"A Little Better Than He Found It"
John Bachmann '60

"Changing Course, Full Speed Ahead"
Allan "Andy Anderson" '65

The firm's move into the Canadian retail securities market has been led by Gary Reamey '77. Now entering his fifth year as the director of operations of Edward Jones-Canada, Reamey oversees about 100 retail offices-he anticipates that number could rise to 1,500 over the next several years.

Magazine
Winter 1998

Bullish on Canada - and Wabash
by Rob Herzog

If Edward Jones, Sr. was alive today, he'd be intrigued by the small Indiana college that's turned out such a disproportionate number of his company's leaders. Not only is the firm's managing principal a Wabash man, but Little Giants are in command of both of the company's forays into foreign markets.

The firm's move into the Canadian retail securities market has been led by Gary Reamey '77. Now entering his fifth year as the director of operations of Edward Jones-Canada, Reamey oversees about 100 retail offices-he anticipates that number could rise to 1,500 over the next several years.

Canada is turning out to be a nice fit for the company and for Reamey. In the United States, Jones targets conservative investors willing to take a long-term approach to their investments. Reamey feels that attitudes among investors in Canada are close to those of Americans, if not a little more conservative. Thus, the prospect for success in Canada could mirror that of Edward Jones during Reamey's 20 years with the company.

Reamey's story is further evidence that a liberal arts degree prepares one for a lifetime, not just a job. Approaching graduation with a major in biology, Reamey took the advice of friend Rem Johnston '55, who suggested he pursue a career in sales. After successfully interviewing at the Edward Jones office in Crawfordsville, he underwent four months of training in Charleston, Illinois, becoming one of the firm's handful of investment representatives without any previous business experience. Looking to put down roots in a community, an important part of the Edward Jones philosophy, he opened the company's 175th brokerage in Morris, Illinois. The roots took hold and he spent the next 11 years there before moving in 1989 to corporate headquarters in St. Louis. Five years later, he and his wife, Anne, and three children moved to Toronto.

Reamey recalls his last day in the sales office in Morris, when a local farmer and his wife in their 80s told him that he had changed their lives ten years earlier by advising them to spend some of their money and enjoy life. As a Jones representative, the key to success in a small community is to become "a counselor and a friend," Reamey says. "Often, you don't realize the impact you have."

At the same time, lessons learned at Wabash also carry weight with Reamey. "Working in the sciences helped give me a keener sense of discipline as well as the understanding that sometimes no matter what you do and how hard you work, things don't work out." During his senior electromicroscopy project under the direction of biology professor Austin Brooks '61, over 100 hours of work produced no useful research data. "Professor Brooks looked at my work and my notes and said, 'You know, that's how research works sometimes.'"

"There is a tremendous amount of rejection and disappointment in this business, and you have to learn how to deal with it . . . My business in Morris started slow, real slow," Reamey remembers. However, his perseverance and the Jones approach to business have taken Reamey to the top.