Biography
As current Chairman of Bonavista Energy Corporation, Keith MacPhail is a leader in the oil and gas industry and an inspiration to the community. His extraordinary commitment to health, wellness and education is improving the lives of thousands of people in the Province.
Keith was born in Medicine Hat on March 3, 1957. He is the middle child in a family of seven children.
Keith worked various summer jobs in the field with Merland Explorations Ltd. before enrolling in the business program at Medicine Hat College from 1976-1978. In 1980, Keith attended SAIT Polytechnic and graduated in 1981 with a diploma in Petroleum Technology (with honors). He went on to pursue an engineering degree at Montana College of Mineral Science in 1982, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Petroleum Engineering (with honors) in 1984.
Before joining Bonavista in 1997, Keith held progressively senior positions with Poco Petroleums Ltd. and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., culminating with Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Canadian Natural. Keith also chairs the board of NuVista Energy Ltd. and is a board member of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., a board of governor at SAIT, in addition to several private advisory boards.
In 2005, Keith and his wife Kathy made a gift of $10 million to SAIT – the largest individual donation ever made to a Canadian technical institute at the time. Keith then served as Chair of the first phase of the Promising Futures™ Campaign, which raised $75 million for the Trades and Technology Complex. The MacPhail School of Energy at SAIT Polytechnic is named in his honour.
Keith and Kathy also co-sponsored the Forzani and MacPhail Colon Cancer Screening Centre at the Foothills Hospital, funded the United Way Aboriginal Pride Program, and recently helped to fund the new Winsport Complex at Canada Olympic Park.
Additional accomplishments include recognition as one of Canada’s Top 40 under 40 in 1997, selected one of Alberta’s most influential people by Alberta Ventures in 2006, recipient of an Honorary Degree from SAIT Polytechnic in 2012, and inducted into the Canadian Petroleum Hall of Fame in 2014.
Biography
Doug Ramsay, born in Edmonton, before the tender age of 7 had lived in various towns throughout Alberta before settling back in Brooks.
Doug began his career working on drilling and work over rigs throughout Alberta and Saskatchewan. He first went to work in the pressure pumping business for BJ Well Services in 1973. He returned to school to earn his Petroleum Engineering Technology Diploma from SAIT Polytechnic. He later received the designation of Registered Engineering Technologist from ASET.
Upon graduation from SAIT, Doug went to work for Dome Petroleum as a Drilling and Completions Foreman. Doug then joined Delta Consultants as a consulting engineer, where he was responsible for drilling, completions and production operations for a number of oil & gas companies. In 1981 at 26 years old, Doug joined Eagle Exploration as Manager of Drilling & Completion Operations from the Wichita, Kansas office where he handled drilling, completions and production operations in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. In addition, he was responsible for the management of the company owned drilling rig.
Doug joined American Fracmaster in Oklahoma where he held various sales and operations responsibilities transferring back to Canada in a Sales Manager role. He rose through the ranks to be appointed President in 1992 responsible for the company’s business at that time in Canada and Russia.
After a brief hiatus in the mid-1990’s when Doug built his family ranching and real estate business, Doug joined forces with Ron Mathison, Gordon Dibb and Robbie Roberts in 1999 to transform several distressed oilfield service firms to form Calfrac. Calfrac grew from a humble start up to a world class pressure pumping company today with operations in 6 countries, sales of over $2.5 billion and excess of 4,500 employees. Doug handed over the reigns as the CEO in January of 2013 to Fernando Aguilar – a seasoned service company professional. Doug now serves as the Vice Chairman of the corporation.
Doug and his wife, Susan, have not forgotten what is important to them and community with major contributions to STARS, by forming the Susan Ramsay Advanced Skills Institute and to SAIT, the Ramsay Centre for Petroleum Engineering. Most recently Doug and Susan made a major contribution to Foothills Country Hospice focused on the expansion of the facility to better service people in their last days.
Biography
Ralph Thomas Scurfield was born in Broadview, Saskatchewan, on Jan. 7, 1928. His family moved to the small farming community of Ninga, Manitoba, where his father was the station master on the Canadian Pacific Railway line.
Scurfield attended the University of Manitoba, working his way through school by taking summer carpentry jobs. After receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in 1948, Ralph became an elementary school teacher. He taught in Manitoba for two years, before leaving to pursue his chosen trade of carpentry.
In 1951, lured by the booming Alberta economy, he moved to Edmonton, where he quickly found employment with McConnell Homes as a crew foreman. Scurfield’s employer, Ches McConnell, impressed with Ralph’s work ethic and university degree, asked Ralph to move to Calgary to manage a small, financially struggling house building company called Nu-West Homes. Ralph agreed, on the condition that he be allowed to buy in as a one-third partner.
After mortgaging his house to finance his partnership, in 1957, at the age of 29, he became president of Nu-West Homes. When he moved to Calgary, he found that Nu-West was in worse financial shape than he had been led to believe. Ralph went to work salvaging the reputation of the near bankrupt company by fixing previously built houses free of charge.
Under Scurfield’s direction, Nu-West Homes flourished, and Scurfield’s personal stature grew. In 1969, Nu-West went public, and the money raised was used to purchase land in and around the City of Edmonton. Nu-West continued to expand and was soon building homes and buildings across Canada and in parts of the United States.
As a result of Nu-West’s success, Scurfield’s advice was sought out by city planners, business, and political leaders. Scurfield was one of the founding members of Carma Ltd., a cooperative of independent builders who banded together to form a land development company to provide serviced lots to Calgary homebuilders. In 1963, he became president of the Calgary House Builder’s Association, and in 1969 became the president of the National House Builder’s Association of Canada.
Using his influence, Scurfield established national house building standards, and introduced the New Home Builder's Warranty Program, which continues to this day. He convinced his contemporary house building competitors that long term quality of life was more important than short-term profit.
Always defying the stereotype, Scurfield demonstrated that a land developer could also be an environmentalist. Recognizing that the natural beauty of the undisturbed Nose Hill added a distinctive and desirable quality of life to Calgary, in the mid-1970s, Ralph orchestrated a land swap between Nu-West, Carma Developers and the City of Calgary, allowing the city to gain ownership of the Nose Hill, which today is the largest city-owned natural park in North America, and part of Ralph’s lasting legacy to the City of Calgary and its citizens.
In addition to building homes, Ralph T. Scurfield contributions includes: the purchase of Sunshine Village Ski & Snowboard Resort located in Banff National Park in 1981. He was one of the founding owners of the National Hockey League's Calgary Flames. He was also actively involved in the establishment of the Faculty of Management at the University of Calgary, where Scurfield Hall is named in his honour.
On February 18, 1985, Scurfied and another person died in an avalanche while Heli-skiing in the Monashee Mountains near Blue River, British Columbia.
Biography
During two decades at the helm of Suncor Energy, Rick George oversaw the successful transformation of a small privately held oil sands company with a valuation of $1 billion, to Canada’s largest integrated energy company with a public valuation of over $50 billion.
He was named "Outstanding CEO of the Year" in 1999 and received the Canadian Business Leader Award in 2000.
Mr. George was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in December 2007 for his leadership in the development of Canada's natural resources sector, for his efforts to provide economic opportunities to Aboriginal communities, and for his commitment to sustainable development. In 2008, he was inducted into the Canadian Petroleum Hall of Fame.
In May 2013 Mr. George was elected as Chairman of the Board of Penn West Exploration. In 2012, Mr. George was elected to the Board of The Royal Bank of Canada and Anadarko Petroleum Corporation. As well, he was selected by the Ivey School of Business to receive the 2012 Ivey Business Leader Award. Mr. George also recently published a book with HarperCollins Canada called, “Sun Rise: Suncor, the Oil Sands, and the Future of Energy”.
He served as Chairman of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives from 2003-2006 and was selected to serve as Chair of the Canadian contingent of the North American Competitiveness Council in 2008.
He was a member of the Calgary Committee to End Homelessness in 2007 and Chair of the 2008 Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference.
Originally from Brush, Colorado, Mr. George spent 10 years with Sun Company, primarily in the U.K., the last four of which were spent as managing director of Sun Oil Britain Limited. He moved from London, England to Canada in 1991.
Mr. George holds a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from Colorado State University, a law degree from the University of Houston Law School and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Program for Management Development.
He and his wife have three children. The entire family became Canadian citizens in 1996.