Enterprise Holdings
It started with repairs.
I spent my early years in the repair and maintenance operations of North America's largest rental fleet group, ending up as Provincial Repair Manager out of head office, accountable for a repair network of roughly 60 branches in each province, first in Quebec and then in Alberta, where the fleet alone ran to roughly 12,000 vehicles.
In Quebec, I built the repair department from the ground up. It earned Enterprise's Exceptional Achievement Award twice, ranking in the global top 10% both times. Enterprise headquarters then recruited me to turn around Alberta's repair department. That is where I took network repair spend from $13M down to roughly $9.7M a year, cut average out-of-service time from 17 business days to 3, and negotiated a national vendor agreement worth $978K+ in recurring savings.
One lesson from it never left me: costs do not come down because you ask for a better price. They come down when you measure your suppliers, consolidate what should be consolidated, and talk business with people who want to keep working with you.
Aaron Taxi St. Albert
Then the money became mine.
I bought and ran a last-mile passenger transportation company as owner-operator and general manager. It became the fastest-growing taxi company in St. Albert. I grew revenue by 345% over three years, then helped transition the business through its sale to TappCar.
Dispatch, routing, vehicle procurement, drivers, safety, insurance, vendor agreements and full P&L. Running an operation when the capital at risk is your own changes how you read a budget. I have never looked at a cost line the same way since.
Celestial Wine and Spirits
A detour that taught selling.
I ran business development for a portfolio of 56 products competing against 27,000, in one of Alberta's most saturated markets. I grew portfolio sales by more than 300% in a single year.
This is not the part of my background I lead with, but it explains something useful. Negotiating with an OEM and winning shelf space at a retailer rest on the same thing: understanding what the other side needs, and making the relationship strong enough to survive a bad week.
ATS Traffic
Technical operations where the stakes were public safety.
I led strategy, operations and execution for repairs, maintenance and Intelligent Transportation Systems across Western Canada, in a 24/7 road-safety environment serving Alberta Transportation, municipalities and emergency services.
Three integrated technical teams: welding and trailer repair, electronic repair, and ITS service. I managed the VER-MAC message board trailer and SCORPION crash attenuator certified service groups, and oversaw about 11 ITS deployments, pilots and prototypes with Alberta Transportation and municipalities.
Intact
And then, national scale.
As Manager of National and Executive Fleet at Canada's largest property and casualty insurer, I was accountable for the strategy, governance and operational performance of a 1,000+ vehicle program supporting 180 executives and 24/7 claims operations coast to coast.
A $10M to $15M operating budget, influence over $40M+ in assets and contracts, and cost-to-serve improved 5 to 17% annually. I co-developed the EV strategy targeting 2030 and exceeded deployment targets three years running, through global supply shortages.
Everything on this page is the same job at a different size. The problem is always the numbers, the suppliers, the team and the policy. Only the scale changes.
Alongside
Investing, board work and projects.
I sit on the executive board of the Edmonton Real Estate Investors Association. The club has been running since 1985, which makes it Edmonton's oldest, and I designed and built its website. I invest in real estate, which keeps me honest about the same financial discipline I apply at work.
I also build things. Websites for foundations and businesses, community projects, process improvements. These are not hobbies in disguise. They are the same instincts at a smaller scale: understand the need, solve the problem, ship something that works.