St. Joe's Tony Gagliano: "He's shot up like a rocket"

In less than a decade, Tony Gagliano has risen to importance in the world of culture, publishing and philanthropy in Toronto. The Toronto Star on Sunday -- keying it to the Luminato festival in which he has played such a large part -- provided a portrait by Leslie Scrivener of the head of St. Joseph Communications, Canada's largest privately owned printing company and publisher of such well-known magazines as Toronto Life, Fashion, Wedding Bells, Canadian Family and Quill & Quire. Printing is about 60 per cent of the company's business, but Gagliano is becoming almost more important for the impact he has on the city that's always been his home.

The Gagliano name is not widely known in Toronto, though in recent years Tony has become one of the city's most effective, heart-on-his-sleeve boosters. It was Gagliano who came up with the idea of a summer festival, an Olympics of the arts that would be the Canadian equivalent of the Edinburgh International Festival, to lift Toronto out of its post-SARS torpor.

When he teamed up with like-minded David Pecaut, founder of the Toronto City Summit Alliance (which seeks to improve life in the city), the idea became Luminato, the exuberant, 10-day celebration of dance, photography, art, drama and music, which drew one million in its first year. They co-chair the festival, Ontario's largest, which ends this evening.

"He's among the people who make things happen, who run Toronto," says John Macfarlane, the recently retired editor of Toronto Life magazine, which Gagliano acquired when St. Joseph Communications bought Key Media Ltd. in 2002. "It's happened in about five years. I'd say he's shot up like a rocket."

St. Joseph has about 2,000 employees, $306 million in annual sales and four divisions: media, content (for branding and graphic design), documents and printing. It started with a printing press in the basement of the family's house at Dufferin and St. Clair that father Gaetano bought for $500 in 1956

An interesting sidelight to Tony Gagliano's rise was the way he became CEO of his company.

When he turned 70 in 1987, patriarch Gaetano was ready to pass the leadership of St. Joseph, named after the patron saint of Canada and of labourers, to the younger generation. He asked who in the family wanted to prepare a "vision of the business" for the rest of the family and be prepared to defend his or her views. The new president would be chosen by secret ballot.

Three came forward: Gagliano, then 29, his brother Frank and his brother-in-law, Rudy DeSiato. Gagliano won the vote unanimously; even his competitors had voted for him. "They said, `You've earned the first shot at it. But if you don't do a good job of it, we're behind you, but we're also watching you.' It was kind of poetic the way it ended up ... We've never looked back."

Gaetano, now 91 and honorary chairman of the company, still comes into the offices every morning for a half day while his children work in various jobs: Frank is the company's vice-chairman while John is president of the print and documents division. Joseph is a supervisor in printing and binding, Giacinto is an estimator, and Maria is in customer service. Three in-laws and several nieces and nephews also work for St. Joseph.

[Photo: Michael Stuparyk; Toronto Star]