An excerpt from Gordon Pitts' just published book, The Codfathers, looks at the McKenna miracle
By Gordon Pitts
Special to the Telegraph-Journal
When Frank McKenna was luring a Royal Bank centre for Moncton, he talked it over with then chairman Allan Taylor while fishing on the Restigouche. Then vice-chairman Gordon Feeney came on board, because after all, he was a native New Brunswicker. When Air Canada needed a reservation centre, Frank got a call from chocolate tycoon David Ganong, who is on the airline's board, and "I immediately landed the centre for 500 big jobs in Saint John." Every business he went after, he would check the board, find out who was on it, and work the Maritime relationship.
Sometimes he didn't have to look very far. By the time Frank was lining up call centre customers for New Brunswick, his old friend Kevin Francis had risen through the Xerox ranks and had become the copier company's Canadian president in Toronto. Out of the blue, Frank called him one day and said, "Why don't you put some Xerox call centre jobs in New Brunswick?" McKenna explained that he needed some brand names to get the call centre thing off the ground. Francis was receptive to at least talking to his old friend about it. "He was up to Toronto in a flash with a couple of officials," Francis says. "He sold his little heart out. He is probably one of Canada's great salesmen."
