Players By John Greenwood That doesn't quite put RG in the big leagues. BAY STREET'S Bank-owned firms. such as RBC Dominion Securi- ties Inc., which reported profits of close to $50 million last year, dominate the field. Still, in some of the industrv's toughest times, CHUCK WINOGRAD Winograd has kept RG profitable for the past 34 months. In 1990. Canadian brokerages as a whole lost just under S226 million, according to the Investment Dealers Association of Canada. RG, on the other hand, made $9 million. With the outlook now brightening, RG's prospects are good. "Thev're on a roll. They're moving up there. says Stewart Borden, a research director at Brendan Wood International, a Toronto-based research firm. Adds a CEO at a rival brokerage. "He has put RG back on the map. Right now we look at them as solid competitors." Winograd's growing clout in the fairly closed Torontonian world of Bay Street is no mean feat. "The securities industry is still an old boy preserve, much more so than in the U.S. or other countries," says Borden. Wino- grad is something of an outsider. Born in Winnipeg, he went to the local high school and studied economics at The University of Manitoba. It was a middle- class prairie experience. Marbe one reason he likes to come out on top is that he comes from a family of superjocks. His brother played for a while with the now- defunct World Hockey League, and his dentist father served as president of both the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Canadian Football League. The brash HUGH BENHAM RECALLS PLAYING SQUASH BACK IN In the Winograd household, the emphasis was the early '70s with a keen young University of notjust on playing. but on winning. outsider who's Western Ontario MBA he'd just hired. The rook- When Winograd arrived in Toronto, invest- ie's name was Chuck Winograd and he proceed- ment dealers in the citv didn't exactly roll out the trying to take ed to beat the pants off Benham, then assistant welcome mat. That cold reception didn't deter manager of research at Richardson Securities of him. In 1986, he set up a new headquarters for Canada. "After a while, he stopped and asked if I Winnipeg-based RG. The stock market crash less Richardson wanted to know what I was doing wrong," recalls than a year later didn't help matters. In 1988, a Benham. "I said. 'Ask me that again, and I'll drive measlv 24 of the Toronto Stock Exchange's 74 Greenshields the ball where the sun don't shine.' members made monev. RG lost money 100, but Twenty vears later, the brash young man sits in the tenacious Winograd kept on fighting. to the top the CEO's chair at what's now called Richardson In the past five years, RG has carved out a Greenshields of Canada Limited. And instead of medium-sized niche in Toronto. "ll'e haven' beating his boss at squash. the 44-vear-old Wino- arrived vet." savs Winograd, "but it's coming." grad is racking up points on Bav Street. When that ume does arrive. he'll deserve it. An Privately held RG is 75% owned by Winnineg's admitted workaholic. Winograd isn't afraid to put wealthv Richardson family, SO numbers are scarce. 111 the hours. He pulls out of the drivewav from But the company recorded a record protit in his modest North York home at 7:30 in the morn- 1991 of $18.4 million on revenues of approxi- ing and doesn get home until 8:00 in the Paul Orenstein matelv $300 million. according to Winograd. evening. Outside of work he devotes his nme to 10 THE FINANCIAL Post MAGAZINE Juis AUGUST 1992