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Hall says he hails from a “typical Jamaican family, where you have many brothers and sisters with different fathers, and your own father moves on.” He was raised by his maternal grandmother with four of his half-siblings and three cousins. On one wall of his office is a “Hall of Fame,” with nine framed congratulatory letters from big clients. But on a counter behind his desk is a snapshot of the tin shack in Golden Grove where he grew up.
In 1985, at age 16, Hall moved to Toronto to live with his father, a factory worker. After bristling at his father’s authoritarian style, Hall moved out to a rooming house and worked as a dishwasher in a tough part of suburban Scarborough while he finished high school.
After graduating in 1988, Hall found a job as a junior mailroom clerk at Stikeman Elliott, one of Toronto’s blue-blood legal firms. Using the firm’s generous education allowance for employees, he took night courses at community colleges – finance at Seneca and law at George Brown – and earned a law clerk’s certificate.
Hall also sponsored his mother and four of his siblings as immigrants, and paid their way to Canada. Two younger half-brothers didn’t adapt as well as he had, however. Michael Gordon was deported to Jamaica some time in the early 1990s, after several drug-related arrests. In August, 1995, Hall received a call from police in Buffalo to come and identify a corpse. It was his other half-brother, Ian Scottberth, who had been found in a dumpster, wrapped in plastic. Hall’s phone number was found in his pocket. The Buffalo News reported that Scottberth was the victim of a gangland-style slaying. Police suspected drug ties.
A year later, Hall got a big career break. He applied for a law clerk’s job at a rival law firm, which passed on his application to Glenn O’Farrell, vice-president of legal and regulatory affairs at CanWest Global. O’Farrell hired him as a law clerk and assistant corporate secretary. Hall attributes much of his success to managers who mentored him at Global Television for the next four years.
the above is from the body of the article...rather a substantial piece in REPORT ON BUSINES: The Globe n Mail February issue....
read the article in its entirety here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repor...9456/?page=all
In 1985, at age 16, Hall moved to Toronto to live with his father, a factory worker. After bristling at his father’s authoritarian style, Hall moved out to a rooming house and worked as a dishwasher in a tough part of suburban Scarborough while he finished high school.
After graduating in 1988, Hall found a job as a junior mailroom clerk at Stikeman Elliott, one of Toronto’s blue-blood legal firms. Using the firm’s generous education allowance for employees, he took night courses at community colleges – finance at Seneca and law at George Brown – and earned a law clerk’s certificate.
Hall also sponsored his mother and four of his siblings as immigrants, and paid their way to Canada. Two younger half-brothers didn’t adapt as well as he had, however. Michael Gordon was deported to Jamaica some time in the early 1990s, after several drug-related arrests. In August, 1995, Hall received a call from police in Buffalo to come and identify a corpse. It was his other half-brother, Ian Scottberth, who had been found in a dumpster, wrapped in plastic. Hall’s phone number was found in his pocket. The Buffalo News reported that Scottberth was the victim of a gangland-style slaying. Police suspected drug ties.
A year later, Hall got a big career break. He applied for a law clerk’s job at a rival law firm, which passed on his application to Glenn O’Farrell, vice-president of legal and regulatory affairs at CanWest Global. O’Farrell hired him as a law clerk and assistant corporate secretary. Hall attributes much of his success to managers who mentored him at Global Television for the next four years.
the above is from the body of the article...rather a substantial piece in REPORT ON BUSINES: The Globe n Mail February issue....
read the article in its entirety here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repor...9456/?page=all
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