[Professional Blog] Flanagan returns

Chris Flanagan, the Director of Communications with CHC Helicopter Corporation, has left that company and returned to Newfoundland to take a position as Senior Counsel with Colour-NL.

Chris is the former Business Editor with The Telegram. He left that position around the turn of the millenium to work with CHC, and relocated to Vancouver in 2004 when the company moved its office there.

He returned to Newfoundland on June 4, with his wife and four children, though this is the first I've heard about it. An amusing ad on the front page of this week's Independent reads as follows:

"Here at Colour-NL, we feel terrible. Colour has recruited communications specialist Chris Flanagan to return home from BC, with his growing family, leaving western Canadians to mull over their newfound brain drain problem. Chris is an accomplished writer, brand manager and journalist. He's excited to be returning to the right coast and we're thrilled to add his energy and perspective to our Colour creative team."

Chris and his wife Susan are both live wires' and you can bet they will quickly make their presence known within the creative and intellectual ferment of this place.

I watch with interest any developments at Colour, since it is a company that I started back in 1996. I was approached by the communications people at Hibernia, who asked me to bid on writing and producing a high-end newsletter. I brought in designer Mark Smith, won the contract and incorporated as Milestone Communications. Not long after, we brought in a third partner, Caron Hawco, and grew a tidy little operation of nine people. Then the CCL Group, the largest PR firm in Atlantic Canada, came calling, looking to establish a fully-operational presence in this city. We merged (well, they bought us out) in 2001, becoming CCL Milestone. I worked there until 2004, when I left to form Meeker Media Inc. Last year, the evolution continued as CCL Milestone changed its name to Colour. None of the original nine are there, but that is not unusual in this high-turnover business. I take some satisfaction in knowing that the company I started 11 years ago continues to employ local talent and produce good work.