Local Investor Advisor Terry Dyck Brings Wellington West Capital Inc To
Thunder Bay
By Scott A.Sumner
Thunder Bay Business
Terry Dyck moved to Thunder Bay in 1987 with the CIBC as a bank administrator in a managerial role for three years. Originally from Winnipeg, the 43 year old then left banking and brought the first Subway restaurant to Cumberland Street. We found a location and Subway sent back the blueprints for the interior layout. I told them they had it all wrong and redesigned the plan, smiled Terry Dyck. He must have been right because at the convention next year they had an award for the best new Subway store in the world and Terry's store won that award. Dyck next worked in media sales for about 3 years as well but really had his heart set on a career in the investment field.
When I went to university part of my training was in the brokerage field and originally I wanted to get some experience in banking and then get into that field as an investment broker, noted Dyck who worked with two investment firms locally before starting his own
office. I did a search for quite of brokers I wanted to be part of and Wellington West always came up at the top of the list. They were winning awards and the praise of a lot of brokers. There is something called the investment report card where brokers get to rate their firms
on several factors from a point of view of research and back room support, desk top computers, compliance and so on. There are about 35 to 40 different items and Wellington for the last three years has been the number one brokerage firm in Canada.
Wellington West is based out of Winnipeg and started about 14 years ago by the then largest individual broker in Canada who worked for a major brokerage firm. His vision was a new firm with an independent approach to the business. All the employees would be shareholders and engaged in the process of building the business whether it be saving
such things as paper costs or managing the office, sales or front or back staff. All have an opportunity to contribute their ideas to how the firm will operate.
Wellington West first came to Thunder Bay in February 2006 under the direction of Terry Dyck and the plans for building the office were started. Jonathon Knapp was previously the business development officer at the TB Symphony and it was a real coo to get him over here
to do marketing and business development. Our client contact person is Mary Nelson who has completed her Canadian Securities Course and will help out on the trading side of the business and keeping track of client portfolios. stated Dyck, a University of Manitoba graduate in Political Science and Economics. We want to attract other team orients brokers to our office who want to own their business, value ownership and would like a team setting.
The Terry Dyck team also includes consultants Toronto based investment specialist Ross Healy, financial planning specialists from the Wellington West Barrie office, a mortgage person and a syndication department to do initial public offering ( IPO ) for a number of companies. This initial offering area is a dynamic area growing the community. We are working with Family Memorials with is expanding and consolidating the monument business across Canada and going into the US with Scott Galloway. We are working with them to do
their next round of financing. IPO s can raise millions of dollars for a local company.notes Dyck.
Thunder Bay has to reinvent ourselves. We are doing our bit here to give Thunder Bay other opportunities from an investment point of view whether it is mining or biotechnology or the tombstone business or oil areas. The mining is critical to the long people and connections and I have had the opportunity of meeting a lot great people in Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver and Winnipeg. You build relationships and before you know it you are bringing people together.
In terms of developing a plan for the future we have financial planing with two experts out of Barrie office. All they do is financial planning and insurance planning. I pick up the cost of that for the clients. We then work with Ross Healy on his portfolio model in which he has had a 14 year 20 % compound return which is a very impressive set of numbers.
The portfolio is not mutual funds but stocks so you need someone like Mary Nelson in our office to make the trades. We also have a man coming soon from Madison Ave in New York whose company financed Thomas Edison with private capital. They take there own equity and their client's funds and are looking at some private opportunities here. They will take clients capital and invest in a company before it is traded publically.
I love Toronto for what it has to offer, a real opportunity for a finance and source of capital. There is also great art there, great theatre but I would never want to live there. I came from Winnipeg and it is about as big a city I would want to live in again but Thunder Bay is the perfect size. It is seven minutes to the office from home for me, states Dyck. An average day for me begins at 8:30 am with a lot of research and reading to stay up on what's happened. We review our research, ROBTV, and charting programs to see where stocks have reached a resistance. Then it is contacting clients. I get out of here from 5 to 8 pm and work some Sundays. You have to enjoy it but not to take away from the family.
I've been here in Thunder Bay about 20 years now coming from Winnipeg but part of what drives me crazy is that Thunder Bay is poorly laid out. Probably the worst decision they ever made was becoming Thunder Bay. It should have remained Port Arthur and Fort William and
they would have just been like a Minneapolis - St Paul and built two really great downtowns. They took what was vibrant in both those cores and pushed into the middle, the intercity and it has done nothing for all three areas- PA, FW or Intercity. It is a real disaster that we
are feeling many years later, noted Dyck. The only way to overcome it is to have really great leadership from the cities point of view.
there is no logic there. They are not building up the cores but allowing people to build on the perimeter. You will find the cost of gas and transportation will be so expense soon you will have to have open up living in the cores. For example you could take the whole BayStreet area and build your own community where people could live, eat, shop and have entertainment. In Toronto the most valuable real estate is the core.
It took from March to Dec 23, 2006 to build the 2500 square foot Wellington West office at a cost of $ 200,000 with additional expenditures made by the city with changes to the heating system.The beautiful office is located on the 7th floor of the historic Hydro Building on Cumberland Street. It offers a priceless view of Lake Superior and the Sleeping Giant.
The sub trades were all very good to work with. Trying to get the timing of them was a challenge at times but those guys really know their work. It went well and the end result turned out exactly how I envisioned it at the beginning. It was great to have some kind of
mental picture and then get an designer to put it on paper. We are interested in being a long part of the community. smiles Terry Dyck
