Pilko & Associates | Greta Raymond

Building teams & reaping benefits from social responsibility

Margaret (Greta) Raymond

Position: Senior Advisor
Office: Calgary, Canada
Email: greta@pilko.com

Phone: (403) 243-7891

Biography
Greta took up industrial hygiene because it combined people and the environment – and her accomplishments over the past 30+ years prove what a wise decision this was.

“In 1990, Petro-Canada had a contaminated site in downtown Calgary,” she says. “We had removed toxic metals from the surface, but there was still oil underground. The community and the city wanted us to redevelop the site, but we didn’t want to put houses on it. There was a big fight between the City, the community association and the company about what to do with it, very hostile. Coming into a new role I inherited this mess and my boss, the VP, said ‘Just fix it.’ At the end of the day, I was able to align everyone. We got into a partnership with Ducks Unlimited, the community, the Rotary Clubs of Calgary and the City to build a wildlands park – the property is right by the river and a bird sanctuary. We got our employees and the Boy Scouts and the community all planting trees, and the site is now a model in school programs to show how industrial impact can be reversed. I’m very proud of that.”

In addition to changing the life of the community, Greta improved life within Petro-Canada: Her safety initiative – Zero Harm – reduced the frequency of injuries by fourfold and landed the company in the top quartile of industry safety performance.

“For years, everybody had been saying we needed to improve safety,” she says, “and I led the development of a framework. What could we do that would actually have an impact? It was about leadership and engaging our employees. Managers had to become grateful to learn what went wrong instead of blaming and shaming. Over a few years, the employees really started to believe that we cared, and then they got on board. It was really neat – you’d see people coaching their fellow workers to do things properly. The whole employee relations scenario improved, and it became and even better place to work. I think my experience as VP of Human Resources really helped me in this major culture change.”

Greta’s motivational and team-building skills also played out on the international scene. When Petro-Canada emerged on the global scene with the acquisition of Veba Oil, shareholders and the Canadian public were concerned about how the company would do business in countries with questionable business ethics and human rights.

“I put together a business case to develop a corporate responsibility strategy – how we were going to do business the same way around the world. It applied to everything from environmental practices to engaging local people and ensuring that benefits went to the community and not just to a corrupt government. We made the case that paying attention to these things would add business value.”

As a result her efforts, the executive leadership approved a policy for corporate responsibility and assembled a high-level executive team to oversee it. “Every year, we dealt with new initiatives,” she says. “In the industry, we were very active promoting the value of doing the right thing, because we had done it on a practical level.

“Reputation has a financial value,” she adds. “You get quicker approval for new projects, you’re welcomed into a country or an area, and the best employees want to work for you. I think a lot of companies learn this the hard way!”

Greta sees her role at Pilko as helping companies capitalize on the very real benefits of a forward stance on EHS and social responsibility. “I’ve had years of experience working with senior management, building business cases, developing performance measures, and showing positive outcomes,” she says. “I’ve seen enough successes and failures to know what works, from the top down. My five years as an HR executive gives me a unique perspective on how HR practices – including leadership and organizational design – can support EHS performance. And I’m on the ground here in Calgary, so I know this territory.”

When not working for Pilko clients, Greta enjoys travel (a month in India with her 24-year-old son and more recently a month in Argentina), good food, mentoring and volunteer work bringing clean water to the world’s poor.

Work Experience:

Petro-Canada Calgary, Alberta
Vice-President Environment, Safety and Social Responsibility (ES&SR) Shared Services (and Chief Privacy Officer) (2006 – 2009)
Managed approximately 330 employees and contractor staff with a budget of over $30M.

Led due diligence and integration planning for EHS and Communications and Stakeholder Relations for the merger with Suncor.
Developed and implemented strategies for water, climate change and operational risk management. The water strategy resulted in Petro-Canada being acknowledged as a leader in water use and management.
Developed and implemented an Environmental Information Management System to automatically measure and track facility level and aggregated emissions and environmental performance.
Improved process safety performance, capability and practices by developing a business case and gap assessment to address process safety across the corporation.
Preserved and enhanced Petro-Canada’s reputation, access to new development and relationship with communities in all countries of operation by updating and implementing a new stakeholder engagement strategy. This included tools and processes, policies and frameworks, capability development, networking/community of practice, survey of external stakeholders, and organizational structure.
Developed operation initiatives for a Zero Harm culture which led to top quartile safety performance in the industry (total recordable injury frequency of 0.73 in 2008).
Completed company-wide pandemic preparedness plans. These plans were successfully used in response to the H1N1 influenza in 2009.
Maintained one of the highest employee retention rates in Petro-Canada by implementing a talent management strategy to attract, retain and develop ES&SR employees.

Vice-President Human Resources and Environment, Health and Safety Shared Services (2001 - 2005)
Responsible for approximately 220 staff and a budget of $26M. Lead HR, EHS and Corporate Responsibility Shared Services for all business units worldwide.

Completed successful due diligence and integration of two acquisitions into Petro-Canada, (multiple countries) from an HR and EHS perspective. This resulted in rapid improvement in EHS and HR performance in the newly acquired companies.
Developed and executed a new human resources strategy to support growth plans in Canada and internationally. This laid the foundation for successful attraction and retention of employees during the 2006-8 period.
Created a “best in class“ leadership development program in partnership with the Ivey School of Business, Western Ontario University to prepare top performers for more challenging roles. Nearly 100% of all attendees were subsequently promoted to more senior roles within the next seven years.
Developed a Board of Directors performance assessment program which was received very well by the board and subsequently expanded.
Developed an aboriginal strategy and framework focusing on relationships, employment, business development, education and community investment. This resulted in smoother relationships with First Nations, less cycle time to gain approvals for projects and the opportunity to assist in improving aboriginal communities economically and socially.
Created a corporate responsibility governance framework and organization that resulted in opportunities for Petro-Canada to set and enact consistent standards in all countries of operation, monitor and report on performance in the areas of environment, business integrity, human rights and working conditions, and community involvement.

Senior Director Environment, Health, Safety, and Security (1995 to 2001)Developed EH&S strategy and direction for Petro-Canada.

Improved EHS governance and performance by developing a management system and standards to govern health, safety, environment, operational reliability, security, and stakeholder relations.
Consolidated a corporate-wide event reporting and management system from seven incompatible systems. This allowed consistent reporting and measurement as well as ability to learn and prevent future accidents and injuries.
Created the first Petro-Canada Climate Change Team to manage strategic and tactical responses to the climate change issue.

Earlier Petro-Canada positions:

Manager Environment, Health and Safety, Western Region - 1990 to 1995
Coordinator Business Performance - 1988 to 1990
Coordinator Human Resources Training - 1986 to 1988
Manager industrial Hygiene - 1983 to 1986

Prior positions:
Alberta Government, Occupational Health and Safety, Edmonton, Alberta: Coordinator New Plants Program - 1981 to 1983
Utah International, San Francisco, California: Environmental Engineer - 1977 to 1981
Stanford Research Institute, Center for Occupational and Environmental Safety and Health, Menlo Park, California: Research Associate - 1975 to 1977

Education and certifications:

Director’s Education Program, Institute of Corporate Directors, Hascayne School of Business, University of Calgary, ICD.D designation (2007)
Executive Program, University of Michigan School of Business (1998)
M.P.H. Environmental Health, University of California at Berkeley School of Public Health (1975)
B.A. Human Biology, Stanford University, California (1974)
“Stanford in Germany” (1971)

Memberships and Appointments:

Current Board Chair and Board Member, Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology, Calgary, AB. (2005 to present)
Member, Corporate Advisory Board, The Learning Partnership, Toronto, ON (2003 to present)
Liaison Delegate to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development Geneva, Switzerland (1998 to 2009)
Calgary United Way City-Wide Campaign Cabinet (2002 to 2004)
Learning Coach for several sessions of the “Sustainable Enterprise Academy”, Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto (2000 to 2007)