CNQ Cdn. Natural related - flattering profile re: Alan Markin in the Edmonton Journal.
Allan Markin -- oilman and philanthropist
$6M DONATION TO U OF A
Saturday, December 08, 2001
Allan Markin may not be well known in Edmonton.
But the 56-year-old chairman of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. is a household name in his home town, and not just within the Calgary oilpatch.
Markin is probably best known for taking over the helm of a near-bankrupt junior oil company in 1988 and turning it into Canada's third-largest petroleum producer today.
But he's also known as a major benefactor of the arts and education and as a part owner of the Calgary Flames.
In that context, his $6-million gift to the University of Alberta engineering faculty announced Friday was hardly out of character. The gift -- $3 million from the company and a matching $3 million from Markin as a personal gift -- ranks among the top three individual donations to the U of A.
Charles Chan, a Hong Kong construction magnate and another U of A engineering graduate, recently gave the university $7 million for foreign student scholarships. An anonymous donor had previously given $9 million.
Eight years ago, Markin and his wife Jackie Flanagan, an author and publisher of Alberta Views, gave a $1.3-million endowment to the University of Calgary to set up a Canadian writer-in-residence program.
Markin also donated more than $1 million to the U of C medical faculty to fund a chair in health promotion, and gave $1 million to St. Mary's University College, a fledgling Catholic liberal arts college in Calgary.
"He's seen by the Calgary community as being wonderfully supportive and very generous," says Stuart Reid, director of fund development for the University of Calgary.
"He's been tremendously supportive of the U of C."
Reid called Markin's gift to the U of A "a wonderful expression of Al's commitment to education and to the province."
Calgary Herald columnist Don Braid said Markin is well-known in Calgary for his philanthropy.
"I'd have a hunch this is probably something pretty close to his heart," he said of the gift to the U of A.
Born and raised in Calgary, Markin worked his way through high school and university pumping gas, being a bricklayer's helper and working at gas processing plants.
After getting his chemical engineering degree from the U of A in 1968, he went to work for Amoco Petroleum, then at Helton Engineering and Merland Explorations before being hired as president of Poco Petroleum in 1982.
It was one of Calgary's high-flyers in the first energy boom. But the company got caught by the oil-price collapse in 1986. A terse press release from Poco's chairman in May 1988 announced Markin's "resignation."
He reacted by taking a breather, spending a few months cycling in France before coming back to Calgary for another go. He got together with Murray Edwards, a merchant banker with Peters and Co. Capital, which was then trying to rescue Canadian Natural from bankruptcy. Markin became its chairman and largest shareholder in January 1989.
Barry Nelson, a Calgary Herald business columnist in the early 1990s, called Markin an unusual oil executive in a column written in 1992.
Like many others, Markin kept fit by cycling and jogging along Calgary's Elbow River paths.
But he was also someone who read poetry and took evening courses in sociology, psychology and history at the U of C, Nelson wrote.
Markin's politics are also somewhat unusual in the oil patch. He has donated to the Alberta Liberals and is solidly behind Flanagan's bimonthly magazine which often expresses left-of-centre views.
At Friday's news conference, Markin said he made a point in the last 10 years of giving back to the community, especially in health and education, and felt it was time to give back to the U of A.
He said he wanted to tell all the engineers who will be coming along that giving back to the community is something that's really important.
"I've found that gives me a lot of personal satisfaction."
© Copyright2001 Edmonton Journal |
