CHANGES AT TRANSCANADA
COO Pourbaix is retiring
TransCanada Corp. has lost its go-to-guy on tough pipeline projects with the surprise retirement of its 51-year-old chief operating officer, Alex Pourbaix.
The announcement came days after the Calgary-based company won approval by U.S. President Donald Trump of the Keystone XL pipeline, which Pourbaix led through years of agonizing setbacks after the Alberta-to-Texas project became a symbol of fossil fuel resistance.
The decision comes as a surprise. Pourbaix was seen as the most likely successor to president and CEO Russ Girling, 54.
“I have had a great career at TRP and with KXL receiving its presidential permit it seemed like a good time to enter a new stage in my career,” Pourbaix said in an email. “TransCanada is a great company and I have had a great friendship and work relationship with Russ for 26 years and I thought it was time to try some new opportunities.”
Pourbaix, a University of Alberta law graduate, will leave TransCanada at the end of May.
He said he does not have a new job lined up. “I’m going to take my time and spend lots of time with my family.”
With Trump’s resurrection of KXL, which TransCanada had all but written off, and the completion of the US$13 billion acquisition of Houston-based natural gas pipeline operator Columbia Pipeline Group Inc., Girling likely has the full confidence of the company’s board of directors and could be boss for a long time.
Girling’s appearance at the White House last Friday, when Trump reversed eight years of regulatory delays by issuing a KXL permit, was a historic moment for the company and for the Canadian corporate leader.
“If Alex is going to become a CEO, he’s going to do it elsewhere,” one industry source said.
TransCanada’s successes are reflected in its stock price, which has gained about 25 per cent in the past 12 months.
According to the company’s latest management proxy circular, Pourbaix was TransCanada’s second-highest paid executive, earning $6 million in total compensation in 2016, up from $4.9 million in 2015, compared to $10.1 million for Girling, up from $8.8 million in 2015.
Pourbaix was accountable for the profitability and growth of all the company’s business units, operations and a projects’ centre of excellence, according to the circular.
He led negotiations in 2016 for TransCanada’s “transformational” Columbia acquisition, oversaw its integration with TransCanada, cut jobs and systems complexity for operations and projects, and delivered a final resolution of the Alberta coal power purchase agreement with the Alberta government, according to the circular.
The departure also means TransCanada loses the most experienced hand on the Energy East project, on which Pourbaix has been heavily involved.
In an interview last year, Pourbaix recalled the complex negotiations that led to a partnership with Irving Oil Ltd., the refining powerhouse controlled by Arthur Irving Sr. “The deal with the Irvings was done in the spring or early summer 2013. We had a team out in New Brunswick, leading up to it, a lot of it was carried on back and forth and through phone conversations. I was getting involved in the event that our teams hit roadblocks. At the time, Irving Oil also had a significant contingent of executives who were here for a considerable portion of the time.”
There was no signing ceremony when the partnership was finalized. “We’ll save that for the (National Energy Board) permit,” he said at the time, referring to longdelayed regulatory hearings.