About Training and Process Design

“Jack has acted as both a trainer and a process designer for the York Region Department of Social Services. Jack is a very good facilitator, and his interaction with staff and immediate response to their feedback during training sessions made for a very positive learning experience.”

– E..R. Burley, Acting Director of Social Services, York Region

“As a long time member of management I was made to feel very comfortable in Jack’s training sessions and enjoyed participating. Jack is a very open facilitator and quickly establishes great rapport.”

– Maria Smith, Manager, York Region Department of Social Services

About Mediation

“I participated as one of three shareholders in a dispute which was extremely bitter. That bitterness made direct discussion among us impossible. Customers began to go elsewhere. Bill paying fell behind. Our frustration grew into anger and we locked ourselves into a series of personal attacks, and kept rehashing them. While this was going on, we risked being locked out by the landlord. Jack used a ‘balance sheet’ approach to persuade us to look forward long enough to understand that our behaviour would soon result in the destruction of the business and a complete loss of our capital. By keeping us focused on critical, short time lines, and on the need to preserve our capital, Jack was able to help us reach a settlement which saw two of us buy out the shares owned by the third.”

– K. Randall, K.R. Management Limited

” Jack mediated a dispute between my company and one of our customers who had a large outstanding account which had remained unpaid for close to one year. The customer had immigrated to Canada only a few years before. His English was weak, and he had little previous business experience. The customer was also in conflict with the seller from whom he had bought this business. That conflict seemed to distract him, getting in the way of settlement of my company’s account. In the course of listening to each of us, Jack became aware of the customer’s lack of understanding of North American business practices and quickly simplified his approach to mediating our dispute, reducing it to its barest essentials. By do so, he was able to help the customer feel as though he were an equal participant in the process. By adapting the process to the participants, our comfort level increased and we soon were able to look at different options to resolve our differences.”

– Andy Boukaris, ATM Fine Foods

About Negotiation

“I am currently in dispute with my landlord regarding rent and utilities owing concerning a commercial property which I use to operate a service business. Because the landlord and I seem to clash whenever we try to speak to each other directly, I asked Jack to act as a negotiator. We met with the landlord who decided to represent himself, and after several hours of negotiation we were able to narrow the issues which have divided us for some time. A part of our problem stems from the wording of the Lease. By encouraging us to search for reasonable, fair market principles which might fill the gaps in our Lease, and then calculate rent due and rent paid, we are now closer to a resolution of our dispute than we were previously.”

– John Ali

“I retained Jack to complete a commercial real estate transaction for 5.5 million dollars. The buyer sought a few delays to which I agreed and also waived his financing condition. Some months later his real estate agent advised me that her buyer had changed his mind and no longer wished to close and asked me to return a $400,000.00 deposit. I am generally uncomfortable with conflict and prefer to keep negotiating. I saw Jack and we strategized. He advised me to sue immediately and to claim not just the deposit but also punitive damages of $1,000,000.00 to get the buyer’s attention Though the buyer was a non-resident, he had valuable Ontario real estate. Within three weeks the buyer raised the white flag and we rewrote our Agreement and closed the deal several months after. Sometimes the threat of expensive sanctions trumps negotiation and forces people acting in bad faith to come back to the table. A job very well done!”

M. Smith

About Arbitration

“My property and casualty insurer and I appointed Jack to arbitrate a theft claim resulting from a break-in at my leather goods shop. The arbitration was completed without a formal hearing based on detailed expert valuations provided by both sides, in four days. And that included a detailed 12 page award. Jack demonstrated his skill, efficiency, and promptness, all of which were very impressive.”

E. Tarantino