THE BASTEDO BASTION INVESTING AND TECH: ALL IN THE FAMILY By Sue Van Der Hout
Alice and Ruth Bastedo: mother and daughter who share some important traits. Entrepreneurial, ahead of their time, the gift of laughing when life pulls
punches and wildly successful.
Alice is currently an investment manager at RBC Dominion Securities in Toronto. She’s been in the business for thirty years. She began once her three kids were sprouting well.
It’s a rough and tumble business and it was not female friendly. The "boys" weren’t particularly welcoming, but Alice comes from a tradition of tougher stuff. She attended the University of Toronto and completed her Honours BA in Political Science and Economics, when skirts on campus weren’t the norm. To this day, she laughs with delight while sharing the successes of the few women she shared that experience with, some who overcame tremendous obstacles and held their ground in many formerly exclusively male bastions and others who lost the battles but never gave up.
| It’s a rough and tumble business and it was not female friendly… but Alice comes from a tradition of tougher stuff. |
Alice’s eyes twinkle when she shares quotes from her father, a former CEO and Chairman of A.E. Ames and Co. Limited which Dominion Securities acquired in 1981. It may have been the high expectations of her that drove her or excellence pure and simple. And she’s delivered.
She’s built her book of business, she’s proved her mettle in the market and her joy is delivering value to clients by taking them from promising savers to financial security. Alice’s specialty is managing non-discretionary accounts of over $500,000. She jokes that she’s the only non-discretionary manager who exercises a very specific discretion – Take my advice or find another advisor. Alice favours strong securities with a long-term hold. When advising clients she recognizes that one size or philosophy can’t fit all. As circumstances change, she re-evaluates the opportunities and risks from the perspective of the holdings and interests of the individual client. A grandmother many times over, she still totes her homework home each night. She’s been working with Angel Tang since 2000 who shares her philosophy. That makes sense. In finance, Alice strives to be on the side of the angels.
Daughter Ruth has the same bubbling laugh that Alice has. Ruth co-founded and built a new media firm, Medium One, which she sold in 2002 for big returns while new media was bursting. Coincidentally so were her kids’ diapers. The time was just right.
She took a turn in investment advising with Alice for a few year, but her high energy style and passion for leading edge ideas and opportunities lured her back into tech. In 2004 she started Continuum, a tech company that uses technology to connect people through online, interactive learning. Continuum creates real-time, online environments to help people and company understand opportunities, direction, policies and procedures with a click. Ruth is the glue in the company – she does business development, business operations and handles the day to day stuff.
Continuum is only part of her day job which includes driving car pool for adamant pre-schoolers who are not shy about announcing their aversion to attending organized play. Her daughter solemnly told her on the morning of a big meeting that she was "absolutely not stepping a foot into camp that day". Ruth roared with laughter and told her daughter that she doubted that was "in the cards" today.
Ruth is the President of Women Entrepreneurs of Canada. Family, friends, business building and helping other women develop the strategy and toolkit they need to realize their own success keeps Ruth going non-stop.
| Breathing optional. Laughter essential. That’s how it’s done by the Bastedos. |
Ruth Bastedo has been an interactive communications specialist and entrepreneur for the last ten years. As Co-Founder of the new media firm Medium One, Ruth was an award winning producer on a range of multimedia products for RBC Financial Group, Microsoft Network, PBS, Cincinnati Bell and Chapters Inc. After ranking 13/50 on PROFIT´s list of fastest growing start ups in 2001, Ruth and her partners finalized the sale of Medium One to the Mosaic Group Inc., and Ruth moved to RBC Investments. At RBC, Ruth was profiled in national publications such as Macleans, the National Post and The Globe and Mail for her innovative approach to marketing investment products to the women?s market.
Ruth left RBC Investments in 2004, and founded interactive communications firm Continuum Media Inc. (an Authorized Adobe Breeze Partner). Continuum uses technology to connect people through online, interactive learning. Continuum integrates video and audio online so that people around the world can learn and participate in live events without being physically there. Her company creates media content for learning, training and customer support applications as well as real-time, online environments.
Ruth is serving the last year of her term on the board of St. Clements, an independent girls´ school in the Toronto area, and has just begun her term as President of Women Entrepreneurs of Canada.
Alice is a seasoned Investment Advisor with RBC Dominion Securities, with over 27 years of experience in the Canadian Investment Business. After completing an Honours BA in Political Science and Economics at the University of Toronto in 1961, Alice began her career in the investment department at Sun Life in Montreal. She began as a Registered Representative at investment dealer A.E. Ames and Co. Limited, in 1978. A.E. Ames and Co. Limited was acquired by Dominion Securities in 1981. Alice’s father was a former CEO and Chairman of A.E. Ames and Co. Limited.
Angel graduated from the University of Calgary with a Bachelor of Commerce Degree in Finance and Marketing. She joined RBC DS in 1999 and has been working with Alice since year 2000. Angel has earned the Canadian Investment Manager and the Fellow of the Canadian Securities Institute designations through the Canadian Securities Institute and is fully licensed as an Investment Advisor.
01.10.2007
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