Encore performance.

Jeffrey B. Gresham, the incoming Canadian chair, is in the midst of a second stint as a national board member. Coming from one of the smallest chapters, Winnipeg, he's carved out a big role in the organization.

Very few FEI members ever serve in national leadership positions, but Jeffrey B. Gresham, the incoming chair of FEI Canada, has done it twice. Gresham was on the FEIC national board in the late 1980s, and returned to the board in 1997 on his way up to the chair position. He's also been a chapter president twice.

Is he a glutton for punishment? No, he laughs. "I've gotten a tremendous amount out of FEI. My feeling about an organization is that you get out of it what you put into it." Gresham, 48, clearly has put a lot in, starting with his joining the chapter in Winnipeg, his longtime home, in 1981, when he was still in his 20s. He was chapter president and a national board member five years later and has remained active, to say the least.

Gresham's slew of activities with FEI reflects what appears to be a very busy lifestyle. Now the CFO of N.M. Paterson & Sons Ltd., an agricultural products firm he joined earlier in the year, he has a passel of leisure pursuits that sound like they could tax two people. These include hunting, with rifle and bow; bird-dog training, squash, sailing and skiing (see "The Gresham File" for a more complete list). "I guess I like to work hard and play hard," he says.

His family participates in some of his outdoors activities, particularly at a family cottage on Lake of the Woods, Manitoba. Gresham admits, however, that despite formal training in shooting sports (rifle and archery), his two girls are more inclined to the performing arts. Becky, 18, recently graduated from a high school styled on a model of academics and performing arts like the TV series "Fame." She wants to pursue a career that would allow her to feed her appetite for international travel (e.g., hotel management). Younger sister, Galley, 12, has been involved in acting since she was 6 and has performed in several stage and radio productions -- and has even taken a turn at writing and producing. Gresham's wife, Karen, is a dedicated elementary school teacher known for her thoughtfulness and generosity by friends and colleagues.

FEI has been a central feature of Gresham's professional life. He counts himself as one of the longest-serving members of the Winnipeg Chapter, which has roughly doubled in size in the past two decades to just over 60. "I'd say that's a result both of better coverage of the companies that meet the qualifications and the growth of business here," he says. "There's been pretty good engagement of the members, and I know the vast majority on a first-name basis."

Soft-spoken and somewhat selfeffacing, Gresham says the changes in the governance structure of FEI Canada in the past couple of years have been energizing. That started with the hiring of Canadian President Harvey Naglie, he says, and has continued with a thorough review of the effectiveness of the national board "to try to cut it down to a more operational board." Previously, all the chapter presidents were members, and the ranks had swollen to almost 40.

"Our board was rather unwieldy and not functioning effectively," he says. Now, a membership committee has been created that will involve the chapter presidents, and a new set of bylaws is being crafted. "This will be the first year of operations under the new governance structure, with more reliance on input from the standing committees. I look forward to engaging the chapter presidents through that process. This year was more of a transition year, so we had a mix of the old and the new."

Asked about his goals as chairman, Gresham talks about encouraging involvement -- asking "as many members as possible to take an active role in their local chapter and in national committees." He also wants to participate in the globalization of FEI, though he concedes that this is "a very long-term project."

He is optimistic that the march toward uniform global accounting standards will continue. "It's my personal viewpoint that, there is very likely to be more movement toward adoption of international standards because of interest in registration on multiple exchanges around the world. In some cases, where U.S. GAAP [generally accepted accounting principles] and international standards do differ, Canada is closer to the international standard."

Gresham knows something about international business practices. At his previous employer, XCAN Grain Pool Ltd. -- where he also was CFO -- he journeyed to subsidiary offices in London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney and other overseas locations to visit trading partners. In 12 years at XCAN, he also was involved in a striking range of corporate activities, many strategic in nature. Principal responsibilities included corporate risk management in a commodity and derivatives trading environment, international trade finance and management information systems, in addition to the more traditional banking and financial accounting role.

Other oversight included human resource management, including benefits and pensions administration, and retirement planning. Those came about, in part, because XCAN had only about 100 employees, he says; in general, his experience has been at companies "that have been very flat in structure, and senior management has been involved in many areas."

Gresham advocates a very cautious approach to international expansion. "Enron has caused financial executives and others to have another look at personal and corporate ethics. However, business practices in the G7 countries are, on the whole, already at a much higher level of moral standing than most emerging economies. As EEL members, we must not only insist that our companies act ethically, we must be the watchdogs to ensure that business partners and contract counterparties abroad are acting ethically."

His advice comes from his more than 20 years in international trading in agricultural commodities to every continent and too-frequent brushes with companies and financial institutions committing or attempting fraud. "Russia and countries of the former Soviet Union and several African nations are of particular concern currently, but China and a number of Latin American countries are not far behind in fraudulent business dealings."

While he has been in the same city and the same general field for his entire career, Gresham's work history parallels that of many EEL members. Prior to joining XCAN in 1990, he was a manager of finance and administration and later vice president/finance at Northern Sales Co. Ltd, a private firm in the grain and oilseeds business, which he joined in 1979. He started his career at a public accounting firm, Clarkson Gordon (now Ernst & Young LLP) in 1974, and became a chartered accountant in 1977.

But Gresham's long list of leisure activities is unusual. He recounts an annual hunting trip he's been taking for years with two to four friends to a remote area in Manitoba that lasts as long as eight days; the lakeside campsite is "five or six miles off any road access, which means backpacks and a mountain bike to get the supplies to camp." He recently took part in a hunting dog test in North Dakota with his German wire-haired pointer. It was a day-long, closely judged event and "Tam" came away with an award. "It was very stressful for the dog owner -- not for the dog," he chuckles. "He was having fun."

Gresham is also very involved in family events like skiing and sailing -- the later on Lake Winnipeg, a big natural lake north of the city, where he's been involved in handicap racing with keelboats during the summer months. Somehow, he also finds time to get in two or three weekly games of squash --- a game that puts a premium on fitness. Clearly, when you engage Jeff Gresham, you get a lot of energy.

RELATED ARTICLE: The Gresham File

Name: Jeffrey B. Gresham

Title: Chief Financial Officer

Company: N.M. Paterson and Sons Ltd., Winnipeg, Manitoba

Business description: Handling, marketing and transportation of agricultural commodities and related industries, including organic agrifood production/marketing, crop production supplies/services, feed manufacturing and livestock production.

Career Path: Clarkson, Gordon (now Ernst & Young), senior staff accountant, 1974-79; manager of finance and administration, vice president/finance, Northern Sales Co. Ltd., 1979-90; CFO and Corporate Secretary, XCAN Grain Pool Ltd., 1990-2002; CFO, N.M Paterson & Sons Ltd., 2002-.

FEI Positions: Joined Winnipeg Chapter in 1981. Various chapter chairs, starting in 1981 and continuing through 1988, and again, 1994 though 1999; chapter president, 1986-87 and again, 1997-98. FEIC National Board Member, 1986-88 and since 1997. Active in numerous committees, including executive committee; Vice Chairman FEIC, 2001-02. FEI Executive Committes and Board since 2001.

Education: Bachelor of Science, University of Manitoba, 1973; Institute of Chartered Accountants of Manitoba, 1977.

Spouse: Karen -- Married 29 years

Children: Jennifer Rebecca (Becky), 18; Cathryn Noelle (Calley), 12

Interests: Big game hunting (rifle and archery), upland and migratory game bird hunting, versatile hunting dog training, squash, sailing, cross-country and downhill skiing; motorcycle/ATV riding, skin-diving, canoeing, fishing, hiking.