Rick George was former Suncor Energy CEO
Rick George, a former CEO of Suncor Energy and a pioneer of Canada’s oilsands industry, has died at the age of 67 after a battle with acute myeloid leukemia.
George, who died Tuesday, is credited with transforming Suncor from a money-losing oilsands mining company into one of Canada’s largest corporations over a 21-year career before his retirement in 2012.
“Rick’s impact on the oilsands industry, the Canadian business community and the broader community has been immeasurable,” Suncor CEO Steve Williams stated in a news release.
“Rick was very much admired and loved by his Suncor family.”
Williams worked as an executive with George for 10 years at Suncor before assuming the helm of the company.
George joined the company that would become Suncor in 1991 and brought in changes that upset traditional mining practices, but boosted production and profitability.
“He had the fortitude and the vision to change the model and he … reinvented the model to allow oilsands to reach its potential in a way that we’re all benefiting from today,” said Tim Mcmillan, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
George oversaw Suncor’s $19-billion merger with Petrocanada in 2009, creating a company with oilsands production, refineries, retail outlets, offshore and conventional oil and gas assets throughout the country.
Suncor’s shares are now worth about $68 billion.
In a statement on Wednesday, his family asked for privacy.
“With heavy hearts, we are determined to embrace challenges and adventure with the same rigour that he demonstrated every day,” the statement said.
“A brilliant businessman, a loyal friend and a loving husband, father and grandfather, he will be greatly missed.”
His immediate family includes his wife Julie, sons Matthew and Zachary, and daughter Emily.
George was born in the small ranching community of Brush, Colo., and earned science and law degrees in the United States.
He served as managing director of Sun Oil Britain Ltd. before moving to Canada in 1991, later adopting Canadian citizenship.
George wrote a biography after retiring called “Sun Rise: Suncor, the Oil Sands and the Future of Energy,” in which he staunchly defended the environmental record of the oilsands and its interactions with Aboriginals while decrying delays in approving export oil pipelines such as the Keystone XL.