Jeunes Entreprise

BILL FOUNTAIN

In 1956 at the age of 23 Bill Fountain, along with his brother Jack, opened the first Fountain Tire independent tire store in Wainwright. While Jack liked running a store in a small community, Bill was an innovator, always leading the way. Bill recognized that the farming community had a need for on-site service that wasn’t being met. He invested in the trucks and equipment to provide this service and as he grew his young company he initially focused on opening stores in rural communities.

Three years after start up Bill took a calculated risk by expanding not into urban markets but into the North. He established stores in Fort St. John, British Columbia and Whitehorse, Yukon, towns that serviced much of the Alaska Highway. The new locations flourished.

JOHN HOKANSON

John Hokanson grew up in Peace River, Alberta in a hard working entrepreneurial home. He moved to Edmonton in high school and went on to complete a degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Alberta. After graduation he moved back home to Peace River to take a job building and maintaining highways with Alberta Transportation. Within a few years his work ethic was noticed and he was approached by a group of local businessmen who were interested in starting an oilfield camp manufacturing business. In 1977, at 29 years old, with 4 kids under the age of 7, he remortgaged the family home and went “all in” and Peace Trailer Industries (PTI) was born. As the first President of the company he grew it through the balance of the oil boom and successfully raised venture capital to consolidate the camp rental business through the difficult depression in the 1980’s. When John retired from PTI in 1994 it had grown to become the largest camp and catering provider in western Canada.

At the time of his retirement from PTI John recognized the value that the solids control industry was creating in the energy sector and bought Wadeco Oilfield Services. He anticipated strong demand for the equipment and expertise associated with managing drilling fluids as a means to reduce the environmental impact, and time required, to drill a well. Over a period of 2 ½ years the company grew 400% under his leadership before a successful sale to an American oilfield services conglomerate.

LARRY ANDERSON

Larry Anderson is a second generation Albertan, born and raised in Edmonton; his mother was born in Edmonton and his father in Three Hills, Alberta.

He grew up in a modest working class home in the Ritchie district of south Edmonton and attended Ritchie School and then Bonnie Doon Composite High School. Due to family financial hardship he dropped out of school and left home, at 16, after grade ten.

He worked at a series of jobs. In his early twenties after reading How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie his perspective changed and Larry decided to return to school. He went to Alberta College, now part of Grant MacEwan University, and completed his high school and then in the fall of 1971 he attended the University of Alberta in the Faculty of Commerce for one year.