NEW LEADERSHIP TEAM TAKES HELM AT RGO GROUP
Cathy Orr named president, Wayne Schultz and Cory Honsinger become partners
Cathy Orr took over the role of president and CEO at RGO Group a year ago when her father, Ross Glen, stepped away from the day-to-day operations to become chairman of the firm he had led for 50 years.
Orr, who runs a multimilliondollar company with a staff of 140 with showrooms in Calgary, Canmore and Edmonton, recently announced two new partners in the ownership team.
With the retirement of Tim Johnson, who served RGO as president of RGO Flooring for the past nine years, Wayne Schultz has been appointed to that position. Schultz is the owner of New Interiors, one of the largest drywall firms in the Calgary region, which is now a fully integrated part of the RGO family.
The staff, still under the leadership of Schultz, has relocated into RGO’s 300,000-square-foot office, warehouse and showroom facility just off Memorial Drive N.E.
Cory Honsinger has been named a partner in RGO. He retains the title of general manager at Canmore Flooring where he keeps 19 installers busy in the Bow Valley corridor.
Flooring forms the design foundation that blends with furniture, workstations, windows and walls.
Office environments continue to change and RGO is keeping abreast of employees’ needs with the design of spaces in which they can meet, work, network, socialize and re-engage.
The RGO office is a good example of what can be achieved, with its own employee cafe, food station and plenty of areas where employees can meet together or settle in a private space for a break.
New furniture trends allow for workers to be mobile; sit where they want at “plug-in” single-seat dividers or meet with co-workers in a variety of sizes in high-tech meeting rooms.
RGO has a separate office technology division under the leadership of vice-president Kendall Bocking, and window coverings managed by vice-president Jamie Ferguson. But the major business at RGO is still in the sale of office furniture, rentals, refurbishing, storage, moving and space planning, led by vicepresident of office environments Dave Orr.
A new section of the 50,000-square-foot Calgary showroom has been dedicated to Canadian content. Orr said clients have asked for furniture solutions made here and has been able to create entire display rooms of Canadian-made furniture.
Recognized for many philanthropic donations, Glen and three of his friends — Charlie Guille, Bob Harris and Bill Kujat — made an initial donation of $5.6 million to kick-start construction of Inclusio, a new barrier-free home for clients of Accessible Calgary overlooking Confederation Park.
RGO is further supplying interior furnishings to help make life easier for the residents of the 45 units.
NEWS AND NOTES
On Friday, Chinook Centre welcomes another class retailer with the opening of Calgary’s first Canada Goose store. Celebrating 60 years in business, its made-in-Canada winter clothing is sold in 37 countries today. Its 40 new Calgary employees will be showing off more than 200 jacket styles in the 4,000-squarefoot shop.
A new section of the 50,000-squarefoot Calgary showroom has been dedicated to Canadian content.