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A SLIPPERY SLOPE From the ski industry to mortgages, Donald Greene is a financing guru DONALD GREENE can thank his passion for skiing for his success as a mortgage broker. In 1968, Greene was inspired by Canadian Nancy Greene’s Olympic win, so he found a job at the ski shop at Sun Valley in the Laurentians and immediately took to the slopes. “It was so much fun,” Greene says. “It was incredible; I was hooked.” While at McGill University, he joined the ski team and became a ski instructor. That gig introduced him to Conrad Guay, the ski school director and father of Canadian skiing great Erik Guay. Greene worked with the elder Guay on the prestigious Pinoteau Racing Team in Tremblant, Que. “After that, I was drafted by the ski industry,” Greene says. “I was fortunate enough to be in contact with people like the Crazy Canucks.” Greene later became the first employee of Salomon Canada before joining the optical industry, where he became involved in financing lasers for eye operations. In 2008, Greene made the jump to mortgages and joined a start-up called Planiprêt, which is now the number-two brokerage in Quebec. But he’s still got a toe or two on the hill. “We moved up north,” Greene says, “so we’re about 10 minutes away from the ski hill!”
1936
The year alpine skiing made its Olympic debut
275
The number of ski areas in Canada
2.5 million The estimated number of Canadian skiers or snowboarders
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