Exotic & Global.

• Author: HUHTALA, SARI
• Position: Places to Retire Inc. - corporate profile

Places to Retire Inc. launched itself into the international market with a first-of-its-kind baby boomer magazine

From her backroom office in downtown Sudbury, Karen Schellinck leafs through a copy of Exotic Places to Retire, a publication that just made its way to the newsstands dozen last month. Rhyming off the names of more than a half a dozen countries, including Mexico, Belize, Panama, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia, she is reminded of the busy month that lies ahead for her as president of a company, and publisher of one of the world's first international "premium quality" retirement destination magazines. It's hard to imagine, only three years ago the 45-year-old mother of three first set foot on the entrepreneurial stage.

Schellinck is the founder of Places to Retire Inc., a Sudbury based publishing company. In February, Places to Retire Inc. launched the premiere edition of Exotic Places to Retire, a quarterly "baby boomer" magazine.

"The company (Places to Retire Inc.) is growing tremendously," Schellinck says. "It's an amazing time for the company. This thing (the new magazine) is huge. There are people who want to partner with us and form alliances with us all over the world."

The magazine takes readers to "exotic" places that offer a retirement lifestyle that enhances and enriches, while examining down-to-earth issues like health care abroad, security, cultural differences and communications.

"Exotic can be as simple as unique or outside of one's own personal experiences," Schellinck says.

"I was in Madrid meeting with developers, and my associate was there with me, and I was saying how much I loved Madrid and how exotic it was," Schellinck recalls. "My associate said to them (the developers) 'Karen Jives in Canada in a rural area with a lake where the water's clean and you can drink it and she doesn't think that's exotic."'

While the magazine is only in its infancy, already-its distribution spans across every continent in the world and new developments, including a television series, are underway, she adds.

Born in Nova Scotia, Schellinck and her family moved to Sudbury in 1997 after living in Labrador for five years. Following a brief stint of self-employment as a business consultant, Schellinck opted to take the plunge and become a full-time publisher and entrepreneur by founding Places to Retire Inc. (PTR) in 1998.- PTR publishes Places to Retire in Canada, an annual magazine that highlights issues most relevant to baby...