Profile of ROY HILL

As a young immigrant newly arrived from Ireland, I landed my first job as manager, Contracts Department, at Wood Gundy on May 8th, 1957. I soon moved into trading and as Gundy was then a bond house and didn’t have a stock exchange seat, we jitneyed our orders through Wills, Bickle.

I managed the equity trading dept. until 1977, at which time I switched to sales and established Gundy’s branch in Markham. During my tenure on trading I saw the Dow break the 1,000 level for the first time. I was trading at the time of President Kennedy’s assassination. I remember well the Kidd Creek discovery and many other exciting events. News and rumors traveled fast in those days and I’m not sure that modern technology has made the rumor mill any faster.

I joined A.E. Ames in 1978 in sales but was unaware they were already on a slippery slope. I was a lousy salesman anyway and I yearned to be back in a trading environment. I took a job with Bob Rose at Merit Investment and traded on the floor as well as CATS. I remained there until 1985 when I joined the TSE’s Market Surveillance working with Neil Winchester. In 1991, The OSC transferred COATS to the TSE and it was renamed Canadian Dealing Network. (“CDN”) Nobody wanted the job of managing CDN and as the saying goes, “fools rush in”. The over-the–counter market and CDN experienced exponential growth in the next nine years and it was like holding a tiger by the tail.

I retired in February 1999 after 42 years in the industry and if asked if I would do it again the answer is - “in a heartbeat”. I have lived through interesting times and worked with the greatest group of people. Retirement is good. I live in the London area now and keep active in various organizations. I enjoy playing banjo and guitar with my Dixieland and swing music groups as well as performing solo at banjo conventions throughout the USA.