John Risley

"“All our businesses are differentiated on technology. ONC was differentiated on technology. We knew more about omega-3s than anyone else in the industry. We used that knowledge to...[ create] concentrated products. Nobody else had thought about how to concentrate the omega-3s. That was a huge technology advantage and we traded on that.”"

"don’t want to be involved in day-to-day operations,” Risley explained. “I’m lousy at it.” MacDonald concurred. “John doesn’t have a sense of running things,” he told me. “John’s brilliant in the risk-taking, imagination, talking side. But operationally, he couldn’t run my arsehole.”"

"“Explore a single individual deeply enough... and truths about all individuals emerge.” Robert A. Caro, The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Means of Ascent"

"“She was very proud of Dad, definitely the driving force behind him as well,” Sarah said. “She definitely put forth [the] idea to Dad that he needs to make money. And was [that drive to make money] there already? Yes.”"

"His first job was mowing lawns in the neighbourhood—$ 1 a lawn; $ 2 for a big one. “I enjoyed it. I’ve always enjoyed working,” he said. “I’ve hated lots of things I’ve had to do. But I’ve never hated the prospect of work.”"

"“What drives you? Like, what motivates you through all this?” “Determination,” his younger brother responded. Determination to not fail."

"Risley’s more recent investments span other global sectors, including renewable energy, alternative protein from insects, international banking, electric vehicles, and outer space—through his controlling purchase of MDA, maker of Canada’s iconic Canadarm technology."

"“I grew up on the water—always have loved the water. And it was very fortuitous that I was able to make a living from the water. Anything to do with the water, I’m interested in.”"

"“He was pretty direct, and he seemed to us to be very honest. He didn’t want to screw anybody. He just wanted to make some money,”"

"Though in his mid-seventies, he was uncommonly energetic and seemed as busy as ever: sitting on or chairing a dozen or so boards (including those of his myriad investment companies, the Fraser Institute think-tank, and Canada’s Ocean Supercluster); mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs; and travelling extensively by private jet—even during the height of the pandemic—to places like Labrador (to fish at his world-class salmon lodge), Los Angeles (to visit a biofuels refinery he’d invested in), and Germany (to check on the construction of his new superyacht)."

"Today, overnight shipping is a way of life—order something from Amazon and it’s on your doorstep within days or even hours. Risley was ahead of the game by decades, developing rapid air shipping of lobster to Europe and Asia in the late 1970s and early ’80s. With Ocean Nutrition, Risley foresaw opportunity in the burgeoning nutrition, health, and supplements marketplace. Columbus, meanwhile, rode the wave of massive internet expansion during the 2000s. In other words, Risley has been a pioneer and innovator in three very different industries—in each case riding on the crest of global forces."

"And yet, he added, “It’s the guy who asks the stupid questions who sees where the industry is going to go, while the industry itself may not have thought about it.”"

"“From the beginning, Risley’s corporate strategy has stressed these basic principles: be in the right fishery [lobsters and shellfish]; market internationally; become low-cost producers; control quality scrupulously; and, above all, invest heavily in plants, machinery and people.”"

"At the age of eight or nine, Risley realized money was a “driving force in life”—without it, you’re prevented from doing certain things. He felt some people accepted they wouldn’t have much money; he did not. “We were not a family that was starving to death. We would get our socks darned if there was a hole in them, rather than getting a new pair. But we were very lucky... a very average middle-class family, by no means poor,” he said. “Having said that, the message all around me was that money was a big deal. I didn’t like that; I didn’t like living under the yoke of thinking that we didn’t have enough money.”"

"“The problem with land is it just doesn’t generate any income, so how do you service the debt when you’re buying a piece of land?” His idea: use the cash flow from Ocean Games to finance the debt he’d taken on in buying pieces of land around Halifax. “That sounds great in practice,” he said in recalling the scheme, with some laughter, “but it didn’t work because the pinball business didn’t generate enough income to do anything more than service its own debt.”"

"[Entrepreneurs] are guys who create,” he added. “And Risley is a creator.”"

"Risley, as many people told me, is a visionary who can see what others can’t. It’s an overused cliché, but in the case of Risley it’s apt: he sees the big picture. His strength is at the macro level, not in the granular aspects of a business. As Mickey MacDonald summarized: “John doesn’t get caught up in the details so much. He’ll bullshit his way through stuff.”"

"“The real strength for Clearwater now is its diversification.” Each deal was made to acquire key people, new products, innovative ideas, or access to specific species. For example, shrimp in Quebec and Georgia; scallops in Port Mouton; herring in Shelburne; salt fish in Lockeport. “What we were really buying was quota and licences. Sometimes we got fish plants,” Risley explained. “There are no new licences being given out, so the only way you can ever acquire a licence is to buy it from someone who’s got it.”"

"“John was always the person focused on new opportunities, growth, the business deals, the merger-and-acquisition deals,” Spavold added. Canadian senator Stephen Greene, Risley’s former assistant, summarized the pairing like this: “Colin would think to the end of the day. [John would think] to the end of the millennium.”"

"The whole rough operation—customers choosing lobsters from the tanks, Risley and MacDonald stuffing money down their hip waders and into their rubber boots, children buying canners by the dozen—resulted in what MacDonald described as a show. “It was something to bring your kids to, something to bring the family to.... You could look at the lobsters. You could pick out your own lobster. We didn’t do that on purpose. We did that because we didn’t have any money to do anything else.”"

"We were both workaholics, and willing to do whatever we had to do to make a go of it. And bound and determined not to fail at it.”"

"Money has] absolutely nothing to do with happiness! Nothing. Zero. It’s hugely difficult to get people to understand that you can be happy with no money. When [Judi] and I were first married—I look back on that as one of the happier times in my life. We had nothing! Absolutely nothing! We used to worry about where we were going to get $ 20 on Friday to get a week’s worth of groceries. Now, I’m not saying I would be happy if I went back to worrying about paying the weekly grocery bill, but the problem is that people say, ‘Well look at the money he’s got, look at how happy he must be.’ They don’t have any idea about the responsibility that goes along with employing people and taking risks and borrowing money and dealing with challenges. None of these are easy things to do. A lot of people go to bed at night not knowing what to worry about. I never have that problem! I’ve always got shit to worry about.”"

"“John’s always had somebody there. He hasn’t been the operator. He’s been the innovator, he’s been the strategist, he’s been the supporter.”"

"I can tell you, psychologically it’s really hard on him to live up to those roles. You’ve got to always be on top of your game. You can’t allow yourself to slip. You can’t let people peek into your reality. You can’t be yourself.”"

"“John gets it going. Colin gets it growing.”"

"“I’m not a guy who can just sit around and swap [small talk] with people. I’m not there to dance. I’m there to find out what’s going on, to get right to the meat of the matter. I want to get it done.”"

"In reality, though, figuring out a way to actually do it came second to telling customers it could be done. “We went to customers and told them we could deliver six boxes with a day’s notice. And we developed a system to do that,” MacDonald added. “That’s the God’s truth. We’d make commitments and then we found ways to get it there.” Clearwater promised a high-quality product at a consistent price year-round, a bold pledge for a one-shop outfit in the Halifax suburbs. “When we say we can ship you three thousand pounds per week of one and one-quarter pound lobsters of good, hard shell for the next nine months at such and such a price, we mean it,” Risley told Canadian Business magazine in 1986. “Because we were a small company, we had to be willing to do all kinds of things the big companies weren’t willing to do—work seven days a week, send our shipments out at 2: 00 a.m. on a Sunday morning, offer better prices, whatever it took.” Though as Risley added a year later: “If we had known the consequences of our commitment, it’s doubtful that we would have continued in the business.”"

"Risley and MacDonald applied that lesson in 1994 when acquiring Yarmouth-based Laurence Sweeney Fisheries for more than $ 30 million. It was a significant, front-page-news purchase for Clearwater, giving it fish plants in Yarmouth and East Pubnico, five offshore trawlers, an office complex, almost half of Yarmouth’s developed waterfront, and 13.5 percent of Canada’s offshore scallop quota, meaning Clearwater now controlled more than a third of the scallop quota. Risley and MacDonald began consolidating immediately; Sweeney Fisheries would not operate autonomously in its own orbit, nor were all its assets of interest to Clearwater. So on the same day Risley and MacDonald cemented the deal, they began chopping Sweeney up to aid—not hinder—Clearwater. “We just closed down the plant in Yarmouth—sold it off to someone else—and moved all the boats and the processing activity to Lockeport. Bang, bang, bang,” Risley recalled. “We didn’t need it. What we wanted was the quota that they had in the scallop business. That was our principal interest.... We were just very matter of fact [saying], ‘Look this is our plan, we’re implementing it, and we’re getting on with it. And we’re not going to play games here.’” In other words, they would not repeat Jerry Nickerson’s mistake. Concluded Risley: “Jerry won’t be happy that he paid the price of that lesson.”"

"“John’s totally, 100 percent invested in long-term active assets,” CFFI president Stan Spavold explained. “Most of our investments are active, private, and in various stages between startup and mature. But most of them are in the early-stage development.”"

"“Yes,” MacDonald replied. “I think sometimes I’m the voice of reason; he’s the voice of irrationality. But at times he would say that he’s the voice of ambition, and I’m the voice of hesitation—I’m the negativity; he’s the positivity."

"“It’s just the nature of the game. If you look back in hindsight, would you have done all the deals you did? No!” he said, laughing. “You would pick just the winners and forget about the ones that didn’t perform quite as well. Nobody gets to manage their business with the benefit of a retroactive crystal ball.”"

"Risley had previously made around fifty pitches for the $ 20 million Clearwater needed to complete the series of deals he had lined up. Those pitches were mostly made to what Risley referred to somewhat derisively as “financial types.” The typical response had been, “Geez, that’s a lot of money. I don’t know.” Thompson was the opposite. “Twenty million? Is that all you need?” Risley, laughing, recalled him saying. Thompson turned to his CFO, John Jackson, and said, “Get your butt over to Canada and see what this young man is talking about.” So Jackson flew to Nova Scotia to meet with Risley and MacDonald and to inspect some of the deals Risley was eyeing. “And they sort of became my partner. We spent several years together building a big seafood business,” Risley concluded. “Twenty million wasn’t a lot of money for them but it was a huge amount of money for us.” Risley found no shortage of deals to pursue, eventually launching an acquisition spree that both amazed and baffled many in the seafood industry—how was a ten-year-old company able to afford so many purchases?"

"“He would act like an investment house, owning companies but running them at arm’s length.” That’s similar to what Risley ended up doing with his many investments through CFFI and Northern Private Capital, the US $ 250-million private equity fund he co-founded in 2019."

"Both of Risley’s megayachts were built by Lürssen, a German shipbuilder, and both vessels also carried the same name as his Palmer Johnson: Northern Star. The name was inspired by North Star, the massive steam-powered yacht Cornelius Vanderbilt, the American shipping and railway magnate, had built for his family’s trip to ports of Europe in the mid-1850s. For Risley, the North Star was “a beacon of discovery” and it aligned with what he said has been his motivation for owning megayachts: exploration. “That really rang through to me. A lot of people would accuse you [and say], ‘These are gin palaces and you sit back and smoke cigars and sip on a gin and tonic.’ That’s not what I wanted to do with our boats. I wanted them to be business tools. I wanted them to be available to customers and business associates for very selfish purposes. And I wanted to use them personally as elements of discovery.” So Northern Star became his Canadian twist on the legacy of Vanderbilt’s North Star."

"attended one particular function in the mid-1990s, where he was seated next to the head of research from a Swiss pharmaceutical giant. Their conversation eventually turned to seafood, with the research director telling Risley that omega-3 fatty acids were the single biggest deficiency in the North American diet, and no nutrient could have a greater impact on the health of the world’s population. Dieticians have long recommended eating fish rich in omega-3s. Oily fish such as mackerel, herring, anchovies, salmon, sardines, and albacore tuna contain rich amounts of the omega-3 fatty acids EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), which have been observed to aid cardiovascular health and lower the risk of heart disease. Fish and omega-3 fatty acids have been the focus of tens of thousands of studies on their health benefits, and have been said to aid arthritis, lessen ADHD, and reduce the likelihood of heart attacks and cancer, although as the New York Times has noted, there are skeptics within the nutrition field. Most people, however, don’t eat enough oily fish to receive the benefits of omega-3s. The only other way to secure EPA and DHA is through supplements such as fish oil capsules. According to Risley’s recollection, the Swiss pharma company had pumped millions of dollars into omega-3 research but determined—despite the compelling health potential—it wasn’t a business for a Big Pharma company, which seeks patents, monopolies, and profits from proprietary medicines. “You couldn’t patent omega-3 fatty acids—they were naturally occurring molecules in fish oil. It was an opportunity for someone else,” Risley recalled. “I thought, ‘Jeepers, we’re in the seafood business.’” That serendipitous meeting represented only the first leg of what became a three-legged stool in the genesis of Ocean Nutrition. The second leg of the stool appeared when someone told Risley that Bob Ackman, a world-leading fish oil researcher—Mr. Fish Oil, as Risley referred to him—worked at the Technical University of Nova Scotia (now part of Dalhousie University). “So here was an expert in our backyard,” he said. “[ He was] very helpful.... Almost an inspiration.” The third and final leg of the stool came around the same time, during the mid-1990s federal budget-cutting pursued by Jean Chrétien’s Liberals. Risley had a meeting with Newfoundland’s Brian Tobin, then Chrétien’s fisheries minister, and was very critical—railing on Tobin for what he saw as the detrimental cutting of federal research spending in Atlantic Canada. “You guys are stupid,” Risley told Tobin. “The researchers who actually leave and take a cheque to go out the front door are the people who know they can get jobs elsewhere—those are the best people. So we’re losing our good people and keeping our worst people.” “Well, if all the good people are leaving, what are you doing about it?” Tobin shot back. “If they’re so goddamn good, why don’t you hire ’em and do something with them? Where’s the private sector in all of this?” Risley was stunned by the comment but, walking out of the meeting, realized Tobin was correct. “Why can’t we do something with these scientists?” he thought to himself. Thus began Ocean Nutrition."

"“Yeah,” Roome said in agreement from Newfoundland. “And the fact that he recognized the value of enterprise allocation and quota better than anybody.” For his part, Risley didn’t dispute that some of the Hillsdown-funded acquisitions failed to deliver, arguing that’s expected when you’re doing a “shitload of"

"“We felt like we could do anything,” Michael explained. “No challenge was insurmountable. You could go to him with anything, and it would be all about finding a solution... If you came to him with two different ideas and one was really just a small idea and the other one was a gigantic, improbable idea, he will absolutely be way more excited about the improbable idea.”"

"I’m just saying that money brings responsibilities. And you have to take those responsibilities seriously or you’re not going to fulfill your obligations to those who count on you. And it’s not about making more money or less money, but if you’re going to be the chairman of a company and its largest shareholder, then your obligation is to all the employees of that company to help it grow.... You bear that responsibility.”"

"In all his major businesses, Risley has relied on a strong partner to oversee the day-to-day operations, someone to take care of the details while he’s focused on strategy, business development, and new markets—the big picture."

"Risley argues his boats are primarily business tools, he does declare a personal benefit for tax purposes, based on what he perceives to be the value of his personal use of the vessels. However, as Spavold noted, the opinion of the Canada Revenue Agency doesn’t always align with that of CFFI. “Our position is a little more aggressive because John works all the time when he’s on the yacht. John’s vacation is not a vacation like you or I take,” Spavold said. “We do declare a personal benefit and I’ll let CRA make its own argument.”"

"“I’ve still got a pretty healthy appetite for risk. And I’ve always been able to put other people’s capital to work,” Risley told me. “If for some reason I didn’t owe money tomorrow, the day after tomorrow I probably would,” he went on, laughing. “I’d take the opportunity to do something that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to do if I was relying on my own capital.”"

"Essentially, consolidating the small empire Risley had assembled proved difficult. “The more companies we bought, the more these challenges came to the fore and the more difficult they were to resolve.” There was also the issue of geography and trying to oversee businesses on two continents, involving fisheries in two different oceans."

"“It was funny because our attitude was this is the next best thing to a gold mine,” he said. “We couldn’t care less whether it was a good financial investment. We never intended to sell it again. We wanted to enjoy it. We wanted our children to enjoy it and we wanted our grandchildren and their children to enjoy it. So, we just had a completely different perspective.”"

"“Business drives my life and if I could do it all over again would I spend more time with family and grandchildren? Absolutely,” Risley said. “But I don’t stand on my regrets. I can’t change the past. I can only change the future.”"

"If a community helps you make money, as this community has helped me make money, then it’s incumbent upon me to give back to that community. It’s just a virtuous circle.”"

"During the Christmas holiday in 2018, Risley sent Williamson an email. She had turned seventy in July and he wanted her to think about her future plans: Was she working because she wanted to? If so, great, she should keep working. Or was she simply working for financial reasons? If so, she should know she didn’t have to; he fully intended to pay her a “pension” for the rest of her life. In other words, she could retire at any time. He said they could discuss the issue in the New Year."

"Risley was more robotic, more internally focused—on work, ideas, deals, and projects."

"“Travel is his happy place,” Amy said of her husband. “He likes adventure, he doesn’t like to lie on a lounge chair. He likes to do and see and experience.”"

"Risley was at this point—the mid-to late-1990s—still predominantly focused on the larger picture at Clearwater. A new company focused on omega-3 R and D would require a dedicated top executive, someone to help actualize Risley’s big-picture vision—someone to focus on the day-to-day, granular details that were of little interest to him. He found that operating partner when CFFI bought Laer Products, a company that had supplied omega-3 fish oils to the veterinary industry before going bankrupt. Risley tapped Laer’s general manager, Robert Orr, a former grocery executive, to build a team and create a new company, which was formally incorporated as Ocean Nutrition in March 1997."

"“He would always have been the first person to give up whatever he had to help somebody else.”"

"“I have long been interested in this concept of a second chance,” Risley wrote in a letter to the school, “believing it far less expensive both in financial and human terms to help children when they need it rather than to punish them when it’s too late.”"

"Ocean Nutrition’s initial research focus was broad—too broad. It pursued the anti-cancer effects of shark cartilage; developed a product derived from seaweed to boost immune system function; and worked on applications involving glucosamine, a compound found in cartilage that is harvested from shellfish and used to treat pain associated with osteoarthritis. On the surface, that was an obvious research target for Ocean Nutrition, given Risley’s shellfish background. Overall, the goal was to use Clearwater’s seafood waste materials to develop a portfolio of nutritional products and ingredients, but the scattered focus was expensive. “We were spending way too much money and losing too much money,” Risley recalled. “So we ultimately decided to focus on omega-3s and dispense with all the other stuff.”"

"Risley credits his predictive powers to two activities. The first is his voracious reading of non-fiction—much of it about history—and the financial press."

"The second piece of Risley’s information-gathering strategy counters that fact: he advocates “getting your ass out [there]” and meeting new people. “I’ve always been a door opener. I preach to our people: don’t close doors, open them. That’s how you learn.”"

"it’s the same situation with incoming investment pitches. “We don’t have to go looking for opportunities. Opportunities come to us,” he said. “You don’t go through a day when someone isn’t pitching you an idea.”)"

"Risley doesn’t fund his investments using only his own money, pulled from some bottomless supply of cash. “We couldn’t grow as fast as we have grown by doing that,” Stan Spavold, CFFI Ventures’s president, explained. Much of Risley’s investing is done with borrowed money, primarily from banks. “We are a net borrower,” Spavold added. “We don’t maintain a pool of liquid assets. We are fully deployed in our investments.” Gains produced by those investments are redeployed into new ventures, continuing the cycle. “We don’t look for investments that are going to return 8, 9, 10 percent a year. We are looking for investments that are going to return a multiple of our investment,” Spavold explained. “We’re not going for singles. We’re looking for doubles, triples, and occasionally a home run.”"

"“We love the opportunity to use all these things as business tools and to share them. It helps you build your network and attract people to the organization,” he explained. “We want to give people memorable experiences.... And we’re sort of selfishly trying to get a business benefit from that.”"

"“That never occurred to me—that I would shut it down and walk away. I always thought... there’s this opportunity here and we’re committed to it, and you sort of swallow hard and keep upping the ante,” he said. “When you start a business from nothing, you lose money. That’s almost a certainty. And you’re never quite sure how much money you’re going to lose before you start making money.”"

"“One of the reasons [entrepreneurs like John] do so well, or in some cases they don’t, is they really don’t see risk,” said Dave Brown, an Ocean Nutrition board member. “They see [the] upside, and they have people that work around them that worry about the risk.” For Risley, that worry falls to Spavold."

"“I’ve skated close to the edge several times. You’ve got to have that kind of tolerance.”"

"One issue hampering the company was, paradoxically, Risley’s best attribute: his ability to see—and desire to pursue—new opportunities. At Ocean Nutrition he was eager to chase new marine oil applications, and like Colin MacDonald in the early days of Clearwater, Jamieson felt Ocean Nutrition was becoming too scattered and needed to prioritize."

"rugged individualism"

"Clearwater’s competitive advantage: the ability to deliver quality lobsters year-round at predictable prices, thanks to the development of dryland pound technology. That realization has shaped his investing in the four decades since. “We would not invest in something like a distribution company. We would not invest in a restaurant business. We would not invest in any industry or business that did not have the prospect of having a significant competitive advantage—a real point of difference that you can defend. And for the most part that’s a technology, IP [intellectual property]-based business,”"

"“You don’t grow and you don’t create wealth without taking risk.... It’s easy to dismiss what it takes to build. It’s not just financial risk. You make sacrifices that other people don’t make. And you put yourself out in the public eye and take criticism that is totally unfair.”"

"John Risley, whose Clearwater Seafoods achieves almost half a billion dollars in annual sales throughout the globe;"

"Risley claimed he remained dogged by financial worries. “One day you’re worried about groceries and the next day you’re worried about payroll and the next day you’re worried about where you’re going to get the money necessary to buy a business,” he explained. “So you’re always under financial stress. It’s just the scale and type of stress changes. I still feel that today. I still worry about money because I’m trying to do deals all the time.” Though in his seventies and capable of living comfortably with minimal effort, he was still working “seven days a week, fourteen hours a day,” and continuing to invest in companies spanning banking, renewable energy, and alternative protein—“ all over hell’s half acre,” as he put it with a laugh."

"“I actually own nothing. Everything I own is in the hands of trusts.... They already have it. They have the money now because the trusts own all of CFFI. I own nothing of CFFI. I work for the trusts,” he explained. “The whole thing is just bizarre. Nobody stops to think, ‘Well, OK, so you want to take, you know, five million or ten million out of one pocket and put it in another pocket.’ What have you accomplished?... And you try to make that argument [but] nobody listens. So anyway, very frustrating.”"

"The goal at NPC is to invest in companies that can grow five times larger; companies with novel technology, intellectual property, and a defendable competitive advantage. “I don’t want to try to second guess or outsmart the management teams of our businesses. I want to be there to support them,” Risley explained. “I may be the chairman or biggest shareholder but I’m there to learn and help them think through problems. I’m just trying to [share] the lessons I’ve learned from my forty-five years in business, some of which have been expensive lessons.”"

"“At a certain point you appear to be too dominant. Whether you actually are or not is another story. Clearwater have sometimes been portrayed as the big bad corporate giant. I’ve never seen them that way.”"

"He then told a story about a family member who’d approached him for support a couple of years before. She was a single mother with two kids and wanted to upgrade her training to become a registered nurse, but she couldn’t afford the tuition or take time off work to study while supporting two children. “She’s got a great work ethic.... So it was nice to be able to provide financial support to help somebody help themselves,” he said. “There’s two kinds of cheques you write. One is a cheque for consumption, and the other is a cheque for investment. When you can invest in helping somebody improve themselves, you get a lot of pleasure. You don’t get any pleasure writing a cheque for somebody’s new car.”"

"“His focus changed from simply wanting to amass more money to creating successful businesses, because that really is more of a challenge. If you create a successful business, then the money aspect follows.” Robert also referred to his brother’s “insatiable thirst” for knowledge: “I can’t think of a topic you could bring up that he wouldn’t have his opinions on. And it might be all BS, but he’ll make you believe that his opinion is right.”"

"“I wish it were as simple as me giving you a specific date... but that would be a couple of years out and I’m not sure that’s what you want,” Risley wrote back to the group. “Let me try and explain. We have investments in about 20 companies. The most important [of] value are 40% stakes in each of ClearBank and World Energy [a Boston-based biofuels company]. We think ClearBank is now worth over a billion and World Energy should get there by the end of the year.” ClearBank was growing quickly and securing new customers, while World Energy’s renewable diesel refinery in Los Angeles was under a $ 350-million expansion (later expanded to $ 1.4 billion)."

"Clearwater saw the offshore lobster licences as likely “expropriation” targets. “[ That] was the next so-called monopoly we worried about the government coming after us for,” Risley explained. So in September 2020, the company pre-emptively sold two of the licences to the Membertou First Nation in Cape Breton for $ 25 million, neutralizing concerns about their grip on offshore lobster as well as the lack of Indigenous participation in the offshore fishery. (Clearwater would help Membertou with the harvesting and processing of its lobster.) Membertou Chief Terry Paul called it a “historic strategic investment.” “Membertou had long expressed an interest in working with us in the lobster fishery,” Risley recalled. “So our feeling was, ‘Look, this is a feature of life today that isn’t going away, i.e. partnering with First Nations communities. So let’s do this on a strict business basis.’ We got market value for the licences; Membertou was happy, and we were happy, and it’s no longer a monopoly fishery.”"

"He’d also been impressed with the simplicity of getting a shot in the US (no cost, no appointment, walk in, walk out). For more than twenty years Risley had been visiting the former Lahey Clinic (now the Lahey Hospital & Medical Center) near Boston for annual checkups and procedures. “It’s run like a business,” he explained. “It costs me $ 10,000 for a day. But if I have an appointment at 9: 10 a.m., I have an appointment at 9: 10 a.m..... I’m treated like a customer.” (Similarly, Colin MacDonald at one point noted he was flying his son’s father-in-law to the Cleveland Clinic for heart treatment “because getting treated here is fucking insane.” MacDonald later mentioned having a procedure done in New York.) “I don’t think there’s any real difference in the quality of care you get between Canada and the United States,” Risley added. “It’s just that we’ve got a single provider system with no competition, no incentive to do better, and no measurement device as to whether people are being efficient. So you get a system which is completely overloaded.... You want to see a specialist? Good luck.”"

"It benefited from a growing global seafood demand, especially in Asia, during a time when supply remained flat, a fact that helped boost prices. Smith also profited from innovations implemented across Clearwater’s operations, from its vessels to plant floors, both before and during his tenure. For instance, 3D ocean-mapping technology allowed Clearwater crews to be more efficient in harvesting clams and scallops from the sea bottom. “That was a huge breakthrough,” Smith said in 2016. “This technology had never been applied to the fishing industry.” Former Clearwater executive Graham Roome argued Risley deserved credit for backing 3D-imaging technology, calling it “one of the top ten things that took place in the fishery.”"

"Regardless of why it was launched, the IPO was a resounding triumph. It generated more than $ 271 million, of which Risley and MacDonald used roughly $ 130 million to pay off debt. That left them more than $ 100 million in CFFI, in addition to their remaining 55 percent stake in Clearwater."

"Risley also held investments through his controlling stake in Northern Private Capital (NPC), a US $ 250-million venture fund he started in 2018 with Andrew Lapham, a former Blackstone executive and son-in-law of former prime minister Brian Mulroney. CFFI is the biggest contributor to NPC, which like CFFI itself has investments in a wide range of companies, in allotments from $ 10–40 million. Among them: Aspire Food Group, which makes protein from insects, including crickets. The company was building what Risley said would be “the world’s largest and most efficient protein producing plant,” in London, ON; Taiga Motors, a Montréal startup that makes electric snowmobiles and personal watercraft (basically an electric Sea-Doo); Loop Industries, which says its technology can turn polyethylene terephthalate plastic and polyester fibre—which cannot be conventionally recycled—into high-value materials; MicroSintesis, a PEI company developing technology to help replace the use of antibiotics in pork and poultry production."

"John Hancock would later help Risley and MacDonald raise nearly $ 200 million in their failed effort to privatize Clearwater. When I pointed that out, and noted it seemed unlikely John Hancock would have contributed if it had pulled its previous loan, Risley agreed. “Yeah, exactly,” he said. “But that just comes from Colin’s very peripheral understanding of really what was going on, and the fact that I wasn’t taking the time to tell him what was going on.”"

"According to Risley and Spavold, MacDonald’s relatively modest lifestyle was simply a personal choice. “Whenever Colin needed money, we gave it to him. He had a different objective in life than John did. That’s all,” Spavold said. “We funded Colin’s account the same way we funded John’s. We never controlled the amount going to him. Whatever he spent, we covered. That was the deal. If he had wanted to buy a boat, he could have bought a boat. We wouldn’t have stopped him.”"

"“The attraction was [to] get a bunch of capital and deploy it in diversifying our portfolio,” Risley recalled. That was the explanation Risley gave me for taking Clearwater public. When I asked MacDonald to explain the rationale, he paused. “Now, do you want the truth?” I laughed. “Please.” “We had lenders in the US who... got upset at John spending money personally out of the company. They called our loans. And we were all of a sudden in a dangerous place,” he said. “We lost our [main] lender.”"

"“So am I fair in saying that at these different stages—with Hillsdown, Clearwater going public, and the sale of Ocean Nutrition—that John was pre-spending the money?” I asked. “Oh, fuck yeah,” MacDonald shot back. “He was building, buying, and pissing money away. I didn’t have a problem with him spending money. I simply assumed my money was still in the company.”"

"Risley admitted to being blind to an imbalance in the relationship: he was the dealmaker and while MacDonald could spend money, he lacked financial independence. “It was all resident in the fact that I controlled all the money,” Risley said. “I remember writing to him on his birthday a year after we had broken up. I said to him, ‘Look, I never understood that I had you trapped. I trapped you in this relationship.... You had access to all the lifestyle money you wanted [but] you were still subservient to me.’” What they should have done, Risley argued, was have a “come-to-Jesus session” at least every five years, starting around 1990, after they split with Hillsdown. That way each partner could have vented their concerns and proposed ways to fix any fissures in the relationship. Instead, MacDonald was too tolerant of the arrangement and Risley assumed the relationship was fine. “I should have been much more sensitive to his concerns, and I should have listened better,” Risley added. “I think the benefit to the reader of this story should be that, look, we didn’t do a good job of managing the last ten or fifteen years of our relationship. And that’s our bad. Do you want to put the preponderance of the blame on me? I’ve got absolutely no problem with that.” But, he concluded, “I can’t do anything about what’s behind me.”"

"MacDonald also alleged Risley spent millions of dollars from their shared holdings when Clearwater was backed by Hillsdown, and also pre-spent their proceeds from the Ocean Nutrition sale. “The money is the business money. It’s not your personal money. And John has never been able to divide the two.” According to MacDonald, this was the real reason they’d launched the initial public offering (IPO) of Clearwater units. “The company was borrowing money to operate, and it wasn’t going just to operations. It was being spent... on his personal [expenses]. They’ll let some of that happen, but not to the extent that it was happening. I think that scared him.”"

"At the end of each meeting, Risley would ask questions such as: “If you had unlimited funds, what would you do? If you had another $ 50 million, what would you do?” “That was the most productive part of the meeting because you got to the aspirational side,” Paddick said. “John was incredible at getting you to think bigger and bolder than you thought you safely could.”"

"Persona would take the acquisition and consolidation playbook it had developed in Canada and apply it to the Caribbean—in places like Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, and the Bahamas. “Nobody in the industry saw this as a particularly appetizing market,” Risley recalled. “Because there were too many operators, nobody had really invested in technology. Broadband speeds were terrible. Telephone rates were sky high.... You would have been shocked by the cost of making a telephone call out of anywhere in the Caribbean...."

"“I’d love to do something with you again,” Paddick recalled Risley telling him on the day the Persona deal closed. “If you ever want to do anything, count me in.”"

"Risley did not live in the Caribbean during his time as a Columbus founder and investor, nor was he involved in the day-to-day running of the company. Like his involvement with Clearwater and Ocean Nutrition at the time, he was on the board. In the case of Columbus, he was focused on the larger strategy: dealmaking, meeting with banks and raising the capital necessary for expansion."

"Risley and Malone were similar in another way. “Malone had known something about himself all along, that he was a dealmaker, a strategist, a fund manager—anything but an operator,” notes Mark Robichaux in Cable Cowboy. It’s a line that also perfectly describes Risley."

"I said to him, “Look, we’re not happy. And you know we’re not happy. I’ve asked you to step down—over a reasonable period of time. I’m not trying to embarrass you or otherwise sully your reputation, but I’ve got a shitload of money invested in this business. You have some options which are frankly of nominal value. I should be appointed chairman of the business or we should agree on some succession plan, which we can announce, that will see me be chairman.” And he wasn’t happy with that. So I said, “Look, here’s the deal: I’ve got to vote for you legally, but I’m standing up at the meeting tomorrow and I’m telling the meeting that you do not enjoy my confidence. And you can imagine that will be front page news in tomorrow’s edition of the Financial Times. Is that what you want?” So, of course, that was a pretty powerful threat. I’m not a threatening kind of guy. That’s not my style. But on the other hand, what are you going to do? If you’re going to be an active manager, you’ve got to be an active manager."

"yet he’d see Risley pecking away at his keyboard. “John would write the most incredible, motivating, thoughtful emails to the management teams of each place we just left, always encouraging them to reach out to me or him, to tell us how we can help them,” Paddick recalled. If management listed a limitation or hurdle—say, the need for capital or some specific expertise—Risley would try to quickly present a solution."

"As the closing of the Cable Bahamas deal approached, in early 2005, Paddick got a call from an RBC manager in Freeport: US $ 50 million had been wired to Paddick’s personal bank account. Risley had sent his share of the Cable Bahamas purchase funds without any of the usual, formal protections sought by investors; he’d sent US $ 50 million like it was an e-transfer to pay a plumbing bill. “There was no escrow agreement.... There wasn’t a piece of paper, there wasn’t a contract, there was nothing,” Paddick recalled. “There was just trust.... And it was something that would repeat itself numerous times over the life of Columbus.”"

"“John knew nothing about [the cable] business,” said Derrick Rowe, who worked in the telecom industry before Risley made him CEO of FPI. “Well, I shouldn’t say nothing, but, well yeah, nothing! When John sees the strategy and the vision, it can be flawed around the edges, but he knows generally what needs to happen to create that opportunity and that value.”"

"Though Columbus involved telecommunications in the sun-soaked Caribbean, its genesis can be traced back to cold, grey Newfoundland and Labrador, and Risley’s offer of an FPI board seat to Brendan Paddick, then president of Regional Cablesystems, a cable company based in St. John’s. That offer launched a business partnership and a friendship which would be among the strongest of Risley’s life. It would also lead Risley on the Caribbean telecom journey that would propel his wealth to a new level."

"In Risley, Paddick discovered a partner who moved swiftly—a man of little patience, uninclined to get bogged down in details. Instead, Risley was like a helicopter, whisking along with a bird’s-eye view of the business and where he saw it heading. “I’m quite fine with a deal taking six months,” Paddick told me. “John wants it to take six minutes.... I get a legal document and I’ll spend hours reading it. John goes to the signature page. I like the art of the deal and have a philosophy that silence can be one of the most powerful tools you can use in a negotiation. John can’t stand it. Silence kills him.”"

"Columbus’s immense growth over the next decade—from startup to significant competitor of the incumbent Caribbean telcos—is partly explained by how swiftly it moved in making decisions and acquisitions. This is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that Paddick and Risley purchased Merit Communications, a small Jamaican internet and phone company, before closing the Cable Bahamas deal."

"Details were scarce, but FPI would finance the acquisition by taking on $ 210 million in existing Clearwater debt and issuing millions of non-voting shares to Risley and Colin MacDonald, meaning they were giving up 100 percent of Clearwater to get non-voting shares in FPI. Risley would be CEO of the giant company and would reportedly hold (through CFFI) 60 percent of the combined common shares but still only about 15 percent of the preferred voting shares. “I will therefore have no more control over the company when the transaction is closed than I have today,” Risley declared. (Except he would also be running it.)"

"Paddick and Risley met to discuss the deal with Keeping at Joso’s, a seafood restaurant in Toronto’s ritzy Yorkville neighbourhood. It ended up being a very expensive fish dinner for Risley. As the asking price crept north of US $ 50 million, Paddick sensed it was giving Risley pause. Ultimately, though, Risley wasn’t deterred by an extra $ 5 million. “You know what, Brendan? Ten years down the road, if $ 5 million is the difference between whether this was the right call or the wrong call, we shouldn’t be doing this deal at all,” Risley told him. “Let’s do it.’”"

"For guests, access to Risley’s boats, lodges, and planes is apparently always free. “He’s the most generous person you’ll ever meet—to a fault,” George Armoyan said. “It would be nice just to recover your costs. I couldn’t do what he does. I was the beneficiary of some of these [free trips]. But I felt very awkward.”"

"CFFI then bought out the other shareholders and owned the company outright. “John stuck with it to get the shareholders out. And that’s what he does, he takes care of his partners—even if it’s tougher for him. He got everyone’s money out,” Derrick Rowe said. “He put everyone else first—financially. That’s John. That’s why people do business with John.”"

"Despite the rancour and arguments back and forth, the result was overwhelmingly in favour of electing Risley’s board; more than 82 percent of the votes cast were for the alternate slate of directors. “We killed the vote,” Derrick Rowe recalled. “Vic Young called the mayors, the unions. We called the shareholders. Who votes? Shareholders. We were in Toronto and Montréal.... They were in the union halls.”"

"“Does Mr. Risley know what it is like to sit down for the first time... with an unemployment insurance counsellor? The feeling is terrible. It is like being run over by a steamroller,” Patrick M. Guilfoyle wrote in a letter to the Telegram. “There is no joy or dignity in being on [EI].”"

"FPI’s sharing system meant each plant was open for only a matter of weeks each year, with workers at each plant able to log sufficient weeks to qualify for employment insurance benefits. Harbour Breton mayor Churence Rogers was skeptical of Risley’s claim the plant could run year-round. “My question is, if Vic Young couldn’t make it happen, what can John Risley do to make it happen?” Rogers told the St. John’s Telegram. Rogers feared Risley would consolidate the work and cut hundreds of FPI’s three thousand employees. It was a fear that proved justified."

"When I began talking about Risley’s vision for FPI, Armoyan cut me off. “Consolidation,” he summarized. “What’s the sense of keeping ten, twenty, thirty plants working at 20 percent capacity when you can consolidate them to five or ten. So we were just talking about doing things the proper way—something that’s sustainable long-term.” Armoyan seemed puzzled the concept even had to be explained. “It’s not a new invention,” he added. “This gets done on a daily basis.”"

"“Our aspirations for FPI were completely noble. All this idea of raping and pillaging was absolute total bullshit.... We were interested in trying to make the company more successful and building an Atlantic Canadian seafood powerhouse that could be an important global protein company. Period. That was our ambition. But Atlantic Canada thinks small. And so everybody sort of tears at you and says either, ‘Oh that’s impossible,’ or, ‘That’s not really your motive. Your motive is to enrich yourself. And by definition that means you have to impoverish someone else.’ The best way to enrich yourself is a rising tide that lifts all boats. It’s very difficult to enrich yourself and naturally impoverish anyone else. You can obviously do that criminally. But if you’re going to do it legally, it’s pretty hard to do!” He laughed before continuing. “Usually people that do very well, if you look at the richest people in the world, they’ve made a lot of people around them a lot of money. They’ve built very successful businesses and employed a lot of people and paid good salaries and really been a huge benefit to their communities and their societies generally. We didn’t have any different ambition than that.”"

"Five months later, on September 6, 2001, FPI announced a blockbuster move: it would purchase Clearwater for $ 510 million. In other words, John Risley-dominated FPI was buying Clearwater, the company co-owned by John Risley, to make what The Canadian Press said would be a “mega” fish business. And Risley would become its new chief executive."

"“When you have a hiccup, that’s when a personal relationship makes a big difference.” He also argued the value of Risley’s two Bombardier jets: a Challenger 350 and a larger Global, which are flown by a roster of five full-time pilots. “[ It’s wrong to say] that these airplanes are somehow frivolous,” Spavold said. “Those planes are essential.... I can’t have John Risley spending four or five hours [waiting] in an airport. He’s got to get off to the meetings and back again. These planes allow that to happen.”"

"“John is always going to focus on growth, on new ideas, on growing the organization... being very aggressive, growth-oriented—‘ Let’s expand, let’s spend money.’ And my job was more structural—making sure we had the spending on budget.”"

"“John’s off doing deals and dreaming ideas and Stan’s like the zookeeper behind the elephant with the shovel.”"

"For Risley, there was more than money tied up in Ocean Nutrition. “Starting a company from scratch creates this crazy kind of relationship between you and the company... which people would perceive as being financial in nature,” he said. “But it also has an emotional component. Seeing something grow from nothing into something that becomes globally important in its particular field is a fun thing to do. And then selling it and giving your baby away to someone else is a bit like walking away from a relationship with a girlfriend you still love.”"

"With Risley, everything is “absolutely over the top.” “On his boats, it’s the same way. There’s a crew of ten or twenty and there’s a Russian oligarch next door,” Smith said. “The guys I’ve talked to with more significant wealth than John would never build boats like he builds boats. That’s just way beyond their comprehension... spending that kind of money. They don’t understand this at all. But it’s pure John.” Similarly, Smith argued there’s “no rationale” for Risley to have a Bombardier Global—his largest jet. But “that’s not the point”—it’s the way Risley is with everything he does. “In sailing, he was a trustee of the America’s Cup. He was at the very pinnacle of sailing when that was his consuming interest. When he got into cattle, he had to go down to the island where Rockefeller is and get Rockefeller cattle. Whatever catches his imagination, he goes at it to be the best in it.” Smith gave a jolly laugh as he relayed a line from one of their mutual friends: “The great thing about hanging around John is you learn how to spend money.”"

"Risley subsequently bought Rifflin’ Hitch, which is named for a knot used in salmon fishing; it’s accessible only by helicopter or float plane, usually via Happy Valley–Goose Bay. (He later bought a second Labrador lodge on Awesome Lake, with a focus on trout fishing.) Asked if he recalled what he paid for Rifflin’ Hitch, Risley said, “Probably too much, but in retrospect a bargain.” Initially, though, he seemed to regret buying it, realizing that without Hutchings running it, the lodge would lose some of its magic. He asked her to stay on as manager, which she did for nearly a decade, until 2015, helping to implement Risley’s vision, including new buildings and more staff. “With John as a partner, you’re just able to do so much more.... He always treated me as a friend and a business partner,” said Hutchings, who when we spoke was a Liberal MP for Newfoundland and Labrador, and a Trudeau cabinet minister. “I’ve had opportunity to meet some incredible, influential people from all around the world,” she added. “John Risley’s at the top of that list.”"

"“John is a high roller. He is not afraid of betting big,” George Armoyan said. “John has a lot more balls than I do. The biggest difference between John and I: John is not afraid of debt. I hate debt.”"

"A typical CFFI investment would be somewhere between $ 20 million and $ 100 million, much of it with borrowed money, thus an 8-to 12 percent return wouldn’t be sufficient to justify the borrowing costs. “We have to have a return of around 22 percent or higher to make sure we are covering all of the risk,” Spavold concluded."

"The deal, negotiated in early 2012, “propelled” Ocean Nutrition’s profits and value, provided surety of supply, and further added to the company’s global reach—offices in Europe and Shanghai, powder manufacturing in Wisconsin and Nova Scotia, and oil processing in Peru. The significance of adding the Peruvian business became evident on May 18, 2012, with DSM’s purchase of Ocean Nutrition for $ 540 million. (According to Risley, the final price was closer to $ 600 million by the time the deal closed two months later.) Just a year earlier, DSM had offered $ 320 million. The sale meant Richardson Capital had earned a 20-to 30 percent annualized rate of return on its first investment in Ocean Nutrition, and a 40-to 50 percent rate of return on its second investment. (Richardson had paid a total of $ 70 million for its 45 percent stake.) CFFI earned a 21 percent return on its investment, based on a gain of $ 210 million."