You don’t have to tell debra Hewson, the new CEO of Vancouver-based investment dealer Odlum Brown Ltd., that good things often come in small packages.

She refers to the respected 84-year-old independent, employee-owned brokerage as “almost a boutique” and credits its relatively small size with giving her the opportunity to rise through the ranks.

The 47-year-old became Odlum Brown’s seventh CEO in June, when she succeeded Ross Sherwood in the firm’s top operational job. Sherwood is now the company’s vice chairman.

Hewson is not thinking about making big changes at the firm, which has slightly more than 200 employees at its six British Columbia locations — Vancouver, Kelowna, Victoria, Chilliwack, Courtenay and Campbell River — and manages about $6 billion in assets. Rather, she intends to stick with its tried-and-true formula for success.

“We’re one of the few truly independent, smaller firms left in an age when bigger is supposedly better,” Hewson says. “Being retail, we don’t serve two masters. So, we can offer our clients unbiased research, which gives us a huge advantage. We also run our own back-office operation, which allows us to process our trading and reports in ways that our clients want.”

Adds Odlum Brown chairman Tony Hepburn: “With Debra at the helm, the new generation at Odlum Brown is as committed to that independence as Ross Sherwood and myself. She was the obvious choice as our new CEO, and this is definitely a passing of the torch to the new generation.”

The only change Hewson foresees in the near future is further enhancement to the financial services offering to clients — and the specifics of that will be something the clients themselves suggest. A survey is one way to find out what is on clients’ minds. The firm has surveyed clients in the past, Hewson says, and she would like to do so again.

In talking with Hewson, you quickly learn that the clients are first and foremost in everything that Odlum Brown does — and it has been that way for many years. The firm has a solid reputation in B.C., and one of Hewson’s main goals is to keep it that way. “We have a very good covenant in the market here,” she says, “and it’s something we protect.”

Employee loyalty is another bonus; many staff members have been with the firm for 20 years or more. “I have a great group of people who work with me here,” Hewson adds. “Frankly, they make me look good.”

In her 16 years with Odlum Brown, Hewson feels she has acquired a far greater range of experience than she would have received at a larger, national firm.

“You get to wear more hats in a smaller firm,” she says. “For me, Odlum Brown has been a great, great training ground because in a smaller, boutique-style firm, you are not channelled into just one part of the business.”

And, ironically, it was the frustration of working in a large organization — combined with a fortuitous stock tip from a friend — that led Hewson into the securities industry 25 years ago.

Born in Winnipeg but raised and educated in Vancouver, Hewson’s first job after graduating from the University of British Columbia in 1981 with a bachelor of arts degree was as a teller at Bank of Montreal.

“But being a teller at a big, national bank just wasn’t my thing,” she recalls. “At that time, I only had a vague notion about stock markets when a friend recommended buying a junior mining stock.

“I had no idea what I was doing, but I invested $1,200 in this stock and a few months later it was worth $12,000. That was more money than I made in a year as a teller. So, I said to myself: ‘I have to find out about stock markets’.”

Keeping her teller’s job, Hewson took the Canadian securities course, then got a job as a junior clerk in what was then Canaccord Capital Corp.’s accounting department.

“Even though it was a junior job, I loved it,” she says. “And this was an exciting time to be in the Vancouver market.”

Hewson joined Pemberton Securities Ltd. in 1984. When that firm was taken over by what was then Dominion Securities Inc., she was moved onto the fixed-income desk.

@page_break@“I was fascinated by the fixed-income market, and I loved working on the trading desk,” she says, noting that Tom Wolfe ‘s Bonfire of the Vanities is still one of her favourite books.

As a junior trader on DS’s fixed-income desk, Hewson handled a few of the smaller institutional accounts — including Odlum Brown’s. “The man who ran Odlum Brown’s trading phoned me one day,” she says, “and said he was looking for someone to help build out its retail bond operations and asked if I knew of anyone who would be interested. I said: ‘Yes, me!’”

It was in 1991 that Hewson joined Odlum Brown as manager of fixed-income trading. From there, her career path branched into the company’s various departments.

“If you work for a bank-owned firm and start out on the trading desk, that’s probably where you’ll spend your entire career,” Hewson says. “In a smaller firm like Odlum Brown, you’re exposed to many sides of the business — and you have to understand all of them.”

She moved up quickly at Odlum Brown, with stops as director of trading and syndication, vice president of compliance and technology, chairwoman of the firm’s strategic planning committee and, in 2001, chief operating officer.

Hewson learned a lot about the business along the way, and she also learned a lot about herself.

“One of my biggest strengths — and sometimes it can be a weakness — is that I’m one of those people who always has to know the answer and who likes to do things herself,” she says. “This kind of personality worked to my advantage here and enabled me to learn a lot. But when I became chief operating officer, I quickly learned that I simply couldn’t do everything myself — so that was a huge lesson about how to delegate and let go.”

Hewson also believes that the experiences she gained from all the jobs she has done during her career at Odlum Brown have now come together to equip her for the new position. “Having a variety of experiences is certainly going to help me in this job,” she says. “And I’ve also learned over the years to step back and look at the bigger picture. One of the things I bring to this job is the ability to hear what our clients say they want and quickly figure out how we can deliver it to them.”

But Hewson is also a realist: “I know nothing ever moves ahead in a straight line, and I enjoy the dodging and weaving you sometimes need to do to get where you’re going. For me, travelling the road is as much fun as reaching the destination.”

Over the years, Hewson has contributed to the Canadian securities industry in various roles, including chairing the Investment Dealers Association of Canada’s national advisory committee in 2003 and 2004.

“This industry has been very good to me, and I feel I must be constructive and give something back,” she says.

Hewson has a young family to raise and, like many working mothers, that leaves her with little time for anything else. Hewson and her husband, Don, a B.C. log trader, are kept busy with their three children — two daughters, one who just turned seven and the other aged 13, and an 11-year-old son. The Hewsons also have a second “getaway home” on Vancouver Island and, when they can find the time, they enjoy travelling. IE