While completing a post-graduate degree in Eastern European history amidst the expansion of the Soviet Bloc, he began his career with The Montreal Star as general reporter before moving to Paris where he spent 17 years - first as Africadesk editor for the English service of Agence France Presse. Then, he built a substantial freelance network among English-language newspapers – including The Globe and Mail -  as a special foreign correspondent, on a wide variety of reporting assignments in Eastern and Western Europe as well as Africa.

It was during this period, too, that he began writing on European port and economic subjects for New York’s Journal of Commerce. The latter subsequently hired him to establish in Montreal the first full-time JOC bureau in Canada, which remained open for 14 years. A highlight was an exclusive interview in 1988 with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney on the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement.

As well Canada Correspondent for AJOT, Leo Ryan is today Editor of Maritime Magazine, a bilingual Canadian quarterly.  He is the recipient of the Medal of Merit of the Association of Canadian Port Authorities.