'You have to earn trust and respect': David Werklund named to Order of Canada
From a hugely successful career in oil and gas through spearheading environmental protection practices and a focus on youth leadership and public education, David Werklund credits his values and drive to growing up on the family farm in Valleyview, Alta.
"My parents liked things done right," Werklund told The Homestretch on Tuesday.
"If you are living on a farm, you have to be very self-sufficient. Those kind of values I think are very fundamental, are very helpful. I look back on my life, 'Where did I learn a lot of this?' How to be creative and innovative, to make our lives better in what we do and how we do it, I would say come from that farm."
Werklund was named a member of the Order of Canada recently.
"It was quite an emotional moment of excitement and maybe kind of humbling. My wife Sue was just as excited as I was. It was really a pretty neat moment when the Lt.-Gov. Lois Mitchell made the call personally," he said.
This recognition comes on the heels of being inducted to the Alberta Order of Excellence just last year.
Werklund worked for Shell Canada in 1965, before starting Dave's Oilfield Service five years later. He founded Concord Well Servicing in 1979 which grew to the third-largest well servicing company in Canada.
He expanded into crude oil processing by starting Canadian Crude Separators (CCS) in 1984. CCS worked on best-practice environmental practices often setting the bar.
Earn trust and respect
CCS grew and grew, merging into Tervita Corporation in 2012.
"You have to earn trust and respect," Werklund said of his overarching business philosophy.
"You learn how to be sure that your word is impeccable. Never mislead people around you because it's a reflection of your own character. As a young I guy, I certainly made my mistakes, however, you have to be self-aware to know when you are actually demonstrating your own character to others."
'We are all imperfect'
He was always a proponent of public education. The University of Calgary's Werklund School of Education was born in 2013 from his donation, the largest ever received by an education faculty in Canada.
Last year, Werklund and his wife, Susan Norman, made another donation to Olds College, which was the largest ever to an Alberta college or tech school.
"We are all imperfect in many ways, but somehow people have chosen to recognize some of the things that I have done to help others and send a message of caring and trust, earning the respect of people in a way that helps, quite selfishly, me too," he said.
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With files from The Homestretch
