Hydro One finance chief going to Sobeys parent

STELLARTON, N.S. — The parent company of the Sobeys grocery chain has hired away Hydro One’s chief financial officer. Michael Vels will leave the Ontario power grid operator on May 19 and become the chief financial officer at Empire Co. Ltd. of Stellarton, N.S., on June 12. Vels played a key role in the 2015 initial public offering of Hydro One stock, which had been 100 per cent owned by the provincial government. Prior to that, he spent about a decade as CFO at Maple Leaf Foods as the company underwent a multi-year transformation of its business, including the sale of its Canada Bread subsidiary to a Mexican company, Grupo Bimbo. Empire CEO Michael Medline — himself a recent addition to Sobeys — says Vels is qualified for his new role because of his understanding of the food business and of successful corporate transformations. Hydro One says that it will begin a search for a new CFO immediately.