U of S grad McCreath makes top 40 list

The winning idea that landed the two childhood friends on the list for 2011 was tinePublic Inc., a company specializing in putting on events with high-profile speakers like Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Lance Armstrong, the Dalai Lama and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

McCreath, after working for the NHL's head office in New York and as a player's agent, and Darbyshire started tinePublic Inc. in 2005. They wanted to target events at professionals like themselves after observing a lot of existing events were priced beyond what most young people could afford.

"We wanted to produce events for young professionals," McCreath said in a Globe and Mail interview. "The people who were producing events, a lot of time it was dinners that cost $300 or $400, which priced young people out of the market."

According to McCreath, over 200,000 people across Canada have attended their events. Part of their success, he explained, is that it is just the two of them. "We had done about a dozen events with Clinton and they thought we had a staff of about 15 people, and we were like, ‘No, it's just the two of us.'"

McCreath's other activities include charitable work for organizations such as the Canadian Cancer Society, the Royal University Hospital Foundation and KidSport.