Albert Errington is a life long entrepreneur in the tourism, hospitality and retail industries and has has been involved in numerous non-profit and industry association organizations as well, including 6 years as President of Ontario Canada's Nature & Outdoor Tourism Industry. Al began studying governance after he became President of NOTO (Nature & Outdoor Tourism Ontario) from 2003-2009 and began developing his own governance education tools and graphics because he found little support for good governance education especially for small to medium size organizations and businesses. Al met Riley while they worked with a First Nation on a transportation initiative. He was impressed with Riley's organizational and presentation skills. Riley Smith began to engage with governance studies in 2017, when she worked with Al Errington on a First Nation-led transportation initiative. She holds a double Honours Degree in History and Political Science, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Public Relations and Event Management. She is Google Marketing Fundamentals certified, and is also working towards a Certificate in Diversity and Intercultural Relations. Riley's post-secondary education paired with her passion and interest in governance, government and policy, her experience in public relations and as a local media professional have equipped her with an understanding of the diverse needs of local boards, organizations and individuals in a work environment, the complexities behind fundraising and marketing in the modern age, and the knowledge of how to help small teams achieve their mission and vision statements.
Julie Garland McLellan, author of five books on governance as well as the corporate governance newsletter Directors Dilemma, said this about Gang Politics in her December 2019 Directors Dilemma Newsletter This short book looks at the governance of governments. It provides many pithy definitions of phenomena that we observe and frequently name inaccurately. I particularly liked this one: Governance is a confusing and very misunderstood subject that is at the root of both organizational performance and accountability. Governance is fascinating, very poorly understood broadly, and a substantial influence on global economic and political issues. Governance is the structure, relationships and processes of authority, responsibility and accountability in a business, organization or government. Gang Politics is a book written about government and politics from a governance perspective analysing why government dysfunction happens and perhaps help us understand what we can collectively do to ensure our governments serve us, its people. Although corporate governance gets very few mentions in the text, the ideas are easily extrapolated and applied to the commercial context - especially for government owned companies.