The chairman and chief executive officer of a Calgary geophysical firm has been chosen as the 2002 Prairies Entrepreneur Of The Year.
The award for David Robson of Veritas DGC Inc. was among 11 presented Oct. 10 during a ceremony in Calgary.
Ten industry category recipients were also named as part of the Prairies region portion of Ernst & Young’s 2002 Entrepreneur Of The Year (EOY) program.
Robson founded Veritas in 1974 and has steered the company’s growth from an eight-employee seismic data processing operation in Calgary to its current position as the world’s third-largest provider of integrated geophysical services and technologies to the petroleum industry.
“David Robson is an incredibly passionate businessman with unbridled entrepreneurial spirit,” said John Murphy, Prairie region director of Ernst & Young’s EOY program.
“After almost 30 years of operating in the oil and gas industry renowned for its unpredictable boom-and-bust cycles, David remains tenacious and full of excitement for what he does. He clearly has an award-winning approach. David is an outstanding example of the calibre of entrepreneur the Entrepreneur Of The Year program is proud to honour.”
Veritas made its initial public offering in 1993. Within two years of going public, revenue grew 500 per cent, from $30 million to $150 million. It merged with U.S.-based Digicon in 1996 to form Veritas DGC Inc.
Today, Veritas DGC operates in 19 countries on six continents and employs approximately 3,800 people.
The Ernst & Young 2002 Prairies Entrepreneur Of The Year industry segment award recipients in Alberta are:
* Business-to-Business Products and Services: Cody Slater, BW Technologies Ltd. (gas detection equipment), Calgary – www.gasmonitors.com
* Emerging Entrepreneur: Fred A. Atiq, Fiberex Glass Corporation (manufacturer of continuous glass strand and gun roving), Leduc. – www.fiberexglass.com
n Energy/Natural Resources: David B. Robson, Veritas DGC Inc. (integrated geophysical services), Calgary – www.veritasdgc.com
* Professional/Financial Services: John S. Chambers, James W. Davidson, Scott T. Inglis, Martin P. Molyneaux, W. Brett Wilson, FirstEnergy Capital Corp. (investment banking, research, sales and trading), Calgary – www.firstenergy.com
* Technology Development and Health Sciences: Kip Fyfe, Dynastream Innovations Inc. (developer of ‘smart’ devices), Cochrane – www.dynastream.com
* Technology Services/Manufacturing & Distribution: Ivan W. Smith, Circa Enterprises Inc. (surge protection equipment and DSL enclosures), Calgary – www.circaent.com
* Young Entrepreneur: Ashif Mawji, Upside Software Inc. (billing process enterprise software products), Edmonton – www.upsidesoft.com
Robson now advances to the national level to compete with counterparts from the Pacific, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic regions for the title of Canada’s Entrepreneur Of The Year (www.eoy.ca), to be announced Nov. 7 in Ottawa.
The winner of the Canadian competition will join more than 20 national recipients competing for the title of World Entrepreneur Of The Year in May 2003.
