Eric Lafferty Harvie
Eric Lafferty Harvie, oilman, philanthropist (b at Orillia, Ont 2 Apr 1892; d at Calgary 11 Jan 1975). Harvie was called to the Alberta Bar in 1915. He served overseas in WWI, was wounded in France and achieved the rank of Captain. Later he was appointed Honorary Colonel of the Calgary Highlanders continuing a life long association with the Canadian Military.
As a Calgary lawyer, he was involved in the oil business and in 1944 purchased the mineral rights held by British Dominions Land Settlement Co. With these he formed Western Leaseholds Ltd. and Western Minerals Ltd. In 1947-48, when oil was discovered on several of his leases in the Leduc and Redwater fields of Alberta, he became wealthy. He created a vertically integrated oil and gas exploration and production company to develop the Redwater field. His company owned and operated drilling and service rigs, constructed pipelines and handled the entire infrastructure to find and produce oil and gas.
In 1955 he turned to philanthropic endeavours. His first major achievement was forming the Glenbow Foundation which led to the establishment of the Glenbow Museum in Calgary and later oversaw the creation of Heritage Park. Years later, he formed the Devonian Foundation which provided funding for a great many public projects that continued being developed over several decades.
A modest man, he kept most of his good works secret, but he was known for his assistance to the Calgary Zoological Society, the Banff School of Fine Arts, and theLuxton Museum of Banff. He was a founding officer of the Canada Council and made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1967.
Hal Kvisle
Hal Kvisle was President and CEO of TransCanada Corporation and its predecessor, TCPL, from May 2001 to June 30, 2010. TransCanada is a leading North American energy company focused on natural gas and crude oil pipelines, natural gas storage, and power generation. Mr. Kvisle joined TransCanada in 1999, following 24 years in the upstream oil and gas industry with Dome Petroleum and Fletcher Challenge Energy.
Mr. Kvisle serves as a corporate board member for the Bank of Montreal, ARC Resources, Talisman Energy, and Northern Blizzard Resources. He chairs the National Board of the Nature Conservancy of Canada, and previously chaired the Board of Governors of Mount Royal University and the Board of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America.
Mr. Kvisle was recognized as Canada’s Outstanding CEO of the Year in 2008. In 2009 he received the Canadian Business Leader Award, in 2010 he received the Distinguished Business Leader Award, and in 2011 he was given the Fraser Institute's T. Patrick Boyle Founder's Award. He holds a B.Sc. in Engineering from the University of Alberta and an MBA from the University of Calgary. He is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta.
David O'Brien
David grew up in Montreal where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts (Honours Economics) Degree from Loyola College (now part of Concordia University) and a Law Degree from McGill University.
He practiced law for several years as a trial lawyer at Ogilvy Renault in Montreal. At the age of 36 he moved across the country to Calgary with his wife Gail and three young children, Tara, Matthew and Shaun. He and his wife have resided in Calgary since late 1977.
He is currently Chairman of the Royal Bank of Canada - Canada’s largest bank. He is also Chairman of Encana Corporation - one of North America’s largest independent natural gas companies.
Mr. O’Brien was Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Pacific Limited from 1995 until the break-up of Canadian Pacific into five public companies in October 2001. He moved the head office of CP and CPR to Calgary in 1996.
Upon completion of the split-up of Canadian Pacific, he acted as Chief Executive Officer of PanCanadian Energy Corporation (where he had previously been CEO from 1990 to 1995) and negotiated the merger of PanCanadian Energy Corporation and Alberta Energy Company Ltd. to create Encana Corporation. This merger became effective in April 2002. Prior to joining PanCanadian, he held various management positions at Petro-Canada in Calgary, rising to Executive Vice President.
Mr. O’Brien was Chairman of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers 1994 - 1995 and was Chairman of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (formerly the Business Council on National Issues) from 1999 - 2001. In addition, he served on the Board of Governors of the University of Calgary for six years from 1997 to 2003 and was Chancellor of Concordia University for five years from 2006 to 2010.
Mr. O’Brien has received a variety of awards over the years. He has received three honourary degrees, including one from the University of Calgary. He has been recognized as an Outstanding Business Leader and received the 2001 Distinguished Business Leader joint award of the University of Calgary and the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. In May 2004, Mr. O’Brien was inducted into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame and in May 2005, Mr. O’Brien was named a Fellow of the Institute of Corporate Directors. In December 2008, Mr. O’Brien was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada.
P. John Aldred
P. John Aldred was born and educated in Oxfordshire, England. John qualified as the British equivalent of an agricultural engineering technologist. When John arrived in Canada from Britain in 1967 at the age of 23, he became a heavy-duty mechanic and worked as a field serviceman for Midwestern Compressor in Calgary. In 1971, John moved to PAMCO Limited, the subsidiary of an American parent, becoming its President four years later.
In 1980, John left his post as President of PAMCO to establish a business in the Canadian compressor rental market — Enerflex. Since its founding in 1980, Enerflex has benefited from the growing demand for natural gas both in North America and around the world. By the time Enerflex was sold to Toromont Industries in 2010 for $670-million, the Company had more than $1 billion in annual revenues and 3,000 employees around the world.
John is a past member of the Board of Directors for Careers: The Next Generation and Alberta Junior Achievement. He completed a 6-year term as the Vice-Chair of SAIT's Board of Governors in June of 2007 and last year John and Cheryl Aldred presented the school with a record-setting $15-million personal donation.
John also founded the Cadmus Foundation, which was established to provide support towards the furthering of the trades and education.