Mark has worked fulltime in the earthworks business since 1987 and part-time since 1977. The fact is that he literally grew up riding on earth-moving machines through the family business and was driving loaders long before he was old enough to get his driver's license.
For a number of years Mark worked for North Star Enterprises which was owned by his brother, Larry, and father, Steve, and eventually purchased his own heavy equipment for hauling and pushing aggregate. On the side he kept his own business venture busy doing landscaping and odd jobs. While with North Star he progressed through a series of roles including Foreman, Site Supervisor, Dispatcher, Civil Maintenance Coordinator and Fleet Manager on a number of Imperial Oil field sites and for Alberta Transportation.
After the sale of North Star Mark became a consultant for Flint doing right-of-way clearing at Fox Creek and a compressor station near Rainbow Lake. He then took on the role of Civil Construction Coordinator and Manager until his expertise landed him the position of Project Coordinator of Flint's Bonnyville Mechanical Division where he later migrated to District Mechanical Manager for his final two years.
In 2004 he returned to self-employment and poured his energy in Brown's Bobcat Services. What started out as a "man and a shovel" operation progressed from one job to the next as the company sought bigger and bigger locations to run the enterprise.
Apart from his obvious wealth of experience in the industry, Mark has a sharp business mind and excels at facilitating and coordination. He also has the ability to see the big picture and plots a steady course of expansion for Brown's to take it well beyond its current size and services.
Mark served on the Riverhurst Community Hall Board since 2008 and has been president since 2011.
Larry began his career in the earthworks and construction business back in 1973, and like his brother Mark, has been operating machines since he was old enough to reach the pedals. In fact, there is not a single piece of equipment in the Brown's fleet that Larry cannot run.
In 1978 Larry and his father formed Stelar Gravel Hauling and provided aggregate hauling services for a concrete plant in Cold Lake. As the demand for services increased they branched into water trucks and formed North Star Tank Trucks. North Star eventually changed its name to North Star Enterprises and grew to a firm of over 250 people. Here Larry proved himself capable of winning construction and maintenance contracts with Imperial Oil and Husky, among others, and was responsible for overseeing equipment purchases, maintenance of machinery and manpower. The company operated as a construction and maintenance provider to various oil companies and was subsequently sold off after 20 years in business.
This led to a number of consulting jobs where Larry's many years of experience made him the ideal candidate. He first became Construction Manager for civil work on the Petrocan McKay River Project and then his connections and expertise garnered the interest of the Mikisew Cree Band out of Fort Chipewyan who hired him to develop a construction company from the ground up. There he established contracts with companies like Enbridge, Shell and Cenovus and oversaw the hiring of manpower and the rental and purchase of heavy machinery, forming it into a profitable venture.
His next stop was with Opti Canada at Long Lake where he was Construction Manager for the first gasification unit of its kind in Canada. From there Opti offered him a position in Calgary where he was Construction Manager on Phase 2, 3 & 4 at Fluors Engineering House. Larry was also Site Manager for BA Energy in Fort Saskatchewan overseeing equipment and site preservation on a partially built upgrader project. During that time Mark Brown's own company was expanding and needed someone with Larry's expertise to manage a new project at Christina Lake. For a time Larry managed to juggle both positions but when the staggering schedule became too much he opted to join Brown's fulltime and took over as Brown's site superintendent at the Cenovus Christina Lake Project in 2011.
When the contract at Christina Lake came to a close Larry became Construction Manager of the Foster Creek construction and operations divisions, overseeing the daily work of 150 employees and acting as chief liaison with the client.
Currently Larry oversees all field operations and plays an integral role in the sourcing of new work and negotiating of contracts. His decades of field experience and network of long-standing relationships have proved invaluable in moving the company forward.
Doug's career in finance began in 1985 when he graduated from the University of Alberta with his Bachelor of Commerce degree. Starting at the bottom, he worked as an admin analyst and production accounting clerk for Amoco Petroleum before switching to banking with Lloyd's Bank of Canada in executive banking. He then transferred to the Bank of Montreal and entered their Management Development Program in commercial banking.
A job offer from the Lakeland Public School District allowed him to move close to family and he accepted the position of Assistant Secretary Treasurer where he assisted in managing a $25,000,000 budget. After five years he made the transition to North Star Enterprises which was owned by the Brown's Family. His role as Business Manager included the oversight of all financial aspects of the company including the supervision of admin and accounting staff.
When North Star was sold off, Doug reprised his role within the school system and became Secretary Treasurer for many years at the Aspen View Regional School Division and Lakeland Catholic School District.
In 2010 Doug received another call from the Brown family. This time it was Mark Brown with an offer to come on board as Business Manager for what was then called Brown's Bobcat Services. Since then he has been overseeing all aspects of corporate finance including monitoring of expenditures, advising on cash flow and overseeing bookkeeping staff.
Brown's has greatly benefited from Doug's greatest asset: his analytical ability to take in a lot of data and make informed decisions that allow upper management to make wise choices. When it comes to finance, his skills at focusing on a task and managing his time enable him to keep Brown's ever-expanding projects on track.
Brad has been working in the service and construction industry since 1975, much of the time as owner and operator. The marketing and management skills he honed during that time ultimately led him to become Brown's Corporate Safety Manager but there were a few stops along the way.
Brad's experience in the oil patch began in 2005 when he was hired to set-up and run a security gate for an Alberta oil company. He then began the process of obtaining his NCSO certification and worked as a lead supervisor on plant shutdowns for Syl's Mechanical out of Saskatchewan. Here he was responsible for the oversight of all aspects of the shutdown on various projects including pulp mills, ethanol plants, uranium mines, SAGD and OSB plants including the safety aspects of the work.
In 2008 Brad became a full-time Safety Advisor with Robwell on Cameco's uranium mine at MacArthur River and then moved to Brown's as Corporate Safety Manager in 2011. His first order of business was the completion of a revamped HS&E manual that adequately addressed the many aspects of safety that the company was involved in. At the time the company had only 42 employees and Brad's people skills made him a natural fit to also handle HR services until it was impossible to manage both.
Brad's focus is now strictly managing safety for the 200+ employees and supervising the growing number of safety officers under his umbrella. Brad's PR skills and experience in dealing with a variety of agencies is a real asset when working with ISNetworld, ComplyWorks, WCB and COR. His diplomacy and thoroughness have also been invaluable when dealing with taproot investigation and management of incidents. We are proud to say that he has been instrumental in bringing our TRIF down to an average of 0.48 for 2011 - 2013 and an amazing zero for 2013.
Outside of work Brad has served as treasurer for three years and president for two years on the Meadow Lake Chamber of Commerce. He also served as director on the Provincial Chamber of Commerce for Saskatchewan.
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