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Today we meet Troy Weston, president of Toronto-based West List Co., a specialist in the financial services sector and deal-maker in other markets for Canadian and U.S. clients.

Among Weston’s list brokerage clients are Scotia Bank, Deloitte Touche, Raymond James & Associates, IBM and Weight Watchers Canada.

Weston didn’t plan to make “money matters” his specialty. “It seems financial services just came my way,” he says.

His career in the list business began about nine years ago at the Cornerstone Group of Companies. He later worked for the in-house list department at Rogers Publishing before founding brokerage/management firm West List in 2003.

“I did list management and brokerage at Rogers,” Weston says. “So I got to know both sides of data acquisition.”

Postal and e-mail lists each account for about a third of his brokerage recommendations. He estimates the remaining 40% is multichannel marketing, which often includes telemarketing and fax marketing. And, he adds, “About half my business comes from U.S. companies doing direct marketing in Canada.”

DM aside, Weston’s favorite pastime is baseball. He plays third base for the Etobicoke Rangers in a local league and also does some coaching.

Weston recently was engaged and plans to marry in November.

What’s the most common misnomer about direct marketing lists?

“For a few years [it’s been said] that direct marketing is dead or dying a slow death,” Weston notes. “Everyone talks about DM’s heyday and that spending on it has gone down. What I see is a resurgence of direct marketing.”

Opportunities are developing for online and keyword marketing and social Web sites. He believes brokers have to learn to analyze data in new ways.

Web site visitors’ self-reported data can be used for online offer targeting and their response tested and tracked by clicks. Weston puts it this way: “You can target whoever you want, really. Look at Facebook. If someone says they’re getting married or says they’re an accountant, you can target offers specific to them.”

Are self-service online list ordering systems a threat to brokers?

Brokers who make it their business to become experts in analyzing data have nothing to worry about, according to Weston. “Anyone can order a list from a Web site, plug in some criteria, order 5,000 names and charge it to a credit card. But only a broker can really understand and analyze data.”

Not to mention negotiate pricing for clients.

Know someone you'd like to suggest for Meet the Broker? E-mailJim.Emerson@Penton.com