REBECCA PENTY
Two of the nation’s most preeminent businessmen have been named to the board of Irving Oil Ltd.‘s holding company in a move the firm says will bring unique perspectives to its governance and operations.
The company revealed Thursday that John Cassaday, the president and CEO of Corus Entertainment Inc. (TSX:CJR.B) and John Mayberry, chairman of Scotiabank and the former chief executive of Dofasco Inc., joined Irving family members as directors this month.
“Both of these individuals would bring their experience in developing and running large companies,” said Daniel Goodwin, spokesman for the holding company, declining to offer the names of the other directors.
And while Cassaday - who has a long list of executive posts in several industries - now works in broadcasting and Mayberry has experience both in the steel sector and in banking, Goodwin said these backgrounds are seen by the company as strengths in creating a “diverse” board.
Goodwin also publicly discussed the firm’s name change, which has flown under the radar since taking effect late last year.
Formerly Irving Oil Co. Ltd., Fort Reliance Ltd. is now the moniker of a company comprising about 20 employees who oversee various holdings that include Irving Oil Ltd.‘s oil refining operations, a 25-per-cent stake in Saint John’s Canaport LNG regasification facility, Coastal Blending and Packaging, Irving Energy Distribution and Marketing, Irving Energy Services Ltd. and Override, along with new energy ventures being pursued.
The name comes from a canoe trip Kenneth Irving took with his father, Arthur, in the Northwest Territories, during which the two discovered ruins of a mineral exploration post called Fort Reliance.
Goodwin said the word “fort” symbolizes strength while the word “reliance” means “trust, confidence and interdependence.”
He said unlike the models some firms choose for their holding companies, Fort Reliance is directly involved in steering its various business endeavours.
“Our holding company is a very active company. We see ourselves as builders of companies,” Goodwin said.
Fort Reliance - while headquartered in Saint John - began occupying a second-floor office space in the heart of Toronto’s financial district at 145 King St. W. in April in a move Goodwin said will allow the company’s business partners easier access.
Though Cassaday and Mayberry are not the first to join the descendents of company builder K.C. Irving in running the family’s energy operations, according to Goodwin, their naming to the board has been announced publicly.
For David Simpson, the director of the Richard Ivey School of Business Family Centre at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont., the move to bring in outsiders to the organization with a splash is a good one for an energy firm looking to grow.
“That always is a capital-intensive business,” Simpson said.
“Toronto, like it or not, is still a financial centre for this sort of thing.”
Simpson said the leadership of Cassaday and Mayberry will be recognized by business partners of Fort Reliance and investors, alike.
“Outside investors, when they deal with family business, always are more comforted when you’ve got guys like this on the board.”
Simpson, when advising family-run companies through his work at the business school, suggests second-, third-, and fourth-generation executives bring in fresh corporate blood.
He pointed to last summer’s naming by David Ganong, chairman of St. Stephen’s Ganong Bros. Ltd., of Doug Ettinger as president and CEO over his own children.
“He named an outsider to take over,” Simpson said.
Richard Powers, the director of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management Directors Education Program, said Fort Reliance has made “quite a coup” in bringing the likes of Cassaday and Mayberry to the board.
“These people have been very successful and dominant in their own industries,” Powers said.
“They’ve just managed to get two of the top senior executive ranks in Canada.”
He highlighted the success of Dofasco in maintaining its Hamilton steelworker jobs during this recession while its neighbour U.S. Steel Canada (formerly Stelco Inc.) shut down its Steel City mills temporarily in March.
Part of the strength of the company can be accredited to Mayberry, Powers said, who joined Dofasco in 1967 and climbed the ranks to finally occupy the top post of the steel giant in 1993.
Cassaday has served as chief executive of Corus since 1999, the same year the company - built from the media assets originally owned by Shaw Communications - went public.
He is a regular speaker at the directors program’s seminars, in which Powers said the Fort Reliance leader and 48-year-old grandson to K.C. Irving, Kenneth Irving, has taken part.
“You don’t get much better than him,” Powers said of Cassaday.
http://nbbusinessjournal.canadaeast.com/journal/article/710974