Colborne Communications, Meet the People, Employees

MEET THE PEOPLE

Andrea Battiston

Before arriving at Colborne, Andrea Battiston graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in English and Classical Civilization and studied publishing at Ryerson and Centennial College. Andrea is now the company vice-president, and has applied her nitpicking tendencies to books, magazines, websites, and even cereal boxes. She enjoys dancing, yoga, chocolate, and long and rambling conversations over cake and Diet Coke. Andrea is VP Membership for the Book Publishers’ Professional Association, and can be seen making a fool of herself on stage in their annual Cabaret.

Andrea Douglas

Armed with an English degree from York, Andrea D. held menial, soul-sucking jobs until she discovered the Publishing program at Ryerson, worked at a women's press and an educational publisher, and then joined the Colborne crew. Now her greatest ambition is to one day escape from life in Scarborough. Some of her favourite things, in no particular order, are Irvine Welsh novels, horror movies, Coronation Street, clunky boots, beer, clowns, epic poetry, cheesecake, Final Fantasy games, younger men, bats, cats, and em dashes—and if you don’t agree with her that The Misfits are the greatest band, like, ever, you are wrong.

Jennifer Govier

After graduating from UofT with not much of an idea of what to do next, Jen took the first job she could find while she figured it out. As a result, she came dangerously close to becoming a financial analyst, but she also found the Ryerson Publishing Program. At last, her obsession with incorrect signs and menus could be parlayed into some kind of career. (Her favourite: “We Specializing In! Drapes” on the window of a dry cleaner.) When Jen’s not reading everything she can get her hands on, she is running, which helps mitigate the effects of her resolution to try every recipe in her cookbook collection. She is not a good cook; she just likes to pretend.

Greg Ioannou

Greg Ioannou has written and edited since 1977 — without shoes. He captains a team in a weekly trivia league and has been known to frequent local pubs and stamp auctions. A father of two, he has an uncanny knowledge of Dragon Tales, Harry Potter, and Blue’s Clues. His office is populated with moose paraphernalia, and sometimes muggles appear in his dreams. He is currently the National Treasurer of the Editors’ Association of Canada and — way back when — he was the association’s first member.

Natalie Jano

Natalie Jano graduated from U of T with a degree in English and has completed several courses in the publishing program at Ryerson. Copy editing has always been a natural career choice for her, as it brings her one step closer to realizing her loftiest goal: to rid the world of all unnecessary exclamation marks. Her more enthusiastic friends will testify to this. In the extremely unlikely event that she were stranded on a desert island with only three items, they would be her iPod, a copy of DFW’s Infinite Jest, and every Globe and Mail Saturday crossword from here to eternity. Oh — but only so long as she could have a pen too. Can you imagine?

Shea Lowry

Shea Lowry has a degree in English and Creative Writing from Concordia University in Montreal and was trained in the Publishing program at Ryerson University in Toronto. Before joining the Colborne team, Shea worked from home as a freelance editor and writer. She is happy to now get up every day and put on shoes. Sometimes even socks. Shea's clients have ranged from the United Nations to Yahoo, and she has also worked on many and varied literary and crime fiction projects. Shea takes the serial comma very serially, would marry peanut M&Ms if they'd have her, and, along with fellow Colborner Natalie Jano, suits up to run the stairs of this building every day at 2 p.m.