Growth itself is usually cause for celebration in a private company. But when a firm can hand-pick some of an industry’s top achievers to fill its expanding ranks, that’s a special point of pride for management.

As he looks back on his insurance brokerage company’s 31/2 years of growth in Calgary, Mark Terrill of Jones Brown Inc. can hardly believe how well it’s turned out and how promising the future looks.

“I opened the office for Jones Brown in Calgary in 2000 with seven people. We’ve grown to a staff of 20 and we’ve been really privileged to attract some very senior people.”

They’ve come over from a couple of the largest insurance brokerages in the world, helping to found, for example, JB Oil & Gas.

Jones Brown president Mark Terrill (second from right) has seen his company thrive thanks to an expert team of insurance consultants including (from left) Grace Devereaux, Doug Banert and Sherry Falconer.

Jones Brown’s first foray into the upstream oil and gas market “has been a big success,” Terrill says.

Being one of those leaders who likes to focus attention on his people, Terrill sits down for an interview and aims his spotlight on three additions of the past year to Jones Brown’s Calgary team – Grace Devereaux, Sherry Falconer and Doug Banert.

Devereaux and Falconer joined the company last year to specialize in construction insurance and bonding, in which they have many years of experience.

Devereaux was looking for a change in lifestyle and an opportunity to work for a privately owned entrepreneurial firm, where she could build a practice without a lot of bureaucracy. Terrill liked her solid reputation, as well as her self-assurance as a professional who expected to be trusted to get the job done.

“Nothing’s ever been truer than that,” Terrill says.

“Grace has seen all the corporate politics. She just wants to go about her business, and she’s the most self-motivated individual I’ve ever met.”

Falconer’s expertise is surety, which Terrill saw as another highly valuable specialty as Jones Brown staked out its turf.

“The ability to offer our construction clients access to all major surety underwriters in Canada was crucial,” he explains.

“Sherry was able to do just that.

“She had many years of experience in the surety industry with a large national brokerage firm and most recently with a large regional firm.”

More recently, Doug Banert joined Jones Brown from Marsh Inc., the world’s leading risk and insurance services firm.

He has handled the insurance needs for many educational institutions, and built particular expertise in sports-related recreation including the ski business. At various times, Banert has insured most of the major ski hill operations in Western Canada.

“There’s nothing Doug doesn’t know about what’s involved in running something on the scale of Sunshine, Lake Louise or Norquay,” Terrill says. “That whole community knows him and trusts him.”

If you’ve noticed a pattern here – besides one of excellence – it’s the steady gravitation of respected insurance specialists from a big corporate environment to a more intimate place where self-starters flourish, innovation is valued and everybody has to get along.

Banert says he had watched the new firm from a distance and was impressed by the way founder Brian Jones in Toronto and Calgary head Terrill had put into practice a vision for company growth based on service and professionalism for the clients.

“I knew it would fit very well for me,” Banert says. “I was looking for a career change to get out of the big corporate world and do something different. It has turned out to be very rewarding and refreshing.”

Ditto for the company. “Every time we hire somebody else with prominence,” Terrill says, “it makes it that much easier for the next person to look at us and say, ‘These are people I know and respect and they’ve made this move, and they’re flourishing at it. Why shouldn’t I do this?’

“It is getting easier for us to attract these quality people to our firm.”

Of course, none of the successes and growth would be possible without Jones Brown’s clients, and it’s to them Terrill directs his closing words in the interview. Last week, his firm’s offices and all others in the Standard Life tower in downtown Calgary had to be emptied for several days when burst water pipes knocked out the building’s heat and electrical power.

“We can’t tell our clients enough how much we appreciate their patience,” Terrill says. Then he adds with a smile, “One of our jobs is to be able to empathize with our clients when they’re having a disaster. Well, there are now 20 people at Jones Brown Calgary who know exactly how they feel.”

For more information, phone 403.265.1920, fax 403.265.1922 or e-mail cal@jonesbrown.com