Tipperary man Jim Keating is highly regarded in Canadian business circles
New book of business essays has been published
A Tipperary man based in the Canadian city of Toronto was inspired to produce a new collection of business essays by his meeting nearly 30 years ago with the famous, late American television and radio host Larry King.
Titled OutSpoken: 15 MasterClass Business Essays For Our Time, Jim Keating’s book features works by English novelist, life peer and former politician Jeffrey Archer and the late F Lee Bailey, an American criminal defence attorney famous for his involvement in a number of high-profile cases, including the OJ Simpson murder trial and heiress Patty Hearst’s trial for bank robberies.
Jim Keating was born and reared at Bohernagore, Clogheen, where his brother Willie Keating still lives on the family farm.
He is CEO of the Speakers Forum in Toronto. Founded in 1979, the company produces The Business Lecture Series, which is designed to help executives update their knowledge, nurture current clients and interact with prospective clients.
Highly regarded in business circles, Speakers Forum is supported by leading members of Canada’s business community.
In his role with the company, Jim Keating hosted the book’s essay contributors, as well as other outstanding keynote speakers over the years including US Secretary of State Dr Henry Kissinger, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the late Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Sir David Frost and others.
He was inspired to produce the book by one of his speakers, the late Larry King, who passed away earlier this year.
He has great memories of King’s visit to Toronto in November 1993 and wrote an appreciation of him as a short story for the book.
Some of the other contributions include What Makes a Speech Great by President Bill Clinton’s chief speechwriter, David Kusnet; No Mountain Too High: Learning the Lessons of Everest, by Mount Everest expedition leader John Amatt; and Living Life Backwards by Natan Sharansky, former Deputy Prime Minister of Israel.
Jim Keating was educated at Duhill National School, St Joseph’s College in Cahir, the Cistercian College in Roscrea and UCD. He played underage hurling and football for Ballylooby Castlegrace and minor football for Ardfinnan.
His first major venture into the business world came when he acquired the rights to a Swiss language training company and trained executives in companies including Aer Lingus, Waterford Crystal, the Smurfit companies and British Airways, in German, French, Italian, Spanish and other languages.
He sold the company in 1978 and moved to Toronto, where he was hired as an executive with the media conglomerate Maclean Hunter, before joining the executive side of The Globe and Mail newspaper.
A keen golfer, he has served on the board of directors of The Ireland Fund and the Ireland Canada Chamber of Commerce Toronto (ICCCTO). He was also involved in bringing All-Ireland hurling champions Tipperary to Toronto in 1990 to play the All-Stars in the Skydome.
Mr Keating has many relations living in Tipperary, including his sister, Ann O’Byrne and nieces Catherine O’Byrne Casey and Dr Ann Marie O’Byrne, who all live with their families in Grange, near Clonmel; his sister Margaret Butler and family in New Inn; his brother Michael Keating and family in Two-Mile-Borris; and nephew Oliver Keating and family in Burncourt, near Cahir.
The book is now available on Amazon. Search OutSpoken Keating for the listing.