Movers & Shakers overs & Shakers
Movers & Shakers
LATITUDE
LATITUDE
Saskatchewan has a warm place in the heart of Dean Potter, P.Geol. He grew up just outside its capital city, earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geology at the University of Regina, and has worked at and established several companies in the province. It’s clear Saskatchewan likes him a lot, too (even though he lives in Calgary, now). He was named Saskatchewan Oilman of the Year almost two decades ago, and recently he was inducted into the Saskatchewan Oil Patch Hall of Fame. Mr. Potter has been heavily involved in the energy industry since beginning his career as a professional geologist in 1980. In the late 1980s, while working for Mark Resources, Mr. Potter began acting on a hunch that there was oil under Saskatchewan's wheat fields. Knowing that five times as many exploratory wells were being drilled on the Montana side of the Saskatchewan border, he investigated the geology, analyzed the trends, completed. Mr. Potter was correct: he had made one of Saskatchewan’s major conventional oil discoveries. Known as the Minton Oil Pool, it attracted significant interest and brought millions of dollars to the province. This discovery led to his designation as Saskatchewan Oilman of the Year in 1991. Since then, Mr. Potter has played a key role in the successes of several exploration and development companies, including his own. He directed the five-times growth of Upton Resources before establishing his own geological consulting company, Sito Geoconsulting. There’s more. Mr. Potter founded the private royalty company DPX in 1999, as well as private exploration and development companies Medora Resources and Elkhorn Resources in 2005. Today, Mr. Potter is executive chair of Burgess Creek Exploration and technical advisor to Steel Reef Infrastructure. Through it all, Mr. Potter is still attached to his roots: he plans to write several papers for future geologists carrying on work he started in the Willison Basin about 30 years ago. FROM OILMAN TO HALL OF FAMER: PROFESSIONAL GEOLOGIST MAKES SASKATCHEWAN PROUD and convinced his company to start drilling. On Christmas Day in 1989, the well was
APEGA MEMBERS AND PERMIT HOLDERS SHINE BRIGHT AT ENGINEERING AWARDS GALA
For the last half-decade, Canadian Consulting Engineer magazine and the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies – Canada have rewarded innovation and technical excellence at the Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards Gala. This year’s awards show, on October 29, saw one APEGA member honoured with the Beaubien Award for career excellence and four APEGA permit holders acknowledged with Awards of Excellence for Alberta projects showing innovation and technical excellence.
ONE FOR THE BOOKS Calgary’s New Central Library has been landing awards since even before it opened to the public in 2018. - photo by Michael Grimm
New Central Library When Entuitive started working on Calgary’s new Central Library in 2014, it had one goal in mind: create a cultural and physical masterpiece that would inspire all who entered. The library started earning that reputation before it even opened, with Architectural Digest naming the building one of the World’s 12 Most Anticipated Buildings of 2018. One month after the first Calgarians walked through the front doors, the same magazine named the New Central Library one of its Libraries of the Future, cementing its place as a cultural landmark. At this year’s Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards Gala, the New Central Library not only received an Award of Excellence, but it was also presented the Engineering a Better Canada Award for enhancing the economic, social, and cultural quality of life of Canadians.
PRIDE OF THE PROVINCE A former Saskatchewan Oilman of the Year, Dean Potter, P.Geol., is now in the province’s Oil Patch Hall of Fame. - photo courtesy Dean Potter
The structure itself contains multiple design-forward features. There’s the curving façade, which takes its inspiration from snowdrifts. There are the steel-framed skylights, funnelling natural light through a four-storey atrium that includes three huge staircases. And there’s the entrance, which plays off the look of a Chinook arch cloud formation. The library sits atop the city’s busiest C-Train line— which was encapsulated with minimal train service disruption. It features a high percentage of slag in its concrete, to reduce the project’s carbon footprint. The building also draws hot water from the District Energy building two blocks away, using it for radiant heating and cooling.
30 | PEG WINTER 2019
WINTER 2019 PEG | 31
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