V25N3 (reduced).indd - Atlantic Business Magazine
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V25N3 (reduced).indd - Atlantic Business Magazine
ATLANTIC BUSINESS MAGAZINE’S CEO OF THE YEAR Forged by fire The triumph of Anne Whelan She’s been a welfare officer in California, a community development worker in her home province of Newfoundland and Labrador, a single mum with more bills than bucks, and, not for nothing, a kick-ass CEO of a diversified clutch of companies that today generate between $20- and $50-million in annual revenues. What’s her formula for success? Go ahead, ask away. But can you handle the truth? By Alec Bruce 94 1989 - 2014 25 years of publishing excellence May/June 2014 atlanticbusinessmagazine.com 95 Anne Whelan could complain if she wanted to. She doesn’t want to. She could whine about one of the roughest runs of months in all her seven years as a business owner. She doesn’t whine. Still, it’s not in her nature to sugarcoat the truth about anything. And the truth of 2013 for St. John’s-based Seafair Capital (a holding company for diverse operations that involve everything from nursing to property management of which she is the president, CEO and sole shareholder), is, to say the least, inconvenient. “Honestly,” she confesses, after a not-quite-imperceptible sigh, “this has been a very tough year.” Trouble began brewing early when the Newfoundland and Labrador government, an established and valuable client, and her largest company, CareGivers Inc., failed to renew a customary arrangement between them. “Historically, our services (providing in-home, residential healthcare) on behalf of the Province have not been contracted,” Whelan explains. “It has been a feefor-service agreement. That dropped off significantly and somewhat unexpectedly last year. Meanwhile, the government put out a more formal request for proposals, which it didn’t actually award in the time frame that everybody expected. So, we were kind of left hanging.” There were other vexations, too. Just as Seafair completed contract negotiations with its 500 unionized workers at CareGivers (virtually the entire payroll), penny-pinchers and budgetary hawks – again, mostly among public sector clientele – squeezed margins in the home-care work that remained. “The government did not give us the rate increase that we needed to even offset the wage increase that we had already committed to,” Whelan says. “So, that was a real kick in the teeth.” In the end, CareGivers – which represented 60 per cent of Seafair’s total $20-50-million in annual revenue 96 1989 - 2014 25 years of publishing excellence – registered a 20 per cent slump in its own gross. The bottom-line effect was that a commercial clutch that had, as recently as 2010, posted a 25 per cent annual revenue bump, compared with the previous year, actually dipped into negative morass in 2013. Says Whelan: “Our revenue growth on the combined group of companies dropped approximately seven per cent … It didn’t happen overnight, but by the end of the summer our year-overyear revenues were down to the point that we had to take serious action to avoid a financial disaster.” And yet, now in March 2014, sitting in her office in St. John’s, where a fresh 10 centimeters of late-winter snow covers the port city like a tarp, she’s not complaining. She’s not whining. She is merely reflecting, in the way that successful CEOs do when they’ve been tempered and forged by fire. “You know, I’ve given this a lot of thought,” she says. “I have wondered, especially when things don’t go well, whether I am the right person to lead us through the next stage of growth. But, one of the things that happens to you when you go from being a manager to a business owner and then finally to a CEO is that you realize that what got you here won’t get you there. In good times and bad, in your business, you have to make the necessary changes.” Certainly, in her own life, Whelan, at 46, is no stranger to making changes, necessary or otherwise. If some entrepreneurs are made and others are born, the secondoldest in a family of three girls and one boy from the unprepossessing village of Jerseyside, Placentia (population: 600), would likely fit herself somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. She might even describe herself, growing up, as a somewhat typical product of rural Newfoundland: hard-working, invested in her community, loyal to her family and friends. But if someone had told her that she would one day become the CEO of a multi-million-dollar private company, she would have either politely demurred or laughed out loud. “I would have never contemplated the title of CEO on my own,” she says. “It just wasn’t something I would have considered.” What did appear on her radar of personal ambitions was a good education (she earned a BA from Memorial University in 1990), a job (she worked in community economic development and social services in Canada and the United States for seven years) and a family of her own. “I met a U.S. serviceman who was stationed at the base in Argentia,” Whelan says. “We got married and, eventually, we moved to California where I was employed as a welfare officer. We also had a little girl.” In 1994, she and her husband and daughter returned to Newfoundland. Within a year, she says, “I was a divorced mother of a three-year-old (Starting top left, clockwise): Anne Whelan, age three; grade seven photo; Anne and a cousin go for a boat ride (approx. 1978). Anne, naturally, is behind the wheel. Anne’s Empire with no child support and no job. My ex-husband had gone back to the United States and I didn’t hear from him for several years… It was not an amicable split... In fairness, though, he went back to school after a couple of years and tried to straighten out his life a bit. But, in 1995, I was on my own.” In fact, she hastens to add, that’s not entirely accurate. To this day, Whelan credits her close-knit family for saving her economic bacon. “I absolutely would not have survived if I didn’t have the family I had,” she insists. “There’s no question about that… My dad, who has since passed away, was incredibly good and a stand-in father for my daughter. He did things like come and shovel out my car at seven in the morning… My parents bought me a house that I lived in until I could afford to pay for it myself… My sisters, Susan and Jane, were both so good to me. They did a lot of child care. They did a lot of showing up and, you know, making me not feel alone. And my brother, who is much younger than me, babysat. We pulled together. I mean everybody lives in St. John’s now, so we’re really one of those rural families that sticks together.” Still, the bitter irony of her circumstances was a daily, unwelcome companion. “You know, I had spent years being a welfare officer and I was not about to spend the rest of my existence being on the other side of that table,” she says. “I did manage to get a job, and then a better job and then got laid off from that. So, I decided I needed to make a change in my life or my daughter and I were going to live hand-to-mouth forever, and rely on my parents for more than they should ever have to do.” Her bottom line was simple: Her plan was not to be an entrepreneur; her plan was to get a job. And to do this, she reasoned, she needed an MBA – the best that her scarce resources could buy. In 1999, she enrolled at Memorial, initially on a part-time basis. Through connections, she landed a contract position that enabled her to work full time from her home and go to school. The calculated gamble paid off. Her name on the Dean’s List erased whatever doubts she may have harbored about herself. BrenKir Industrial Supply Blue Sky Family Care Distributes safety and industrial supplies Specialized residential care and treatment for children and youth Care Givers Inc. Home support, nursing, occupational health Seafair Capital Care Connection NL Technology-based support for independent living Head office: St. John’s, N.L. Ownership company whose subsidiaries collectively generate between $20-$50 million in annual revenue and employ 560 full- and part-time staff. NL Training Centre Commercial and residential real estate First aid training and meeting space rentals Greystone Business Solutions Property management, business services 98 Various real estate holdings 1989 - 2014 25 years of publishing excellence The Three Sisters Pub and Restaurant Pub and restaurant For a sus ta inable fu tu re Open for Business Nunatsiavut on the North Coast of Labrador, presents spectacular landscape and friendly people. It also offers incredible business opportunities. Come check us out. We are open for business. Angmavugut SuliaKapvitinni Nunatsiavut Taggâni Satjugiammi Labradorimi, takutitsigunnatuk piujummaginnik nunanik ammalu inutsianik inunnik. Ammalu Kanuittutuinnanik namminik kenaujaliugutinik pivitsaKattisimmijuk. Takugiattulauttigut. Angmavugut suliaKapvitinni. w w w. n u n a t s i a v u t . c o m Design & Layout by Jodie Goodwin. Sananguativut Nunatsiavut Visual Design © 2013. Photos: Geoff Goodyear © 2013 Showing her medal Being named Atlantic Canada’s CEO of the Year for 2014 is the latest in a long line of recognitions for Anne Whelan: • Newfoundland and Labrador Organization of Women Entrepreneurs (NLOWE) Entrepreneurial Excellence Awards (2013) • E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist, Atlantic Canada (2013) • Four-time Atlantic Business Magazine Top 50 CEO (2011-2014) • Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal for contributions to home care quality and residential care of children (2012) • RBC Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year, Growth Category (2010) • NLOWE Visionary Award (2009) “I think the turning point for me was understanding that when bad things happen (and they do!), that’s when you really need to dig deep,” she says. “You need to fi nd your strengths, be true to yourself and those around you, and just fi nd a way to make something good from something bad. That is the challenge of change. Knowing this has served me well in the years since.” Indeed, it has, but that doesn’t mean any of it has come easily, especially in the years since. When Whelan reviews her personal evolution in business, she likens it to a shifting state of mind, peppered with moments of disappointment and, more importantly, enlightenment. She began, in 2002, by agreeing to take over managing the daily operations of her mother’s small home care agency (CareGivers). “When I started, I was overseeing a very small group in a very small company, and I was dealing with things I could see right in front of my eyes,” she says. By 2007, her appetite for entrepreneurship suitably whetted, she assembled a vendor note and a bank loan (worth four times the value of her home’s mortgage) to buy her mother out. “As a business owner, I had a whole set of other worries,” she says. “You know, my house was on the line for this, and I realized just how much a small business owner puts on his or her shoulders.” Emboldened (or, perhaps, terrified) by her new role and responsibilities, between 2007 and 2010, Whelan orchestrated a series of bold expansions – including residential care for children and adults, home support, private-duty nursing, and clinical services – that effectively quadrupled the company’s annual revenues to $20 million. During this time, Seafair, proper, began to take shape with new operating entities, such as Blue Sky Family Care, Care Connect NL, Greystone Business Solutions, BrenKir Industrial Supply, The Three Sisters Pub and Restaurant (a nod to the Whelan siblings, themselves) in St. John’s, as well as various real estate holdings. “At some point, I think I realized that you are a CEO when you have other people at senior Congratulations to Atlantic Canada’s Top 50 CEOs. Great leadership, like art, inspires us all. artgalleryofnovascotia.ca Robert Field, Lieutenant Provo William Parry Wallis, 1813, oil on canvas, 76.2 x 63.5 cm. Art Gallery of Nova Scotia Purchase, 1979.18. Work is on view in the exhibitionWar of 1812-1814: Then and After. 100 1989 - 2014 25 years of publishing excellence levels who help carry the load,” she says. “As much as anything, nowadays I lead, and it’s been a very gratifying transition, but it’s also been scary along the way.” Especially when things go sideways. Considering one’s options, over and over again, is not only a CEO’s appointed task; it’s her occupational hazard. And when Whelan faced the truth about her own company’s straights in 2013, she took at least some comfort in the diversified nature of her operations – something she engineered almost organically. “I would say that the common ground among all of the operations is the value system, which comes from my own rural experience,” she explains. “In fact, it probably comes from thinking about those guys – they were mostly guys – who had the general store, and the ambulance service and whatever else they needed to run the town. One thing can suffer a bit, but chances are, the other things will keep you afloat.” Of course, that model of entrepreneurship only works well for so long. A farmer who endures a countywide crop failure won’t survive on the proceeds of his five-and-dime if his patrons are also farmers. With this in mind, perhaps, Whelan started planting new seeds. During the last half of 2013, she embarked on an aggressive growth plan that encompassed all of Seafair’s operating branches, the purpose of which was to establish a coherent vision of the group’s future, with, as she says, “clearly articulated goals for how we are going to get there.” The first, and hardest, order of business, however, was undertaking some necessary, if heartbreaking, triage at CareGivers. “We looked at our work and who we needed to do it, and for the first time in my career, we had to do layoffs,” she reports. “We chose to keep our programming team intact because they were so necessary and so difficult to replace. We laid off administrative roles. But in those roles were people whose skill sets might make it difficult for them to find other work. We offered every kind of support we could think of to help them transition. And we didn’t stop there. We planned for growth in other services that would be less affected by government cutbacks.” The moves worked well enough to prevent further hemorrhaging, though Boarded up they weren’t universally popular within the company. According to Whelan, some people refused to “buy into” the vision. One resigned on good terms; another, a “very senior” person “absolutely refused to even consider changing any business processes, and the whole discussion about strategic direction went very poorly. That employment relationship has been severed with a lot more acrimony.” In both cases, however, she insists, “the right thing happened … for the good of the company, these things had to happen.” In fact, as a result of these tough decisions and planning exercises, Seafair is, arguably, a more resilient company today than it was a year ago, better aligned to its opportunities. Revenue levels have all but recovered their pre-2013 vigour, and CareGivers, in particular, has just signed a new rolling agreement with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the source of its original travails. Indeed, in recent months, the home care service has opened two locations, hired back some of its staff, and submitted a bid to provide all residential child care placements in Newfoundland. Seafair is also pursuing new acquisitions both domestically and in the United States. On the industrial side of the business, it has leased almost four acres of land in Argentia, near the Husky GBS build site, and acquired 10 acres of residential land for future rental development. As Whelan says, she and her various companies have come a long way in a short time. “We currently have on the ‘hot stove’ two active acquisition opportunities in the home and community care side of the business, a planned hospitality development with an equal partner, and industrial building … So, the challenges have driven us to create opportunities… We have a much more robust and mature team of people to lead the development of these opportunities. We have the financing to handle the growth and we’ve taken on partners where taking on partners makes sense.” To be honest, says Anne Whelan – entrepreneur, CEO, survivor of tribulations, victor of deals – the greatest accomplishment of her life, so far, has nothing to do with the health and wealth of the business to which she has devoted so many drops of sweat and tears. It’s important, yes, even vital to her sense of self-worth. But, as she says, nothing trumps the fact that “I have raised a In addition to her business interests, Anne Whelan devotes considerable time to industry associations and community activities. Her current roster includes: • Argentia Management Authority • Atlantic Canada Venture Gateway • Atlantic Provinces Economic Council • Atlantic Women in Business Program • Corner Brook Chamber of Commerce • Home Care Association of Newfoundland and Labrador • Home from the Sea, Sealers’ Memorial • Institute for Corporate Directors • Newfoundland and Labrador Angel Investor Network • Newfoundland and Labrador Construction Safety Association • Newfoundland and Labrador Employers Council • Newfoundland and Labrador Oil and Gas Industries Association • Newfoundland and Labrador Organization of Women Entrepreneurs • Placentia Area Chamber of Commerce • REAL Kids Program, City of St. John’s • St. John’s Board of Trade • Women Presidents’ Organization • Young Parents’ Resource Centre • Volunteer case team judge, MUN Faculty of Business May/June 2014 atlanticbusinessmagazine.com 101 The Big Mary. We still make it fresh in store every day. It’s the only way to do it. Marinated to perfection – just like all our chicken. Taters too. Fresh hand cut daily from real potatoes. Come on in. We’ve got a hearty meal and a friendly smile waiting for you. See you soon! 16118Q_Atlantic Business Print Ad_P2.indd 1 14-04-03 10:15 AM The bank of choice for many businesses is no bank at all. Small Business Financing Program Through an exclusive partnership with the provincial government and the Nova Scotia Co-operative Council, credit unions are delivering better financial assistance for the start-up and expansion of small businesses. The Small Business Financing Program is enabling more provincial business owners to create and maintain rewarding careers for Nova Scotians each year. Special programs for immigrants, the forestry sector and social enterprises are also available. Contact your local credit union or call 902-896-7291 to learn how these programs can work for you. 102 1989 - 2014 25 years of publishing excellence (Top, l-r): Anne’s mother, Joan Whelan, with Anne and her aunt Liz at a softball tournament in 1978. (Middle, l-r): Anne Whelan dancing with her father at her high school prom in May, 1986. (Above): Anne and Kevin Woodbury on their wedding day, along with her daughter Caitlin Whelan. lovely, kind and intelligent daughter who is now 21 years old and fi nishing her third year at Memorial University. There were a few times along the way when I wondered if I could even do that job, never mind do it well… Trying to be a good mom while trying to build a business and be self-reliant isn’t an easy task.” In fact, it’s the personal relationships that she has managed to strike and nurture, thanks in no small measure to her business orbit, that seem to pique her interest most keenly these days. “I see leadership as an opportunity for service,” she says. “It is important to contribute to the community, to volunteer time and resources, to build a workplace culture where people are focused on making their own little corner of the world a bit better. To lead a company that does good for others while at the same time does well for itself is very gratifying.” That tends to explain why she’s a member of no fewer than 12 business associations (including the St. John’s Board of Trade, Newfoundland and Labrador Oil and Gas Association and the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council) and an equal number of volunteer boards and committees. “The more you know, the more possibilities you see,” she says. “I would really like to fi nd a way to create a sustainable cultural industry in my hometown… I also have this crazy idea to create handcrafted specialty spirits – perhaps a gin made from wild, harvested botanicals. I think that might be my lifestyle business in 10 years or so.” For now, at any rate, Whelan has her eyes trained on Seafair’s next phase – an extension of the process she began during her annus horribilis. Over the next five years, she intends to make her company far less dependent on government work (less than 40 per cent of the business) and far better positioned to operate in the private pay markets of the United States. And, oh yes, “We will be almost double in revenue with a planned growth rate of 12 per cent per year, and our profitability will exceed average rates of return for our industries.” That’s not to say there won’t be tough years ahead. But she’s not complaining. In fact, when she thinks about the future, she might even be smiling. • Congratulations to this year’s Top 50 CEO Award Recipients from Premiere Executive Suites Atlantic We offer tailored solutions to meet your needs. Unpack and live better in a Premiere Executive Suite! From studios to three bedrooms + spacious townhomes, our regional experts look forward to finding you the ideal residence. Call 1.866.844.1333 to book your suite in Atlantic Canada - Nightly, weekly and monthly rates - Less expensive than comparable hotels - Fully equipped kitchens - Separate bedrooms - just like home - Laundry facilities in-suite or on-site - Free wireless internet, cable, local calls - Earn Aeroplan Reward Miles - Over 300 suites in St. John’s, NL, www.premieresuites.com Halifax, NS & Moncton, NB Suites designed to a four-star standard. Feedback: [email protected]; [email protected]; @AtlanticBus; @ABM_Editor; @brucescribes; @annemwhelan; #CEOoftheYear May/June 2014 atlanticbusinessmagazine.com 103