Duchesne's ready to ride
Rupert Duchesne, CEO of Aeroplan, may be in the business of frequent-flier points but he excels at spoked-wheel transport. In this weekend's Ride to Conquer Cancer, a 200-kilometre, two-day bike ride from Toronto to Niagara Falls, Mr. Duchesne will be part of an elite team of more than 50 riders led by Lawrence Zimmering, founder of Resolve Corp., and Olympic medalist Steve Bauer.
About 4,000 riders will participate in the fundraiser for cancer research at Toronto's Princess Margaret Hospital. This is year two for the event, which raised a phenomenal $14-million in 2008. Mr. Duchesne personally raised $52,350 last year, in the halcyon days prerecession; currently he's at the $30,000 mark. "But I will carry on poking people right up until the ride."
Last year, he says, some of his team members were still getting donations on their BlackBerrys during the ride. The team finished in top place money-wise at $469,000, and is currently in second spot. The team members have been meeting every Saturday in Oakville, Ont., to train, riding 75 km. Mr. Duchesne describes that as a "fun experience." Uh huh. But then he has extra motivation; his sixtysomething father-in-law is also on the team and rides 50 km to work and back. "It's a huge incentive not to do worse than he does," Mr. Duchesne says with a laugh.
All is forgiven
Allen Palmiere, who was ousted as the CEO of HudBay Minerals in a nasty proxy battle a few months back, isn't holding a grudge. Mr. Palmiere attended a mining conference in Toronto this week, taking in a presentation by his former adversary and successor at HudBay, Peter Jones. In early 2008, when he was HudBay's chairman, Mr. Palmiere was among a group of directors who forced Mr. Jones from the top job at the zinc-and-copper miner. But it was Mr. Jones who had the last laugh. Backed by a foreign hedge fund during a bitter proxy contest, Mr. Jones won back his old job in March along with a new slate of directors. Mr. Palmiere seemed in good spirits at the mining confab Tuesday. He took the time to approach Mr. Jones and shake his hand after the presentation. The body language wasn't exactly warm and fuzzy, but the former adversaries shared a brief, and, by all appearances, extremely civil conversation.
