Back in 1984, I graduated from the University of Waterloo (Chemical Engineering, so a B.A.Sc) and started working at Esso Petroleum Canada. It was a truly great job. As a co-op student I spent a lot of time with someone quite high up in HR making some software for them, and one day this person asked me what my dream job would be after graduating. Shortly after the work term ended I got a letter offering me exactly what I had described. Half the time I spent designing pieces of refinery (pumps, heat exchangers etc) -- some of which were actually built -- and half the time supporting everyone else in using "The computer" which at the time meant the terminal in their office and the mainframe it connected to, but almost immediately also meant the PCs with Lotus 123 on them that sprang up (out of the chair budget as I recall) in a shared room. It was a fantastic time.

At the time, I had a plan to go to grad school when we had enough money saved up to afford it. We even had a number we were trying to reach. In 1986, when Esso found itself facing the possibility of layoffs (having never done that before) they offered bribes, so many months of salary per year you had been there, to leave. And my work terms counted, so it was about 3 years. Tax free because it would be a "retirement allowance" that could go into my RRSP and come out while I wasn't earning anything. Was it 3 months gross pay? Maybe it was 6. It was a lot of money. It was our target for sure. So, I took it and arranged to start a Masters at the U of T in their Chemical Engineering department.

The deal with the "take this money to go away" offer was that you had to leave by July 2nd or 3rd. I wouldn't even remember the date, but July 1st was a holiday and when I came in on the 2nd all my computer access was gone so I couldn't do anything and just hung around chatting to people and feeling vaguely guilty. Then I was free for all of July and August. I suppose I could have had an extended summer vacation while my husband continued to work full time, but I'm not good at doing nothing and we knew we were going to need money while I was a student, so when a friend of a friend needed some programming done - and programmers were rare in 1986 - I started doing custom development. That first gig was in Basic - but hey, it worked, and solved the customer's problems. We set up a "partnership" - like a "sole proprietorship" but two people -- to put the income through, since both I and my husband were doing the work. That was Gregory Consulting. (I don't remember the precise date, but people on LinkedIn keep sending me congratulations so I guess when I joined LinkedIn I found those papers and the date. Mid to late July seems very likely.) It became Gregory Consulting Limited in 1989, when it was making enough money and buying enough assets that being its own legal entity made sense. By that time my Master's had become a joint Master's-PhD and we had a child as well. So there was a lot going on all at once!

We haven't done any custom development in a long time. I teach, I write, I advise, and I speak. Occasionally we update people's old code or help to port it. My husband pitches in on those tasks in a backroom kind of way, not having to talk to the customers. We've been bigger -- 11 at our peak -- but I don't feel the need to be bigger again. Bringing in projects to support that many families is a big responsibility. And while our former employees were generally good, they couldn't run the company or sell the projects, and I am actually much better at coding and explaining code that I am at sales. So it's far more pleasant to have fewer or smaller projects, and not have to do sales or try to steer other people. Our two adult children occasionally work for us on specific projects where their skills are useful.

We are still available to be your consultants should you need our advice.