Derek and Terri Riedle.no credit
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For Derek and Terri Riedle, a solid friendship was the foundation for a lasting love affair and an enduring professional partnership.
Who: Derek Riedle, 47, co-founder Civilized media. Terri Riedle, 46, co-founder Civilized media.
Relationship status: Married since 1996.
Location: Saint John, N.B.
A tale of two sisters
Derek: We met in 1991 when we were both students in Halifax – in a pub of all places. Terry has a twin sister, Tracy, and we all became very good friends for those years at school. After graduation, we hadn’t seen each other in about a year and a half, and then we ran into each other at a wedding in Moncton.
Terri: What Derek always leaves out is that he was my twin sister’s date to the wedding. They were there as friends. And we had all been such good friends, but that night something was different.
Derek: I kissed her when she was on her way to the ladies’ room. That was it. I guess based on that foundation, we fell in love pretty quickly. Eleven months to the day was our wedding.
To the moon and back
Derek: We have been married for 22 years and we have been working together for 21.5. Friends will ask me, “How can you work with your wife?” But I always think, how can you not? We are constantly bouncing ideas off each other, brainstorming.
Terri: My parents worked together in the restaurant business, so that’s what I grew up seeing – suppertime conversations were about work in a good, healthy way. We’re pretty complementary in our skill sets: I’m a big data nerd, whereas Derek is a big ideas guy. I think Derek appreciates that I ground him, but then, I always say if he wanted to move to the moon, I’d go with him.
Partners in the pot biz
Terri: We’re back in New Brunswick now after spending a few years with our family in Los Angeles. When we decided to get involved with cannabis, it made sense to come back to Canada.
Derek: A few years ago, I was in my mid-30s with young children, and the hangovers from having a few beers became too costly. A friend of mine suggested cannabis and I thought, why don’t I? I realized that there were a lot of people like me, rediscovering cannabis and we started bouncing ideas around, attending some conferences –
Teri: I expected to see tie-dye and dreadlocks. I was the typical good girl, growing up in the eighties with Nancy Reagan saying just say no. And now we run a cannabis-focused media brand. I guess we’ve always been interested in the next thing.
Derek: On a Friday night, Terri will have a glass of wine, I’ll enjoy a little cannabis and we’ll get on like a house on fire. Still best friends after all this time.