Encore performance.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: Jeffrey B. Gresham, FEI - Brief Article

Jeffrey B. Gresham, the incoming Canadian chair, is in the midst of a second stint as a national board member. Coming from one of the smallest chapters, Winnipeg, he's carved out a big role in the organization.

Very few FEI members ever serve in national leadership positions, but Jeffrey B. Gresham, the incoming chair of FEI Canada, has done it twice. Gresham was on the FEIC national board in the late 1980s, and returned to the board in 1997 on his way up to the chair position. He's also been a chapter president twice.

Is he a glutton for punishment? No, he laughs. "I've gotten a tremendous amount out of FEI. My feeling about an organization is that you get out of it what you put into it." Gresham, 48, clearly has put a lot in, starting with his joining the chapter in Winnipeg, his longtime home, in 1981, when he was still in his 20s. He was chapter president and a national board member five years later and has remained active, to say the least.

Gresham's slew of activities with FEI reflects what appears to be a very busy lifestyle. Now the CFO of N.M. Paterson & Sons Ltd., an agricultural products firm he joined earlier in the year, he has a passel of leisure pursuits that sound like they could tax two people. These include hunting, with rifle and bow; bird-dog training, squash, sailing and skiing (see "The Gresham File" for a more complete list). "I guess I like to work hard and play hard," he says.

His family participates in some of his outdoors activities, particularly at a family cottage on Lake of the Woods, Manitoba. Gresham admits, however, that despite formal training in shooting sports (rifle and archery), his two girls are more inclined to the performing arts. Becky, 18, recently graduated from a high school styled on a model of academics and performing arts like the TV series "Fame." She wants to pursue a career that would allow her to feed her appetite for international travel (e.g., hotel management). Younger sister, Galley, 12, has been involved in acting since she was 6 and has performed in several stage and radio productions -- and has even taken a turn at writing and producing. Gresham's wife, Karen, is a dedicated elementary school teacher known for her thoughtfulness and generosity by friends and colleagues.

FEI has been a central feature of Gresham's professional life. He counts himself as one of the longest-serving members of the Winnipeg Chapter, which has roughly doubled in size in the past two decades to just over...