Our Speaker, Nancy Southern Brian Guichon Thanks Our Speaker | | Bruce Graham introduced Nancy Southern, President & CEO of the ATCO Group of companies, and daughter of PHF recipient Margaret Southern. Ms. Southern shared her recollections on the early days of the Alberta Trailer Company (ATCO), and her reflections on the nature of leadership and the necessary ingredients for success in the current economy. She described how the family business started with her grandfather S. Don Southern and her father Ron Southern each contributing $2000 to begin selling curbing trailers. (In fact, they began by reselling a recreational trailer on behalf of a neighbour.) However, the real catalyst for the business was the discovery of oil & gas in Turner Valley. ATCO was founded in 1947 under the name Alberta Trailer Hire, renting fifteen utility trailers in the Calgary area. As the province's reputation grew in response to the Turner Valley discoveries, and those in Leduc years later, exploration and production requirements for mobile accommodations became increasingly complex, and ATCO began selling trailers. While the products were vacation trailers, the company began designing and constructing true accommodation trailers that could be multiplexed to meet the needs of exploration and production teams. The company really began to take off when it won its first major international contract with Boeing to provide temporary construction camp facilities supporting the development of US Minuteman ICBM sites. By the early 1960s, the company had operations across North America and in Australia. ATCO Industries Ltd. became a public company in March 1968, with shares traded on the TSE. During the 1970s, the company expanded into the natural gas and petroleum industries, and entered the electricity industry in the 1980s. |
ATCO's decision to expand into other industries was in response to the cyclical nature of businesses that support exploration and production. Unfortunately, the timing of this expansion coincided with the stagflation of the 1970s and the severe recessions of the 1980s. It was in this crucible, when the company was nearly lost, that Nancy Southern's leadership principles were formed. These include having the courage to be bold, the determination to keep going and to never break a promise, perseverance, imagination and integrity. She concluded her presentation by summarizing her father's definition of excellence, which encompasses going far beyond the call of duty, and by doing more than others expect. It requires commitment to the smallest of details and deeply caring about everything you do. Nancy Southern and the people of ATCO Group strive to live up to this definition of excellence every day. At the conclusion of her remarks, Brian Guichon thanked our speaker for her inspiring presentation. |
