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.

Jade Colbert

Jade Colbert is fresh from her swashbuckling days as editor-in-chief of Canada’s largest student newspaper. In her spare time at U of T, she received a degree with high distinction in English, Canadian Studies, and Geography, then studied publishing at Ryerson. She landed at Colborne having worked at a number of places in publishing that only exacerbated her compulsion to edit everything. She finds solace in craft beer, the Saturday paper, and making lists of what she should start reading when she finishes reading what she’s reading right now.

Andrea Douglas

Armed with an English degree from York U., Andrea D. held menial, soul-sucking jobs until she discovered Ryerson’s Publishing Program, worked at a women’s press and an educational publisher, and then joined the Colborne crew. During her six-plus years in publishing, she’s gained odd bits of knowledge in many disparate subjects, like publicizing books (and assembling canapés for book launches), gardening (but her plants still feel neglected), and choosing a good new or used vehicle (though she doesn’t yet hold a driver’s licence). Her editorial specialties are copy editing and proofreading, but she’s also been known to write a mean — meaning “kick-ass” — manuscript evaluation.

Robin Hammond

Robin Hammond is perilously close to qualifying as a professional student, having completed a Psychology degree at Queen’s and an Industrial Design degree at Carleton. After staging mock crimes, researching in bars, and designing furniture, she finally happened on Ryerson’s Publishing Program. Her mother has her fingers crossed that Robin has found the perfect way to feed her appetite for variety, creativity, and perfectionism. Robin belongs to the “full-sentence texting” camp, and would be totally helpless without her iPhone. She is a ringette and skiing enthusiast, and, consequently, is currently enjoying physiotherapy and traction. Her perfect evening would not be complete without a bottle of wine and a good story in any medium.

Caroline Hardy

Caroline Hardy (of no relation to Frank or Joe) graduated from the University of Ottawa with a degree in English and Linguistics. She then enrolled in Ryerson’s Publishing Program to pursue her lifelong dream of being gainfully employed. After a rewarding internship with Knopf Canada and a few serendipitous twists in timing, this lover of food and words (who prefers to eat only the former) found her way to Colborne. Other than ellipses, serial commas, semi-colons, and the word “sesquipedalian,” Caroline’s favourite things include sushi, dim sum, cooking, crosswords, thank-you notes, and travelling. Oh, and making lists!

Greg Ioannou

This whole Colborne thing was Greg’s idea. He’s been writing and editing since 1977. He’s edited more than 2000 books, and written everything from board games to annual reports. When he’s not busy running the show, he likes to walk around the office in bare feet, sipping coffee and admiring his collection of stuffed mooses. Outside of the office, he captains a team in a weekly trivia league and has been known to frequent local pubs and stamp auctions. He was the very first member of the Editors’ Association of Canada and has been on EAC’s executive for longer than some of the other Colborners have been alive. He’s loquacious [“full of loquats”], pugnacious [“resembling a pug”], and ornery [“Greg-like”].

Natalie Jano

After graduating from the University of Toronto with a degree in English, Natalie Jano completed 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, and would marry peanut M&Ms if they’d have her.

Jennifer Govier (on leave)

After graduating from U of T 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.