58 BCBusiness OctOber 2014
Tom Leavitt
President and CEO, Leavitt Machinery
M
ost of us have had those moments—
sitting in our office with the door
closed, frustrated by our bosses,
the office politics, the bureau-
cracy—when we've thought, "If
only I were running this business—
things would be different." Few of us, however,
have the chance to seize on that thought and
take the bull by the horns.
Tom Leavitt did. In 2001, after a decade as
general manager of Finning Canada's materials
handling division (forklifts and the like), Leavitt
brought a list of changes to the president of the
company that he thought were essential to the
continued prosperity of the division. "I said, 'If
we're willing to make those changes, this would
be a really great business. And if you're not will-
ing to make those changes, you should sell it,'"
he recalls. Within short order, Finning came
back to their GM and told him to make them an
offer; months later, a deal was struck for $68
million (the approximate annual revenues of
the division) and Leavitt Machinery was born.
Some of the changes that Leavitt had been
seeking were tactical in nature: a more com-
petitive contract with the union and the ability
to sell multiple brands (Finning, as Western
Canada's authorized Caterpillar dealer, was
P a c i f i c R e g i o n O v e r a l l W i n n e r
The 21st annual EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards is a unique chance
to peek under the hood at the finest in B.C.'s most impressive stories of
business achievement. Some of the 30 entrepreneurs featured here
are self-made; others are inheritors of a family business; and still others
have taken another person's enterprise and made it their own. What
unites them all is a willingness to take risks—and succeed. For more on
the EY program and how the winners were chosen, turn to page 77.
b y B r e n d a B o u w , M e l i s s a E d w a r d s , K r i s t e n H i l d e r m a n , T r e v o r M e l a n s o n , M a t t O ' G r a d y + J a c o b P a r r y
EOY
2 014
EnTrEPrEnEur
Of THE yEar
