Military Experience

The 48th Highlanders of Canada, Major

Toronto

I am a graduate of the Militia Command and Staff Course. I stood first nationally on the qualifying exams.

I held a variety of Regimental appointments, including: Operations and Training Officer, Officer Commanding the tasked composite company. Company Commander of the Recruit Company, Training Company, Trained Company and Headquarters / Support Company, Second-in-Command of various companies, Quartermaster, Transport Officer, Signals Officer, and Platoon Commander. I also served on staff at Central Militia Area Headquarters as SO3 Administration and Logistics.

I coordinated and commanded various types of training including manoeuvers, field exercises, trades training and qualification courses at both the Company and the Battalion level. In the latter instance it was in my capacity as the Operations Officer, Seagull, call sign Niner Bravo.

Business Experience

In my civilian employment, I utilized the skills I had learned in the military to accomplish my objectives.

I have been a life insurance agent, corporate trainer, Manager of the Financial Planning Department of a major insurance company, business owner, and business executive.

Self-employed Chartered Financial Consultant

Toronto, Hamilton, and Belleville

I earned the designations Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU), Chartered Financial Consultant (CH.F.C.) and Registered Financial Planner (R.F.P.). I also held the licence Certified Financial Planner (CFP) while I was practising.

I have broad experience in all aspects of personal financial planning for both individuals and business owners. Particular areas of expertise included tax planning, inter-generational business transfers, and retirement planning.. I provided fee-based financial planning, and counseling services, together with a wide range of financial products, where appropriate, through extensive brokerage connections.

I was also associated with Canadians Resident Abroad, and provided in-country financial services to Canadian expats, who were clients of Canadian Financial Consultants (888) Inc. in South Asia, particularly Sri Lanka.

Leon Frazer Executive Financial Consultants, Vice-President

Toronto

I was responsible for the operation of the firm's Executive Financial Counselling practice. LFEFC provided fee-based financial planning services to senior and top executives of major corporations, and portfolio clients of the investment counseling firm, Leon Frazer and Associates Ltd.

Integrated Financial Services, Regional Vice President

Toronto

I was responsible for recruiting and managing financial services brokers in the Greater Toronto Area., and was the local liaison with Ontario-based life insurance companies on administrative and marketing matters.

North American Life, Financial Planning Consultant

Toronto

As the Manager of the company's Financial Planning Division, I was responsible for Advanced Agent Training in financial planning skills, provision of case and technical assistance to the company's Canadian agents and brokers, including, joint fieldwork, the preparation and presentation of reports and briefs, and the production of both technical and point-of-sale materials. I also conducted regional workshops and an annual Financial Planning School. Other responsibilities included: editing and contributing to a Financial Planning Library of six volumes; supervising the company's Staff Insurance Services, Executive Counselling Service, and DPSP Documents Service.

I also spoke at Conferences, meetings, and workshops across Canada and in the United States; and contributed "expert" articles on financial planning matters to some thirty business and professional publications across Canada - for example, Engineering Digest, Toronto Business, and Pensions and Benefits Canada.

Ministry Experience

Before I was ordained, I created para-ministries, and was a board member of a workplace ministry - The King-Bay Chaplaincy in Downtown Toronto. I have served abroad in a small mission in Sri Lanka, and became its Chair and Managing Director, and the Hon'y Superintendent of a children’s home there.

In my ordained ministry career, I was a late vocation, ordained Deacon in 2007 at the age of 60, and appointed Deacon-in-Charge of a Northern BC parish just after completing my Master of Divinity degree (MDiv (Hons). I was priested in 2008.

The Anglican Diocese of Toronto.

St Thomas' Church and the Parish of Cavan and Manvers. Priest-in-Charge

Millbrook

The Anglican Diocese of Caledonia.

The Parish of The North Peace, Incumbent (Parish Priest)

Fort St. John BC

Military

The 48th Highlanders of Canada

I recruited and trained a full strength infantry Company from scratch to Trained Infantryman in one training year.

I achieved my objective by thinking outside the box. I asked for and obtained command of the Recruiting Office and the agreement of the Commanding Officer to give me a young Lieutenant and Sergeant whenever I asked. I tasked the Officer and NCO to find thirty young men who wanted to be Highlanders and walk them through each step of the recruiting and intake process. As ten recruits gathered I asked for a Corporal to take over their care and monitor their training, thus creating a section. Three sections made up a Platoon. When the first Platoon was nearing its goal, I asked for, and got, another Lieutenant and Sergeant. Rinse and repeat for the third Platoon. Company Training was done on complete weekends, accelerating the training program.

After the first Platoon, I was asked to take over an Armoury General Military Training program - the common first phase for Recruit training. Consequently I also received candidates from two other Regiments who shared the facility. To accomodate everyone, I asked for and got training facilities and rations at the Regular Force Base in Toronto. A crucial part of my agreement with the Commanding Officer was that my Recruit Training Company would stay together and transfer into the next training year, intact, to continue their Trade Qualification Training (Infantryman), and then continue as the Tasked Trained Company. This process created a close-knit body of toops, with continuity of leadership, and mutual respect among the Officers, Non-comissioned Officers and men that greatly enhanced their effective performance.

When training areas and ranges were not available from our local support base, I requested and got them elsewhere within driving distance. I utilized ranges at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Winona and Coburg when our usual ranges at CFB Borden were unavailable. I also obtained training areas at Camp Meaford, Camp Ipperwash and CFB Petawawa for field exercises. In the case of the latter, a distance of 390 km from Toronto, I used advance and rear parties to position and return equipment and rations, and gave the troops enforced rest on the road move, simulating a deployment. They left the Armoury in Toronto Friday Night, bivouaced overnight at Petawawa and entered into the exercise by 6 am Saturday morning. The exercise finished Sunday morning at daybreak. The troops received enforced rest again on the return trip to Toronto and were on their way home by 3 pm.

My most significant command was a "Square" Combat Team consisting of a full company of mechanized infantry, mounted in armoured personel carriers, a full squadron of light tanks, 281 personnel and 56 vehicles, plus a battery of artillery in direct support.

Business

North American Life.

I significantly improved the company's return on Advanced Agent Training by adopting the Adult Education Paradigm "Nobody goes to lunch until they do what was taught".

The annual Financial Planning School was moved from the company's Head Office in Downtown Toronto to a Community College Residence near Barrie where the participants lived and worked together, using the Financial Planning Library and tools provided by the company, to analyze and present a proforma case before leaving the school.

Part of the course presented a performance systems approach to selling in advanced markets that made the company's managers and field directors much more supportive of the Financial Planning Approach. It worked on the basis of selling prospective clients what they wanted, then educating them once they had become clients. By integrating what the client had just purchased with his or her overall financial planning, further needs were often discovered that led to larger or further sales. Everything looped back to a fact-finding and the presentation of a comprehensive financial plan, establishing a stronger client relationship, and a roadmap for future engagement.

Ministry

St Thomas' Church and the Parish of Cavan and Manvers,

Millbrook, ON

To re-vitalize the Parish, I led the establishment of a Fresh Expression of Church - Journeys Books, Gifts and Meeting Place - in a storefront on Millbrook's main street - to connect the church with its community. The Church building is on a dead-end street, with little walk-in or drop-by traffic. I, re-established Youth Ministry via a Youth Intern working out of the meeting room in Journeys.

In order to accomplish these things, I needed to get a separate Ontario Corporation Number for the Churchwardens of St Thomas's Church, Millbrook. This was necessary so that the Bookstore could get a Master Business License needed to open a Bank account, get phone and computer services, deal with suppliers, accept credit and debit card transactions and get a point-of-sale terminal. I also had to get clarification from the Canada Revenue Agency that the Bookstore would be regarded as a wholly-owned subsidiary of St Thomas's, and would not jeopardize the Chuch's Charitable Registration. The Bookstore received startup funding from an Episcopal Area Grant. Furniture, fixtures and starting inventory were donated by the Anglican Church of Canada on the closing of its Bookstore in Toronto.

I re-established Pastoral Visiting and regular worship services in three retirement residences within the communities served by the Parish. I also I re-established a Vacation Bible School.

I was also able to acquire a Line of Credit for the Church, to even out its cashflow. This enabled, the Parish to meet its obligations in a timely manner despite the boom and bust experience most church's experience from holiday travel, and the ensuing drop in personal attendance, and givings..

The Anglican Parish of the North Peace,

Fort St John, BC

I conducted Advent and Lenten Missions, Parish Visioning, Re-Imagine Church, Appreciative Inquiry, Serendipity Small Groups, and Back-to-Church Sunday with a sustained doubling of the congregation. The serendipitous by-product of that event was an "instant" Sunday School of some twenty children.

I established a "Growing Committee" to involve younger members in the social ministry of the Church. Through them, I conducted Feasts, a Parish Spring Fete, Messy Worship for children, A Children's Christmas Pageant incorporated within a traditional Carols and Lessons Service, and parish picnics.

I re-established Confirmation classes, a Servers Guild, and a Youth Group, encouraged Lay Leadership, and assisted two women in discerning a call to be Lay Readers.

I introduced the Parish to a richer worship life with the introduction of the full Paschal Triduum during Holy Week, Stations of the Cross, and Tenebrae. I also encouraged the establishment of a Christian Meditation Group, and established Taize services during Lent and Advent.