MEMBER PRoFILE
Brian Blamey, CPA, CGA
Partner, Galloway Botteselle & Company
There’s only one trace of colour on the walls
of Brian Blamey’s office: a framed lithograph
of the Miracle Mile. The artist has captured
the iconic moment at Vancouver’s British
Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1954,
when John Landy, in the lead, takes a last
desperate glance to his inside only to find...
nothing. Nothing, because at that very instant, his soon-to-be eternal archrival Roger
Bannister is passing him on the outside.
The image is fleeting and timeless, heroic
and tragic. And though that race came a
quarter century before his own running
prime, it still resonates with Brian.
“Track and field was my life,” says Brian, 56, a
partner with Galloway Botteselle & Company,
who retains the trim frame of a man who
regularly bikes to work and cycles 150-km
mountain stages as part of his vacations.
“Are we good at what we love, or do we enjoy
it because we find success? I don’t know,” he
says, “but I loved running.”
Brian found track while attending Victoria’s
Glenlyon prep school, and was soon competing at the national level in the 3,000 metres,
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CPABC in Focus • Nov/Dec 2013
5,000 metres, and steeplechase—a torturous
middle-distance scramble made treacherous by
hurdles, water jumps, and jostling competitors.
Running took Brian through math at the
University of Victoria and his bachelor’s in arts
(accounting) at Simon Fraser University. He
joined Galloway Botteselle, one of the oldest
and largest CGA firms in BC, in 1984, and
earned his designation two years later. He
made partner in 1994, and today oversees
more than 200 corporate clients and roughly
600 personal clients.
Like his tenure with Galloway, many of the
friendships he made on the track are still going
strong. Not that there haven’t been adjustments on account of age.
“We turned to the dark side,” is how Brian
describes the switch he and his friends made
from spikes to bikes.
“In 2009, we rode one of the Tour de France’s
stages, called ‘l’étape du tour,’” he recounts.
“There were 20 of us, along with more than
10,000 other riders. It was deadly hot, with
endless climbs, but it was an unforgettable
experience.”
Profile by David Ferman
Photo by Ron Sangha Productions
Far less romantic was his ride in the 2012
GranFondo Whistler, a 122-km “jaunt” from
Vancouver to Whistler. Knocked off his bike
just past Horseshoe Bay, Brian broke a rib,
fractured his pelvis, and tore his meniscus (so
much for cycling being easier on the knees).
After getting back in the saddle, he made it
just short of the finish before seizing up.
Undaunted by the experience, Brian raced in
the French Alps this past summer, with wife
Rose driving alongside in his support car.
And though he no longer competes in track,
Brian has found a way back to his first sporting
love. He volunteers as treasurer of the board of
the Achilles International Track and Field
Society, which organizes the annual Harry
Jerome International Track Classic, and
provides coaching to students at inner city
Vancouver schools.
“It’s really neat for these kids to see their
times improve significantly with some
coaching,” he says. “Our hope is to bring
new athletes to the sport. In the society, we
call it ‘seeking Harry’—we’re seeking the next
Harry Jerome. Or maybe the next Harriet.”