JB Bartley:  

Life After Blakelock, I attended U of T, and also joined the 48th Highlanders through the Reserve Officer University Training Plan (ROUTP). My military service provided summer employment and helped to pay for my education. It also considerably strengthened my Resume. When I graduated from U of T, I was a Captain in the Canadian Armed Forces Reserve, with experience in Leadership, Administration, Logistics, and Personnel Management. There were not many other twenty-four-year-olds with experience managing 100 people, or with the executive connections the Reserve system offered. After graduation, I wrote the Foreign Service exam, and was accepted; but by the time the Government made its decision, I had already joined Canada Life. After some time as an agent, I joined the Field Training Department of North American Life. After several years, I transferred to the Financial Planning Department, eventually becoming The Financial Planning Consultant in charge of the Department and the company's Financial Planning Division. Along the way, I accumulated a string of designations - CFP, CLU, CH.F.C, and R.F.P. - the latter being the hallmark of the fee-for-service Financial Planning Professional. I left North American Life in 1984 to build my own Financial Planning practice in the Halton - Hamilton area, along with a North American Life colleague. Bartley, Payette and Company, was established in offices near the TH& B station in Hamilton. We also had a lawyer co-located with us. Kirby and I also started R.O.I. Strategies Inc., a company manufacturing Financial Planning Software. Despite serious interest from Crown Life, Canada Permanent Trust, Sun Life, and others, we were not able to gain sufficient market traction. At that time, the copyright laws regarding computer software provided little protection for the manufacturer. We could also not get agreement on what Financial Planning Software should do. Every company wanted customization to suit their own needs but was unwilling to pay for it. Sa.dly that ended our entrepreneurial journey, and our partnership. I then joined the Managing General Agent, Integrated Financial Services, as Regional Vice President operating from their offices on Consumer's Road in Toronto, and later at 390 Bay Street. By 1989 I was not satisfied with my quality of life, commuting daily from Milton to Toronto, and much travel meeting brokers, and company representatives. I was given the opportunity to purchase a financial services practice in Belleville. - a self-contained city where people lived and worked. I was looking forward to being able to spend more time with my family. I left the 48th Highlanders, retiring with the rank of Major, and moved to Belleville. However, with all the stress of relocation, my first marriage ended. After several years, it was clear that Belleville was not working for me - access to my children was complicated by distance; and I changed career direction somewhat, joining a portfolio manager - Leon Frazer & Assoc in Toronto as VP of their Executive Financial Counseling practice. I also met and married my current spouse, Kay, a Eurasian from Sri Lanka. In 1997 the two of us, feeling ennui in our careers, joined her family mission in Sri Lanka, By 2001, I was the Chair., and was spending three months in Canada, and three months in Sri Lanka, on a continuing basis....Expand for more