From the loading rack to the chief operating office

Mandate

Keep winter delivery and no-heat response dependable while building a heat-pump installation and service business large enough to offset declining fuel volume.

Outcomes

• Capped heat-pump intake at commissioning capacity; ninety-day callbacks fell from 11.2% to 4.1%
• Fitted remote monitors to 9,000 hybrid and priority accounts; cold-period run-outs fell from 286 to 37
• Closed three depots and retained two as crew bases, saving C$1.3 million a year
• Commissioned 3,140 heat pumps in 2025, all with in-house crews

Decisions in context

As chief operating officer I am responsible for everything between a customer's call and a warm house: dispatch, delivery, installation, service, depots, fleet and safety. My six direct reports cover delivery, installation and service, dispatch and planning, fleet and depots, safety, and customer contact. The role has been shaped by the move to heat pumps. When I started, fuel delivery paid for almost everything; now installation and service carry a growing share of our overhead, while the fuel business must stay dependable for customers who use it less. I have had to slow sales we could not deliver well, spend capital on tank monitors that earn nothing directly, and argue against part of a saving finance had good reason to want. I report monthly to Neil Brannockmere and quarterly to the board's safety committee. I attend the board as an executive, not as a director.

Reason for the move

Current appointment; seeking a first commercial board seat alongside it.

Mandate

Bring delivery, service and safety practice across nineteen depots to one standard and start an in-house heat-pump installation crew.

Outcomes

• Introduced a written no-heat response standard, reported monthly by depot
• Reduced lost-time injuries from nineteen in 2017 to eight in 2020
• Started heat-pump installation in 2019 with twenty-two in-house technicians and three subcontract crews

Decisions in context

Brannockmere hired me to bring nineteen depots that each ran winter differently onto one operating standard. I spent most of my first autumn in depots, riding with drivers and sitting with dispatchers, before writing anything down. The result was a no-heat response standard, measured monthly by depot, and a shared storm-day plan with rest rules for drivers and technicians. Lost-time injuries fell from nineteen in 2017 to eight in 2020. In 2019 I set up our first heat-pump installation crew, drawing on what I had learnt at Fernhallow, and arranged three subcontract crews to cover peaks. That arrangement worked at the volume we then had and failed under the rebate surge of 2022, a lesson I carried into my next role. I reported to the chief operating officer, who retired in March 2021 and recommended me as his successor.

Reason for the move

Appointed chief operating officer when my predecessor retired.

Mandate

Organise a growing installation business, including early ductless heat-pump work, without weakening the maintenance service customers paid for.

Outcomes

• Separated sizing visits from sales calls for heat-pump quotes
• Introduced commissioning records signed by the installing technician
• Raised maintenance-plan renewals from 78% to 87%

Decisions in context

I joined Fernhallow to learn the equipment side of home heating after fifteen years on the fuel side. Hilde Oosterbaan, its founder, wanted someone to organise a fast-growing installation business without harming the maintenance work that paid steady bills. Ductless heat pumps were new to many of our customers and to some of our installers. I saw units sized from a brochure, outdoor heads mounted where snow would drift over them, and condensate lines that froze in the first cold week. We separated the sizing visit from the sales call, wrote a commissioning record that the installing technician signed, and gave supervisors time to check a sample of jobs. Quoting took slightly longer. Repeat visits fell, and maintenance-plan renewals rose from 78 to 87 per cent. I left when Brannockmere offered a field-operations role at a much larger scale.

Reason for the move

Joined Brannockmere to run field operations at a much larger fuel and service business.

Mandate

Run delivery and service across four depots, including winter scheduling and the safety of bulk tanks and cylinders.

Outcomes

• Moved bulk delivery from fixed routes to degree-day scheduling
• Agreed storm-day on-call rotations before each season
• Inspected about 6,800 customer tank installations over three years

Decisions in context

As regional operations manager I ran four propane depots in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, with sixty-four drivers, technicians and depot staff. My predecessor had scheduled bulk deliveries on fixed routes, which meant some tanks were filled too early and others ran low in cold spells. We moved to degree-day scheduling based on each customer's consumption history, and kept a reserve of delivery capacity for forecast cold. I also changed storm-day staffing so that on-call rotations were agreed before the season, not improvised by phone at night. Over three years our technicians inspected about 6,800 customer tank installations and corrected those that no longer met the standard. The job taught me that a fuel company's reputation is decided on a small number of nights, and that those nights can be planned for well in advance.

Reason for the move

Moved to a heating contractor to learn the equipment side of home heating.

Mandate

Bring bulk-plant, vehicle and customer-installation safety practice into one documented programme.

Outcomes

• Wrote the company's first dangerous-goods training and audit programme for drivers
• Prepared upgrade plans for three bulk storage plants
• Introduced incident reviews that included the drivers involved

Decisions in context

Quarrendale hired me as its first safety and compliance engineer. The company had good drivers and uneven practice: each depot loaded, delivered and handled cylinders in slightly different ways, and procedures existed mainly in the heads of senior staff. I wrote a dangerous-goods training and audit programme for drivers, prepared upgrade plans for three bulk storage plants and started incident reviews that included the people involved. Those reviews were uncomfortable at first, because drivers expected blame. They became useful once drivers saw procedures change in response to what they had told us, such as a revised hose-handling method for icy driveways. I had two safety coordinators and no operational authority, so every improvement had to be agreed with depot managers first. That habit of persuasion served me well when I was promoted to run a region.

Reason for the move

Promoted to regional operations manager.

Mandate

Plan tank inspections and loading-rack maintenance around ship arrivals and winter truck demand.

Outcomes

• Moved tank inspection outages out of the winter loading season
• Reset the calibration schedule for loading-rack meters
• Recorded winter loading delays by cause

Decisions in context

My first job after university was as terminal engineer at a marine fuel terminal in southern New Brunswick, where ships delivered refined products and trucks loaded heating oil and diesel for the region. I had no direct reports. I worked with eight operators on tank inspections, loading-rack meters, vapour systems and small capital projects. The main lesson was about timing. Maintenance that slipped from summer into autumn collided with winter truck demand, and every hour a loading lane was closed in December meant drivers waiting with customers to reach. I learnt to plan maintenance with the operators who would live with it and to record delays by cause rather than by complaint. I left in 2002 because I wanted to work closer to the customers who used the fuel, and a propane distributor offered me a safety role.

Reason for the move

Joined a propane distributor to work closer to the customers who used the fuel.