The President's Team - Goal Setting, Assessment, Peer Advisory Sessions, Business Coaching, Leadership Development, Best Practice Resources, Peer Coaching, and Executive Coaching for Entrepreneurial CEOs, Presidents & Business Owners

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What some of our past members say...

Revett Eldred
CEO - Minerva Technology Inc.

Revett founded Minerva Technology Inc. in 1985 and sold it twelve years later. The company competed effectively and profitably in a highly competitive business with traditionally low margins and very few barriers to entry. Twice ranked among Canada’s 50 fastest-growing businesses, the company was a 1991 winner of the prestigious Canada Award for Business Excellence, the country’s highest award for quality. Minerva was rated by Microsoft as one of that company’s three best partners worldwide and twice won awards for best computer applications developed using Microsoft products. Revett personally was once ranked Calgary Business Person of the Year and was profiled as one of ten successful immigrants in the Canadian government pavilion at the Seville World Fair.

"My involvement with The President's Team was invaluable in helping Minerva Technology make Canada's 50 Fastest Growing list two years in a row, helping me maintain my sanity through all the lumps and bumps of building a successful company, helping me to grow an effective management team, and finally helping me sell the business for a very substantial amount. Even today, seven years later, I count many of my fellow President's Team members among my friends and advisors. I find it hard to imagine that I would have been as successful as I was without my involvement in the organization" --

Revett Eldred, retired and went sailing, and is now back working with his wife to build a new venture - Athene Corporate Services

Ron Friesen, C.E.T.
President - Metro Engineering and Contracting

Ron is a true entrepreneur. In 1982 he recognized the opportunity to build a significant business serving the construction needs of the transportation business in Western Canada. Today Metro Engineering and Contracting Ltd. is a major player in winter and summer highway maintenance, excavation, gravel base and asphalt paving throughout Alberta and British Columbia. After many years of building operations capability, Metro is now able to work on a wide range of construction and maintenance activities, including all phases of site development, site servicing and project management. The company operates a stationary asphalt plant in Sundre, Alberta as well as a portable asphalt plant that can meet customer needs across Western Canada. Metro also operates gravel pits in Canmore and Sparwood and has construction offices in Calgary and Cranbrook. In addition to road building, the company provides services in project management, shallow utilities, overpass structures, retaining walls, site development and site servicing. Metro’s success has been driven by Ron’s commitment to providing the highest quality engineering, construction services and partnering on a wide range of projects.

"My involvement with The President's Team was important in helping to get a different view point and a perspective on the big picture. You can get mired down in the day to day activities of running a highly complex engineering and contracting company. The President’s Team members helped me to see the problems that were looming on the horizon long before I would have noticed them. There was a tough period several years ago when I considered selling my business but today my price has tripled and I am having more fun than I ever thought possible. Some of the resource speakers that the President’s Team used in the group presentations were invaluable in helping me to see through the problems and build a viable business for the today and into future.”

Ron Friesen www.metroeng.ab.ca has reinvented himself as a CEO and President changing the way he and his company do business. True business leaders like Ron are never happy with the status quo but are constantly challenging the boundaries in business and life. Ron’s new business ventures are keeping him challenged and creative. Koocanusa Ranch and Pine Ridge Mountain Resort are two of his two new high end land development projects. Ron can be reached at 403.293.8229 or 430.888.0170 to get further information about his company and his new ventures.

Cindy Eeson
President - Kids Only Clothing Inc.

Cindy knows about juggling and the rewards and challenges of entrepreneurship. In the late 1980’s she walked away from a thriving law career to stay home and raise three small children. Of course, given her drive and sense for business opportunities things didn’t quite work out that way. Her desire to earn some pocket money while she was home raising her kids led to the birth of what would eventually become a Canadian fashion industry success story. Founded in 1988, Kids Only Clothing Inc. specialized in lifestyle clothing for “Women on the Go and Kids on the Grow” and soon boasted more than 1,500 home based consultants and 130 employees. The company grew as a result of Cindy’s incredible energy and enthusiasm but when asked she feels her success was a result of a lot of unique strengths women bring to the world of business, not the least of which is their ability to multi-task and deal sensibly and quickly with some of the more complex people issues in the business world. Cindy has been winner of numerous business awards for her entrepreneurial success: In 1999 she was selected as one of Chatelaine magazine’s “Top 100 Women Entrepreneurs”; in September 2000 she was spotlighted as an Avon “Woman of Inspiration”; and in the same year she was rated 28 in Profit Magazine Top 100 Women Entrepreneurs.

"My involvement with The President's Team was invaluable in helping Kids Only Clothing make some critical and fast business decisions. Keeping me and my team on track and helping us achieve our targeted goals and objectives in a timely manner resulted in us sidestepping some of the problems related to growing our company. Having an extended board of qualified and supportive business advisors allowed us to quickly recognize a wider range of solutions to some of our problems and move ahead with implementing some critical decisions. Today SME companies need all the help and advice they can get. The President’s Team program looks at each business on an individual basis and together with each president puts together a strategic game plan to help keep growth on track. Some of the members I worked with in The President’s Team group ended up being not only my best friends, but the best business advisors I could hope to find. “

Now pursuing other opportunities, Cindy is developing property in both Canada and the United States, is chairperson for several charities, and is the founder of the now globally recognized Bachelor Charity Auction.

John Riddell, MRAIC, MAAA, MAIBC
President - Riddell Kurczaba Architecture, Engineering and Interior Design

Since 1983, Riddell Kurczaba has focused on providing environmentally and socially responsive design solutions for a wide range of projects including: corporate facilities, educational buildings, public institutional facilities, hotels and resorts, sophisticated technology based research and production facilities, high-tech manufacturing plants, transportation centers, commercial office buildings, distribution centers etc. John’s success has been based on his design philosophy and the passion, spirit, and talent of his culturally diverse team of more than forty professional, technical and administrative personnel. His design philosophy recognizes the importance of integrating architecture with human needs in a sensitive and responsible manner while taking projects from inception to completion in a timely and proficient manner. In building the firm, John has insisted on a process for developing building solutions that are highly interactive and dynamic; recognizing all stakeholder needs; taking into account all the constraints and technical requirements of each project; and truly transforming dreams into reality.

“My involvement with The President's Team started because of my commitment to life long learning. Being able to hear presentations every month from some of the top business experts helped open my mind to a new way of doing business and a different way of looking at my business. It is one thing to read the latest business book from a management guru, but it is another to hear them up close and personal in an interactive workshop session with a small group of your business peers. The art of business comes to life and you’re able to get a better understanding of how different ideas might work within your own business framework. I found that ideas could be discussed, dissected and then implemented in a way that best benefited my own organization. These are not cookie cutter presentations, but based on you and your organization’s needs. The resource speakers and the other business leaders become your best source of new information as they help you fine tune your business operations. “

John Riddell continually creates exciting and highly sophisticated buildings to last long into the future. Together with his partner and team they are responsible for outstanding examples of what buildings, businesses and homes should look like. To view the company philosophy and see examples of outstanding architecture www.riddell.ca

Doreen Richards
President and CEO - Graywood Terrace Development Corp

Doreen Richards has founded several companies and participated in their evolution over the years. She joined the President’s Team at the time she was launching a new initiative in Canada - The Wills Registry. Starting out her business career as a lawyer, she and her partner soon discovered that she not only had a head for numbers, but she knew how to invent, grow and develop a diverse range of businesses. A consummate entrepreneur, Doreen is always looking for a new venture where she can step in and provide the expertise needed to take a company to the next level and ensure its continued growth and success. At present, Doreen is growing, developing and guiding four different businesses in various stages of operation. From start-up, to fast growth, to well-established - she gets results and with her ability to look at business opportunities from both a financial and creative viewpoint she guarantees the financial success of her business ventures.

"My involvement with The President's Team started out from a need to bounce ideas off of other CEO’s and Presidents. Because of the wide range of my business ventures I didn’t always have the luxury of peers to talk to and The President’s Team became my unofficial board of advisors. With my chairman and business coach I had to challenge myself and change the way I was involved in my business. Looking at leading your business as opposed to working in it is a lesson every CEO needs. The President’s Team Chair helped me evaluate my ideas and talk them through, sometimes asking questions I didn’t want to answer.”

Doreen Richards is presently growing and developing four business opportunities:

Advantage Cash Business Solutions Inc. – providing ATM/POS to the business community
Dadochan Mortgage Investment Corp. – a mortgage investment corporation
Advantage Tax Rebaters Ltd– fuel tax rebates
Graywood Terrace Development Inc. – condo developer in the Edmonton area