Tom Keyser

It’s not just an afterthought.

Nor is it politically correct lip service, spun on demand for the benefit of every nosy reporter who happens by.

It’s a matter of hard policy for a small but thriving Calgary company called Pointwest Energy Inc. The words are written large, on the boardroom wall.

Mike Sturk, Business Edge
Longtime volunteer Larry Macdonald has been called a 'social visionary.'

“First thing we did was develop our health, safety and environmental policy. We did it even before we started raising money,” said Larry Macdonald, the chairman and CEO.

“We won’t take shortcuts. If we buy a property and there’s a mess there, we’ll clean it up, even if it takes a couple of years.”

The righteous crusaders who stormed Fortress Quebec seem certain only frozen hearts and shrivelled souls lurk beneath the tailored Italian worsteds worn by the Corporate Enemy.

But, at least in Calgary’s smallish business pond, the positive influence exerted by socially conscious execs such as Macdonald — and there MUST be more like him — has made its own impact.

Last week, a roomful of this town’s heavy hitters applauded as Macdonald accepted a major award from the national office of the United Way — the Chair’s Award of Distinction, one of only four handed out across Canada this year.

Macdonald’s corporate credentials are varied and impeccable: former executive VP at Voyager Energy; ex-president/COO of Anderson Exploration; chairman/CEO of Westpoint Energy Inc., which was inhaled (at eight bucks a share) by Alberta Energy Co. a year ago.

But his credentials as a member — in high standing — of the human race make the corporate pedigree seem ho-hum by comparison.

He’s one of the fortunate ones who absorbed his basic training through the soles of his feet, in the farm country near Okotoks.

“When there was a need in the community, you’d fill it. If someone was sick, my dad would put their crop in. That’s the way I was raised,” he said, shrugging.

“You have a responsibility to your neighbours. That’s what differentiates us from the rest of the animal kingdom.”

But Macdonald didn’t realize those early lessons could be applied to the tug-and-shove of the corporate battleground, until he found himself coaching his son’s soccer team.

“I took a weekend ‘theory of coaching’ course. That weekend was probably the most important thing that helped me with my career as a senior oil and gas executive. I’ve been to a lot of high-powered motivational courses, but this . . . ,” Macdonald said, regarding the memory as a kind of epiphany.

That weekend, the bigshot oilman learned to get down on one knee and to look his pipsqueak players in the eye.

He learned there are ways to bring out the best in a youngster, even the tanglefooted, asthmatic plodder at the end of the bench.

“Everybody gets a chance to play,” he said. “I used that more in my business life than anything else I ever learned.

“Don’t try to intimidate people. Work with them — don’t play the power game. People hate it. You really sour people — it’s got to be co-operative, working together,” Macdonald stressed.

A vigorous and long-time volunteer on the SAIT board, Macdonald’s been called a “visionary” by grateful United Way types. They saluted his extraordinary energy and creative problem-solving. He is credited as the “catalyst” for the United Way’s Strategic Giving Group — a consulting initiative which “matches major corporate giving with community issues.”

But Macdonald’s too unpretentious to speak in such terms.

He’d rather talk about driving down Macleod Trail to work in the morning, taking a look at the city he calls home.

“You see it, but you don’t see the real Calgary . . . you don’t see the single moms, the dads who don’t come home on payday, or on welfare cheque day,” he mused.

“It’s not the pretty side of the community, but it’s real, and it’s there,” Macdonald said.

At the moment, Macdonald’s buzzed about a joint venture between the United Way and Hull Homes.

The agencies will buy a home across from a low-cost housing development, which is full of single moms. The house will be renovated and converted to a day care, where the mothers can leave their kids on work days.

In the evenings, life and job skills will be taught in a basement classroom. “It’s important to give people a chance, and education is really the key,” said Macdonald.

There MUST be more like him in the lofty crags of the concrete canyons. But there can never be enough.