Surf's up: Financier with famous name looks to make an offshore break
Monday, June 26, was an atypical start to the week for Lionel Conacher. The San Francisco Bay-area financier woke up early and immediately checked the ocean weather conditions, as per his normal routine, but he did not proceed to map out his day based upon when the optimal time to go surfing was.
“If I go a day without being in the water, I feel weird now,” he said. “My wife would say I surf every day.”
The financial-player-cum-surfer would say it’s more like six days a week, but it wasn’t always so. Once upon a time, during his full-speed-ahead business career, Conacher co-founded Westwind Partners Inc., a former Toronto investment bank that was purchased by San Francisco private-equity giant Thomas Weisel Partners Inc. in 2008 for about $145 million.
That deal may not ring a bell, but what should, particularly for Canadian sports trivia buffs, is Conacher’s name. The 61-year-old, mostly retired investment banker is the grandson of Lionel Pretoria Conacher, a.k.a. Big Train, who was voted Canada’s greatest athlete of the first half of the 20th century.
The Conacher of yore won a Grey Cup and two Stanley Cups. He boxed, wrestled, played baseball and lacrosse, and died at 54 never having met his younger namesake, nor knowing that Lionel Findlay Conacher at age 53 would hop on a surfboard and get hooked.
“The ocean doesn’t care if you are a CEO, or rich; the ocean doesn’t know,” he said.
The other surfers know Conacher as Nellie, a nickname he picked up from his surfing coach.
“I’ve had every version of ‘Train’ as a nickname in my life and now, at 61, I am Nellie,” he said. “My kids think it’s hilarious.”
Nellie was at the airport in San Francisco on June 26 waiting for a morning flight to Toronto — hence the day away from
Read more on financialpost.com
