Reflections from the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards

In November, the HGV team headed to Calgary to proudly accept the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award. I felt privileged to have my wife Theresa, my parents, and management partners Evan Shout and Jeff Warkentin accompany me to accept this award. It may sound cliché, but I really do consider this an award for the entire team.

It simply isn’t possible to run a group of companies without the right people in place. I always say I don’t hire smart people and tell them what to do. Rather, I hire smart people so they can tell me what to do.

Our entire team works hard every day to help run the farm and feed a growing population. In recent years, we’ve been able to expand our offerings to knowledge-based businesses, like Maverick Ag and Farmer Coach, to help support all Canadian farmers with the unique challenges they face in a volatile commodity-based business.

At the awards ceremony, I met with many other entrepreneurs from other types of businesses. I always take inspiration and wisdom from each and every one of them.

I’d like to send out a huge congratulations to the other Prairie winners including Aliva’s Foods Ltd., Chandos Construction, Eagle Builders, Homestyle Selections LP, Redekop Manufacturing and Peavey Industries.

It was Doug Anderson from Peavey Industries who said something that really resonated with me. He thanked his family for allowing him to pursue his dream and he also thanked his wife for “the years I wasn’t there.” As an entrepreneur, husband and father, we don’t want to work long hours, miss kids’ activities and take business trips away from home, but sometimes it’s the nature of the beast. I try hard to balance work and family life and most of the time I do pretty well, but the support I receive from my family is deeply appreciated and doesn’t go unnoticed.

The Prairies winners will move forward to compete against peers from the Pacific, Ontario, Québec and Atlantic regions at the national awards celebration in January of 2023 – good luck to all!