When the street convenes this week for his official send-off, the object of admiration won’t be a financier, broker, mine-finder or entrepreneur. Jake Fiddick made his mark as a banker, and one who provided services, not money. But as an innovative trailblazer he leaves a legacy that guarantees his place in Howe Street’s storied history.
His August 16 retirement ended 58 years with the Bank of Montreal, 33 of them at Vancouver’s downtown main office. It was there that he started the Public Company Banking Group, distinguishing himself from the rest of his industry with new approaches that quickly attracted appreciative clients.
That was a time when his colleagues tended to regard juniors with almost as much trepidation as a stick-up note. “Most of the banks did not look favourably on that kind of business—not at all,” recalls Frances Petryshen. Now corporate secretary with Balmoral Resources TSX:BAR and a veteran of several companies, she started working with Fiddick soon after he arrived downtown.
“Because of the up-and-down nature of these companies, we were pretty well the bane of the banking system,” Petryshen says. “And then along comes Jake, knocking on doors, looking at the potential and setting up the appropriate banking for exploration and mining companies. He saw a market. He saw a future.”
It started with Robert Friedland’s Galactic Resources. “The CFO, Bert Cook, gave me his wish list of services,” Fiddick says. “I was new to downtown and these weren’t normal services for regular companies, so it took me a couple of weeks to get things set up. But when I did he seemed happy.
For the rest of this article: http://www.mining.com/web/along-comes-jake/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter