november 2014 BCBusiness 17 paUl joSeph
Ravi Saligram
The new CEO of Ritchie Bros. has worked at a
variety of multinational firms in six countries.
Now he hopes to take the Burnaby-based
auction giant to the next level
by Brenda Bouw
R
avi Saligram has been in
leadership roles at a handful
of high-profile companies
over the years including
office supplies seller Office-
Max, hotel chain Intercontinental
Hotels Group and consumer prod-
ucts conglomerate SC Johnson. So
when the 58-year-old recently took
over the job as chief executive offi-
cer at Burnaby-based Ritchie Bros.
Auctioneers Inc., the world's largest
seller of used heavy equipment, it
may have seemed like an odd fit.
Not to Saligram. Selling trucks and
tractors may be a different type of
business than marketing staplers,
Raid bug spray or a hotel stay, but
the Indian-born, American-
MBA-
educated executive says each busi-
ness he's been with has one thing
in common: a strong brand and
focus on customer service. Ritchie
Bros. was founded by three broth-
ers in Kelowna in 1958 and has
since expanded to 44 auction sites
across 25 countries; it reported a 21
per cent increase in profit for the
first six months of 2014, compared
to the same period last year, while
gross auction proceeds increased
six per cent for the 12 months
ended June 30. The married father
of two 20-something daughters
discusses the job he started in July
and how he's adjusting to life in
Vancouver.
Why did you decide to take the job
at Ritchie Bros.?
I'm hoping this is my last job as
CEO. To
me it's important to leave a legacy of
growth and taking something to the next
level. There is a lot of opportunity to grow
shareholder value—and that to me is a
very important job of a
CEO. There is also a
strong culture here. There is a term in this
company to express one's loyalty, which is
that they "bleed orange," the colour of the
company. That is what makes me enthusias-
tic about the job—that this team already has
m A N U f A C t U r i N g
