Purdy Crawford’s name is synonymous with Canadian business and law. But even after education at Mount Allison and Harvard, Purdy arrived on Toronto’s Bay Street as an outsider, the son of a coal miner from tiny Five Islands, Nova Scotia. So how did young Purdy ascend so quickly and so far to become one of Canada’s top lawyers and best-known business mentors? In this biography of Purdy, bestselling business writer Gordon Pitts begins with the moment in 2007 when Crawford was enlisted by some of the country’s leading corporate officials to stave off financial market catastrophe. The book describes the role Crawford has played in mentoring many of Canada’s brightest economic thinkers, and his contribution to changing the way business was done in the boardroom, particularly in opening the door for women. Includes a photo insert of highlights from Purdy’s professional career and private life.

GORDON PITTS is a bestselling author, journalist and features writer for The Globe and Mail's Report on Business, focusing on management, entrepreneurship and family business. In 1989 he was a press fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge University, during which time he wrote his first book, Storming the Fortress, a finalist for the National Business Book Award in 1990. In the Blood: Battles to Succeed in Canada's Family Businesses, was a finalist for the National Business Book Award in 2000. His third book, Kings of Convergence:The Fight for Control of Canada's Media, was also a finalist, in 2003, as was The Codfathers: Lessons of the Atlantic Business Elite, in 2006. Gordon Pitts and his wife live in Toronto.

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• Short-listed, National Business Book Award
• Winner, Atlantic Book Awards, Dartmouth Book Award for Nonfiction