Anna Lilly: Sam Sullivan’s Secret Weapon

It would be hard to miss Anna Lilly in a crowd. The director of community relations for Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan may prefer to let her boss hog the limelight, but at close to six feet tall the 30-year-old brunette doesn’t exactly fade into the background.

When she emerges from the ornate Office of the Mayor at City Hall for a quick cup of coffee at a nearby café, everything – from the BlackBerry clutched in her right hand to the updates she dispenses on her way out the door – exudes an aura of calm self-control. Which is not to say she isn’t run off her feet: she clearly is. But, she reports, Sullivan is no slave driver. “He likes us to have a balanced life,” she insists. “But you know, there’s high expectations. He works hard, so we work hard.” If Sullivan’s on, Lilly’s on – which means even if council is up till 4:30 a.m. debating the budget (as occurred in early April), she’s there, too, and back at work by 1 p.m. A circuitous route brought the fresh-faced former journalist into the mayor’s fold. A graduate of Kwantlen University College’s journalism program, Lilly wrote for Western Investor and Business in Vancouver for four years, then spent another four as manager of corporate and marketing communications with Blast Radius Inc. “When I moved from journalism into high-tech PR, everybody at BIV said I was crossing over to the dark side,” she says, laughing. But she didn’t give up her BIV ties completely – a friendship with the publication’s founder and former editorial director, Peter Ladner, endured. In 2002 she became involved in his successful election to city council and “got bitten by the political bug,” as she puts it. Lilly joined the NPA’s board of directors, acting as Sullivan’s press secretary during his 2005 campaign. Upon his win she was awarded her current job, where she is known as one of the “two Annas” (Sullivan’s inner circle is rounded out by his 27-year-old special assistant Anna Lucarino and 37-year-old chief of staff Daniel Fontaine.) Asked what it’s like working for Sullivan, she remains devotedly on message: “I think it’s quite ¬apparent from his track record just how much he cares about people in the city… The great thing about working with him is that his tenacity rubs off on everybody else.” Does he have any annoying habits? “Nothing’s coming to mind.” When pressed, Lilly finally concedes her boss “can be stubborn” – but quickly follows up with: “He has a vision for what he wants to do and he’s going to do it.” The only time Lilly appears caught off guard is when prodded about the man she refers to as her partner. He’s a landscape designer and horticulturist, it’s a fairly new relationship, and that’s all she’s prepared to say. “I’m not going to tell you his name. And there’s no way you’re ever going to be able to find out, either,” she quips, then chimes: “Ha ha!” Regaining her poise, she steers the conversation back to her professional life. “I can’t say enough how much of an honour and a thrill it is to be doing this job. It’s a chance to work with a great person that I believe in a lot and we’re doing great things. How much better can it get?” Well played.