to North Vancouver?: “I always had a hankering to travel, Like most Australians I started on a round-the-world trip and made the mistake of landing here and fell in love with Van- couver. At this rate it will take me 700 years to complete my world trip. This part of the world has been very good to me, and I get very upset with people who are out to destroy it.’” What do you like to do to relax?: “Fishing at this time of the year is a top priority. My wife and I just came back from a trap fishing trip in northern B.C. and the Cariboo. In the wintertime we have a place in Palm Desert. I also like to garden and golf.”’ Why do you spend time teaching advertising at the B.C. Institute of Technology?: ‘‘The reason I teach is because it recharges your bat- teries. I find no greater reward than helping enthusiastic young people to further their careers. Most of them are very good stu- dents. I have a tremendously high regard for BCIT, we've had ex- cellent students graduate from there.’’ Why did you get into the advertis- ing business?: ‘I was always in- terested in it right from high school. My mother bought me a subscription to the Saturday Even- ing Post and 1 had the good for- tune to get involved with them. I went through a school of advertis- ing in Australia and I did a course at UBC called the extension course for commerce. It’s a stimulating industry. If anybody gets bored in this business, they had better think again. No day is like the day before.’’ ee f Summertime is fun time and a good time to get a head start on the school year. Just a couple of hours a week this summer at a Sylvan Learning Centre” can help your child do better this fall in subjects ranging from reading and writ- | ing to basic math and algebra. M1790 Sylvan Leanany Comoran RICHMOND 273-3266 17 - Sunday, AFFLUENCE @@ INFLUENCE NEWS photo Cindy Goodman WHEN A New York magazine took aim af the Vancouver Stock Ex- change, John Leonard and his company fought back. 925-1522 C-1348 marine drive west vancouver Helping kids do better? eyeglass shop COQUITLAM 941-9166 NORTH SHORE 985-6811 READING | MATH + WRITING « LGEBRA + BEGINNING READING STUDY SKILLS + Employees July 8, 1990 - North Shore News come first in Leonard’s business From page 16 “—t was not constructive criti- cism. That triggered a response from the VSE and us in which we ran ads in the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Post, the Globe and Mail, the Vancouver Sun and Province that was titled ‘Enough Is Enough.*** As a result, says Leonard, Bar- rons received a flood of negative letters opposed to the story from VSE-listed companies from all over North America, Hong Kong and Europe. Miller and Leonard, whose chairman Russell Brink and exec- utive vice-president Glen Carelton are also North Shore residents, employs 18 people. It’s those people, says Leonard, who have made the company as successful as it is. “The people are very important in this business. We don’t have any capital investment. All of our capital investment goes down in the elevator at 5 o'clock.”” And while the top executives of some companies tend to nay ELEGANT ... gPRESTIGIOUS wee , SECLUDED .. disassociate themselves from their employees, Leonard takes a com- pletely opposite approach. If you work for Miller and Leonard, you would be free to walk into Leonard's office at any time, or phone him at home...at any time. “*All my life I've had an open- door policy for anyone who wants to talk to me day or night,”’ says Leonard. ‘I had a creative direc- tor who had his best ideas be- tween two and three in the morn- ing so | was on the phone to him at that hour.” Sitting in his second-floor of- fice, which overlooks Vancouver harbor, Leonard reflects on his long and successful advertising ca- reer. And in a business where one wrong campaign can cost you not only a client but your entire business, Leonard smiles knowing he has made all the right moves. “*T guess I’m the senior senator in the advertising business. The nice thing about it is if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change one thing that [ have done.”’ Bern. ee e ° Tiffany Pines 1900 Indian River Crescent North Vancouver, B.C. The Largest and Best Priced Townhomes in North Vancouver New Adult-Oriented 3 Bedroom Plus Den Townhomes (2572 to 2605 square feet) OPEN DAILY FOR VIEWING 1 to 5 P.M. (except Friday): - 929-3214 REDEKOP PROPERTIES INC. _ 662-8144 a