Richard Jaffray: Chairman of the Board

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Richard Jaffray, President and Founder, Cactus Restaurants Ltd.

I’m definitely a work-to-live person, and surfing is a big motivator for me. I have to ensure that my business is successful so I can do more of it. And the food and wine lifestyle in the restaurant business can consume you, but I stay motivated in the gym so that I can keep up my surfing.

My partner Angela and I go surfing every other weekend in Tofino, where we have a place, and I’ll go on two or three surfing trips a year. Usually two of those trips are to Hawaii because it’s one of the greatest places to surf in the world, and I’ll also visit one place I’ve never surfed before. I just went to Costa Rica, and next on the hit list are Panama and Brazil. Many people don’t realize that surfing is very competitive. Everybody’s racing each other trying to get into a better position. But if someone beats you to the wave, then it’s their wave and you let them catch it. There’s always a friendly competition going on. In fact, it’s a lot like business. It’s definitely very addictive. I’ve actually gotten a lot of my senior management addicted to surfing, deliberately. That way, for some of our head-¬office meetings and senior-management meetings, I can take them to an area where we can surf. We’ll do our meetings and then hit the waves. And if the surf is really good one morning, we’ll adjust the meetings so we can all go surfing first.