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.
Jack C. Donald
Jack C. Donald is an entrepreneur that took Alberta's "upstream" exploration sector's streak of entrepreneurial independence into "downstream" refining and retailing from his home base in Red Deer. Beginning with one service station, Jack built Parkland Oil Products into a 38-station chain before selling it to Turbo Resources in 1971. He returned to the fuels sector in 1977 and he began building Parkland Industries into a chain spanning western and northern Canada with 445 retail locations, a trucking fleet and a refinery. Jack retired as president of Parkland in 2001.
Parkland Fuel Corporation is now Canada's largest independent marketer and distributor of fuels. Its family of brands includes: Bluewave Energy, Columbia Fuels, Great Northern Oil, Neufeld Petroleum & Propane, United Petroleum Products, Fas Gas Plus and Race Trac Gas.
Jack and his wife Joan have lead fundraising campaigns for STARS, Red Deer College, the Westerner, and the hospice in Red Deer, and their recent $3 million gift to Red Deer College is the largest the College has ever received.
Sydney Kahanoff
Biography
Sydney Kahanoff was born in Winnipeg but essentially grew up in Mildred, Saskatchewan. He completed his grade twelve at Prince Albert Collegiate Institute in 1939 and, shortly after graduation, joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was stationed in the Aleutian Islands and in  England during the war. On returning to Canada, Syd attended the University of Saskatchewan in the engineering faculty majoring in physics.
He first worked for National Geophysical and then moved to Union Oil Exploration. After several years in Canada, he transferred to Australia.
After returning to Canada, Syd created Voyager Petroleums. This led to a very successful company, which he sold to Ralph Scurfield in 1979. At that time he founded a philanthropic organization, The Kahanoff Foundation, to distribute grants in a variety of areas.
He died one year later in 1980, but established a unit of governance that would carry on his philanthropic plan.