Terry Davis talks to young entrepreneurs

OTTAWA — Home Hardware CEO Terry Davis was the keynote speaker at the 27th annual Toast to Success dinner, held by the Entrepreneurs’ Club of the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management. Speaking to a crowd of more than 200 at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier, Davis told the story of how he rose to the company’s top job from his first job making $2 an hour (about $13 today) in 1970. According to the Ottawa Business Journal, Davis wore a suit rather than the company’s trademark red blazer to give the talk, which covered topics from brand recognition to the benefits of vertical integration (with Home Hardware’s paint factory operations as a case in point).