The CIBC investment banker out-’stached the competition by corralling his team — and, by extension, Canada — to raise the most money for Movember.
Congratulations! That’s got to feel good.
Yeah, I mean this is the third year we’ve done it and CIBC is pretty charity-focused, but this was a relatively new one for us. I think it opens up the idea of charity to that 25- to 35-year-old male who’s probably not a big United Way giver, for example, but who would get behind something like this.
What do you think propelled your team to first place?
I think it’s just numbers. We had something like 260 people participating so the more people you get, the more the fundraising dollars go up. Rick McCreary was our top fundraiser and a lot of his fundraising was through the clients he’s worked with over the years who are probably right in the demographic of those affected by this disease.
How did you rally everyone on your team to the top?
Harassed them (laughs). We’ve got some great, creative folks in our marketing group that sent out some funny weekly updates. And a big thing on Bay Street generally is rankings; who’s raising more money than who. So we did have a lot of friendly competition as well, and that was a good way of motivating people to raise more.
Be honest: Which one of you grew the best ’stache?
You know, Rick’s was pretty good. We haven’t actually awarded the best ’stache, we’ll probably do that later.
How did your ’stache stack up?
It wasn’t that great. I got hooked up to Canada AM last week for the shave down, so I had to get it shaved off on TV, which was pretty embarrassing. All for a good cause, though.
Best part of the experience for you?
The best part is knowing we raised a lot of money for a good cause and played a part in growing the campaign. Last year it raised $8 million in Canada and this year it looks like it’s heading toward $21 million.
Any plans to go to (second-place) Australia just to gloat?
(Laughs) No, not yet. I think some of the Australian firms like Macquarie have started to step it up into corporate dollar matching because I think they were a little irritated not having raised the most.
