This week I wanted to come back to a topic that clearly resonated.
I had such a strong response to my recent newsletter on partnerships - their importance, their complexity, and the role they play in shaping not just our businesses, but the lives we build around them.
And today, it feels fitting to take that conversation one step further, because today is Stuart and my 27th wedding anniversary.
For the past 28 years, we’ve been partners in both life and business. Many of you will have heard me share the story - we got engaged on a Monday, and by Friday we’d bought our first pharmacy. There wasn’t a long runway of planning… just a shared belief, a willingness to take a risk, and a commitment to figure it out together.
And that, in many ways, has defined how we’ve built everything since.
Our partnership is the most important and most formative one of my life. Not because it’s been easy (it hasn’t always!), but because it’s been built on something far more valuable: complementary strengths, deep trust, and a shared appetite to keep evolving.
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that great partnerships aren’t about thinking the same way. They’re about thinking differently, and respecting that difference.
Stuart has always had an incredible ability to see the horizon- to spot the opportunity, structure the deal, and push us forward. My strength has been in execution -building the systems, the culture, and the operational discipline to deliver on that vision.
Individually, those strengths are useful but together they’ve been powerful.
What’s mattered just as much as capability is alignment. We’ve always taken the time to ask the hard questions early, around risk, values, ambition, and what “success” actually looks like. That alignment has been the anchor that’s allowed us to move quickly when it matters, and to hold steady when things get tough.
Because they do get tough. Building businesses, navigating growth, making high-stakes decisions - those pressures don’t pause just because you’re partners at home as well. If anything, they amplify. Which is why boundaries, communication, and mutual respect are essential.
Working with your life partner won’t be for everyone, but for us, it’s been one of the greatest advantages we’ve had.
We are genuinely better together - in business, in life, and in the way we navigate both. Or, to borrow from sport, we’re stronger on the field and off it.
I recently had a conversation with Emil Juresic and Giselle Kramer, another couple navigating that same intersection of life and business, and it was a great reminder that while every partnership looks different, the foundations of trust, clarity, and shared purpose are universal.
You can listen to that conversation here.
So today is a personal milestone, but it’s also a moment of reflection on the power of choosing the right partner, on the importance of building something that’s not just successful, but sustainable, and on the reality that the best partnerships don’t just support your growth they expand what you believe is possible.
Happy anniversary, Stuart. It’s been a wild, challenging, and incredibly rewarding 27 years so far and I can’t wait to see what the next 27 deliver!
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