Ed Galvin

 

Edward Galvin (born 1913) made his way north to Calgary in 1954, coming from Richmond, California, after working as a natural gas analysts and chief petroleum engineer following the completion of his PE degree at the University of South California in Los Angeles.

 

Galvin is known as a mentor to entrepreneurs, and a builder of strong companies. When he was appointed general manager of Pathfinder Petroleums Ltd., it was a small independent company with 30 employees and annual gross revenues of $ 450,000. He engineered numerous exploration and development projects, which contributed to its evolution through Medallion Petroleums Ltd. and Canadian Industrial Oil & Gas Ltd. into Norcen Energy Resources Ltd. Norcen had more than 4,000 employees and annual revenues of $ 1.5 billion when it sold in 1997.

 

Galvin left Norcen at the age of 65, but instead of retiring, founded Poco Petroleums Ltd., which he built into a major independent Canadian oil and gas, company. It sold last year for $4.5 billion. Currently, at 88, Ed chairs the privately owned Medpath Oil & Gas Ltd.

Galvin was instrumental in petitioning the federal government to establish a Canadian oil policy, and was a founding member of the Independent Petroleum Association of Canada, which has honored him with a lifetime membership, as has the Canadian Petroleum Association, which he served as a director and chair. The Association of Professional Engineers Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta has also given him a lifetime membership.

 

In 1998 he earned a Paul Harris International Fellowship award from the Rotary Club of Calgary, a rare honor for a non-Rotarian. It recognizes people who demonstrate a significant concern for others and who make substantial contributions to the community.

 

Galvin has worked on behalf of the United Way and the Calgary Foundation, and initiated a committee to establish an endowment fund at the University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine for the purpose of battling substance abuse. A widower with two grown children, he established a major community endowment in the name of his late wife, Frances.