“I constantly need a new challenge.” That’s what Seamus O’Regan told me and I believe him.

Now, if you’re like me, it’s hard to imagine anything more challenging than interviewing everyone from OSCAR® winners to world leaders, disseminating the news as it happens and tackling critical current events on a daily basis (not to mention the 3 AM alarm), but after 10 years in the Canada AM co-host’s chair he was ready for the next chapter.

Fair to say he’s found what he was looking for — as not only the executive vice president, communications, for The Stronach Group (à la Frank and Belinda) but also as media innovator in residence at Ryerson University’s Digital Media Zone and RTA School of Media in the Faculty of Communication & Design.

And as if having two new jobs wasn’t enough, Seamus continues his role alongside Olympian Clara Hughes as an ambassador for Bell Let’s Talk (a charitable campaign dedicated to mental health), and he’s added co-chair of the Where Once They Stood We Stand campaign for The Rooms (Newfoundland and Labrador’s provincial art gallery, archives and museum) to his resume. Already a proud member of The Rooms board of directors, he’ll co-chair with General Rick Hillier this multi-year plan to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Beaumont- Hamel and the First World War.

“We have a duty to that event. We have a duty to those people who fell for us and I think that 100 years later we will do right by them.” O’Regan shared that pledge along with the confession that this continued work, coupled with his many speaking engagements and charitable efforts, give him all the more reason to return home. A fiercely proud Newfoundlander and Labradorian, it’s something he’s been compelled to do his whole life. “I made it a real mission of mine. If work was going to take me away then I would find ways to get back home. It’s like a gravitational pull.”

A numbers game…
ONE best piece of life advice?
Be yourself.

TWO for the road: cross country car trip – who’s your co-pilot? My brother. He’s a navigator in the Royal Canadian Navy, so that’s who you want as your co-pilot.

THREE for the show: your choice triple bill – what’s playing? Star Wars (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), and Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001). (For the record, Seamus is a movie buff and narrowing it down to three was really, really hard)

FOUR seasons: which one is your favourite? Depends on where you are… in Goose Bay it would be winter because they have good winters there. I think I’m a late spring kind of guy, before it gets too hot.

FIVE-alarm fire: five things you would take? My copy of Fellowship of the Ring signed by the entire cast of Lord of the Rings, my piece of the core from the original Voisey’s Bay find, my piece of the Berlin Wall, my graduation pictures from Cambridge and my X-ring.