I was hired (by Joyce Zemans) as the first Bell Media professor in Media Management and told by Joyce that one of the tasks was to develop a program for working media executives to develop their leadership and management knowledge. I found a great opportunity to partner with Women in Film and Television.
"Okay, now what?" I asked Joyce. She waved her hand airily. "Just ask Alan Middleton," she said. So I did. More than a decade since I 'asked Alan' the program is still going strong. It has developed a generation of leadership among all areas of the media sector: and welcomed students who work everywhere: producers, finance executives, journalists, lawyers, company founders, tech geniuses, marketers. you name it.
Alan has been with us every step of the way. Well, that's not true. He's been ahead of us all the way. Full of ideas and imagination, but also heading us away from disaster, and always a source of advice that actually works. His own marketing lecture in the program is one of the favorites: he is on top of the latest ideas and his classes are full of animated discussion.
So that's all good, but the greatest part is that it's so much fun to work with him! He has a wealth of anecdotes that keep us in stitches. I am not sure that they are all 100% perfectly true, but most of them are and they are all worth enjoying!.
For me, he is the spirit of Schulich: open, fearless, smart and always dedicated to excellence.
Alan, see you at the opera!