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As I set out to write this article I had an extensive list of questions for each team member but due to space limitations, I won’t be able to share all their great responses. You can find the answers to, ‘I own way too many’, ‘my favourite food is’, ‘what would you be in another life’ and ‘if you could go back in time, what era would you choose’ at ngcoa.ca/contacts/NGCOA Canada Team where I have included their answers. Here is what I discovered as I delved a little deeper into the private lives of our team!
Most of you know that Jim Thompson previously owned and operated two family golf facilities, but did you know that he was also a high school supply teacher?
How about Shawn Hunter? Before joining the NGCOA Canada, Shawn was the marketing manager for the Banff Mountain Film Festival.
There’s lots of golf industry experience on our team, from Erica Beck to Brent Hutcheon, Pierre Pelard and Greg Chambers who all held previous positions as general managers at golf courses, and Blair Breen was a sales rep for Callaway Golf.
Sports have a bit of a theme with our team. Kevin O’Donovan and Sarah Allen held positions with major sports teams. Kevin as the director of media & public relations for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Sarah held various positions with the Ottawa Senators organization.
When asked ‘what is something people would not know about you?’ Cedar Nisbet told us that he was a champion equestrian, Sarah Allen was top 10 in scoring in Canada when she played CIS hockey at Saint Mary’s and Brent Hutcheon played semi-pro hockey in Germany.
Prior to joining the NGCOA Canada, Cedar Nisbet was a retail sales manager and beer rep for a major beer brand and when asked ‘In another life what would you be?’ Shawn Hunter responded with ‘brewmaster or whisky maker’.
We also have an extensive events team, starting with Gloria Hammond who held the position of operations manager for Bluesfest in Ottawa and Mark Fraser
who was the general manager/owner of Golf Operator Tours in the Dominican Republic.
Our Finance Department came to us with very high credentials from Djibril Diop who held the position of senior financial analyst at the Center for Communication Programs at John Hopkins University to Qixia Xiong who held accounting positions at two major companies in Beijing. The leader of the finance department, Pamela MacDonald- Wolk was a mortgage and loan officer prior to joining us at the NGCOA Canada.
From politics to sales...that’s the path I took before taking up residence at the NGCOA Canada. I came to the association from Starwood Hotels and Resorts as association sales manager and previous to that I was the special assistant to the Federal Cabinet Minister for Small Business and Tourism.
Our fearless leader, Jeff Calderwood has always had an entrepreneurial spirit, owning a marketing company that had several golf courses as clients before becoming the CEO of the NGCOA Canada 25 years ago.
As you can see, our team is very diverse in their experience and collectively brings a wealth of knowledge to their position at the NGCOA Canada.
We’re a pretty consistent group when it comes to our animals, with 10 out of 18 of us choosing dogs when asked what our favourite animal was. There are a few of us however who stood out. Take Sarah Allen for example, her favourite animal is a pig, mine is a monkey and Stacey Tayler’s is a honey badger.
Can anyone say ‘prima donnas’? The question was: the Ritz or camping? 13 of us chose the Ritz over camping and I knew exactly what Erica Beck’s answer would be when she asked, “what the heck is camping?” There was also no doubt that Mark Fraser would choose the Ritz when his answer to, ‘What would you be in another life’ was ‘a hotel GM’. Jim Thompson chose the Ritz but prefers ‘camping snacks’ to all that fancy food.
There were some pretty interesting answers when asked: Tell me something that people wouldn’t know about you. Brave Blair Breen ran with the bulls, not once but twice and Greg Chambers, our
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resident PGA Professional, didn’t golf until he was 18 then turned pro at 20. And, talk about bilingual, Gloria Hammond speaks Inuktitut!
I consider myself extremely lucky to have the privilege of working next to all these great people I consider friends. Every one of them is dedicated to the mission and to serving all of you. But, don’t let all that hard work fool you. We’re a fun bunch who, in the words of our fearless leader, ‘like to work hard and play hard’ TOGETHER!
I raise my glass to this amazing group of individuals!
Nathalie Lavallée Chief Operating Officer NGCOA Canada nlavallee@ngcoa.ca
Axe Throwing Golfers?
This can’t be good!...
After a long productive day of staff meetings, the NGCOA Canada team needed to unwind with a couple cold drinks and a little axe throwing! Yep, you read that right ... axe throwing! Nothing ends a great day of discussion, professional development and strategic planning, like going one-on-one with your boss and all your co-workers, with sharp hatchets!
There were a few sore shoulders and bruised egos after the annual Staff Christmas party in Ottawa in Dec 2016. Early odds on favourites, showed little skill and questionable talent at this event (ya, I am looking at you - Shawn, Cedar and Jim!) but at the end, it should come as no surprise that the mighty bull runner “Brave” Blair Breen of rural Toronto outlasted the rest of this talented, but directionally challenged group of axe throwing misfits to win the coveted “NGCOA Canada Golden Axe”.
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