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I a i n Wa l ke r
How Iain Walker’s
music career
shaped his
destiny in the
promo world.
by
Julie Richie
Iain Walker (second from
right on the bass guitar)
with his band The Misprints
as they battle The Midnight
Soul Patrol at the 2016
Promotional Products
Professionals of Canada’s
(PPPC) national conference.
I
ain Walker, president of
Toronto, Canada-based SVS
Marketing, fell in love with
making music as a teenager
when he started playing the
bass guitar. “I began playing
with a garage band almost
immediately,” he says. “And we
were awful.”
But the passion for music
remained, so much so that
Walker eventually earned a
degree in recording engineering.
His music career eventually
morphed into a side gig (his
band is called The Misprints),
but it allowed him to get a taste
of being an entrepreneur and
it led him to his first job in the
industry—and all the way to
heading up the full-service
promotional agency.
SVSMarketing was created in
2009 when Stincor Specialties and
Van-SmithMarketing joined forces,
combiningmore than 60 years of
promotional products experience.
The company specializes in loyalty
and incentive-based programs as
well as brandedmerchandise.
Walker also currently serves as
treasurer and chair-elect for the
Promotional Products Professionals
of Canada Board of Directors.
When he’s not at work, Walker
hangs out in Mississauga, Ontario
with his wife, Wanda, and their
two children—Andrew, who is
in his fourth (and, Walker hopes,
final) year of university and
Megan, a second-year university
student—and their Labradoodle,
Sunny. Music is still a large part
of Walker’s life, especially since
Andrew shares his father’s passion
for creating music. “We have a
growing recording studio in our
basement so he is able to get his
notions saved,” Walker says.
What do you enjoy
doing when you’re
not working?
I still enjoy playing bass in an
active rock band. We [Walker’s
band back in the 1980s] were a
pretty good southern rock outfit
that moonlighted as a Tom Petty
cover band to pay the recording
bills. My highest high was
probably touring in Los Angeles
in the ’80s. Unfortunately, there
were a couple of kids competing
with us. They recently got back
together to tour—Guns N’…
hmmmm. Guns N’ something.
Misprint At Heart
98
|
JANUARY 2017
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