“Investor activism is a shareholder right; it’s only newsworthy because investors were quite lazy for so long.” Greg Boland
Ever since Derek DeCloet declared Greg Boland the "Smartest Guy on Bay St." in 2006, this notion has gone unchallenged. That is, until I started stirring things last year. Now, upon careful reflection and in my capacity as the Sheriff of Bay Street, I have decided to revoke Greg Boland's title as the Smartest Man on Bay St. Uncock your skeptical eyebrow, this is totally within my powers.
Now, it is true that I am mostly doing this out of spite, because Greg Boland did not return my emails asking for his performance numbers. Actually, he did reply once - the subject line I used was “Please open me” - I hope this is useful in your own efforts to email people you don’t know. But that exchange was not fruitful. Since my last post on him, I have learned that Thomas Dea, former Onex MD, Harvard MBA and one of four principals at West Face, a Boland partner since 2003 is no longer with the firm. He had been in charge of special situations.
I respect Boland - I think his early numbers were so strong that he could have slept for the past ten years and still had one of the best records around. But Boland has held the title for too many years, and we need to survey the landscape to see if there aren't any new players worthy of it. I am thus putting in play the honour to be officially called The Smartest Person on Bay Street Who is Not From Winnipeg. I had to exclude Winnipeg because both Bruce Flatt and Gerry Schwartz are natives of the city, and giving the award to either would be a dog-bites-man story. Larry Sarbit is also from Winnipeg, but that's neither here nor there.
I will now appoint a Blue Ribbon Committee to lead the search for our honoree. This committee shall be composed of me and a blue ribbon. But I am open to your suggestions.
I don't know if Greg Boland went around introducing himself to people as the Smartest Man on Bay Street or if he put it on his business card, but from now on, he must desist from such conduct.