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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/443582
february 2015 BCBUSineSS 29 T his past fall, Angus Reid launched Angus Reid Institute, a new research company that sounds a lot like some of his old research companies, with one very big difference. Angus Reid Institute doesn't want your business nor any- one else's. Instead, it's a non- profit foundation modelled on the U.S. Pew Research Center, which complements for-profit research companies and governmental statistics bureaus by instigating and carrying out comprehensive research on whatever it damn well feels like. You will see the results of research done by the Angus Reid Institute. But if all of its work is conducted strictly in the public interest, where will the money come from? For now, from Angus Reid himself. The 67-year-old has pledged $5 million of his own money to fund it forfive years—a new twist in a career that has seen plenty of them. 2014 after finding a co-CeO for Vision Critical one year earlier, in June reid steps back to consultant status—some say sooner than he planned. 1985 reid swears off political allegiances, soon becoming a pollster for the Southam news- paper chain, which buys 60% of the firm. 1996 reid buys his com- pany back on favourable terms. 1998 Growth accele- ates across Canada, and also in the u.S., where offices are opened in Minneapolis, New york and San francisco. 2000 revenues at Canada's largest research firm have exploded, from $14 million in 1994 to $65 million today. but the company is heavily invested in soon-to-be-outmoded technology, including 1,000 phones. 1992 No more Portage and Main in January. reid moves himself and the company to Vancouver. 2001 reid resigns. "It was a year of ennui," says the sociologist. "I'm not a good employee." 2005 No injunction is granted. 1979 reid leaves academia to form CanWest Survey research, which focuses on telephone polling instead of cumbersome and expensive in-home interviews. 1984 reid's company, now called the angus reid Group, is the Liberal pollster during the 1984 federal election. John Turner's party wins 40 seats, the fewest in its history. 1965 reid enters the university of Manitoba, where he focuses on sociol- ogy, a discipline that is about to have its moment. 1974 Carleton university PhD in hand, reid returns to Winnipeg to accept a post-doctoral fellowship from the university of Manitoba, where he soon gains profes- sor status. but academia does not agree. "a complete waste. My dark period," he says. 1978 He provides research help to a fellow u of M prof and provincial MLa running in the 1979 federal election. bingo! Lloyd axworthy is elected as an MP, soon becoming a senior Liberal cabinet minister. 2005 IPSOS-reid seeks an injunction to stop reid from fulfill- ing this function, on the grounds that it is in conflict with a non-competition agreement. 1996 Southam's new proprietors, Conrad black and David radler, are dismis- sive of reid; they have no use for a polling company. STarT Angus Reid S n a k e s + L a d d e r s The ups and downs of one life's journey by Jim Sutherland 2013 Vision Critical approaches $100 mil- lion in annual revenues. With 700 employees in 16 global offices, it's one of Canada's fastest- growing companies. 2014 four months after departing Vision Critical, he launches the angus reid Institute. 2004 reid incorporates as angus reid Consulting and shortly after becomes CeO of Vision Critical Communications, founded by his son, andrew reid, to develop software to facilitate web-based data collection. 2000 as the tech boom nears its zenith, french-based IPSOS S.a. buys the company for almost $100 million, well above the going rate, while keeping reid on as CeO of newly named IPSOS-reid.