Frances, my wife of 42 years, and I were born and raised in
Birmingham, England. I obtained a B.Sc. in Mining Engineering from Nottingham
and a Masters in Petroleum Reservoir Engineering from Imperial College London. We
moved to Calgary in 1973 and have three adult children and one adorable grandson.
After 20 years of engineering, operations, and management, I
became the president of an oil/gas company listed on the TSE. I dealt with
government agencies and was responsible for keeping multi-million-dollar
projects on budget.
The leader-in-me became evident in my teens. At school, I
was head boy, captain of the senior XV and coach for the U14 rugby teams, and
captain of the swim team.
In Canada I was a director of the Alberta Squash Rackets
Association responsible for the original Calgary inter-club league, a volunteer
Canadian Ski Patroller at Lake Louise, and the treasurer and president of
Silver Springs Court Condominium Corporation.
I volunteered with
the Alberta Hobie Cat Association, was elected as president of the Canadian
Hobie Cat Assoc., and represented Canada in two world championships.
While treasurer and commodore of the Calgary yacht club the
finances improved, the membership grew and the club developed a strong junior
program. I was briefly president of the Alberta Sailing Association and in 2000 Regatta
Chairman for the Western Canada Intermediate Sailing Championships. Members of the
Alberta sailing team still drop by to say hello.
When my children were in the Nancy Greene program at Lake Louise,
I was part of the team that developed and hosted the skill awards festival
attracting over 350 athletes and coaches
to Lake Louise for a weekend of skills training and testing.
I was elected president of Calgary's National Alpine
Training Centre, designed to help Canadian
athletes get onto the national team. I
volunteered countless hours freezing my butt off for the Lake Louise World Cup
and afterwards giving the provincial teams valuable training on the course.
Lured by the Columbia Valley's natural beauty, I moved to
Golden and, in 2001, developed a small subdivision on Golden’s northeast bench.
Semi-retired, I run a real estate brokerage from my home and love to spend
blue-sky days at KHMR with fresh snow beneath my skis.
Active in the community, I've been an integral member of the
Golden Air Quality committee raising over $100,000 for the wood-stove exchange
program. I’ve also been a volunteer instructor at the college for several
years.
The opinions expressed in this blog are my personal opinions and may not represent the opinions of other councillors nor the opinion of council.
