From underground mining in Saskatchewan to the top corporate tier, Donald Lindsay’s career has been a lifelong love affair with the industry
As part of Teck Resources Ltd.’s (TSX:TCK.B, NYSE:TCK) Emerging Leaders program, president and CEO Don Lindsay greets aspiring vice-presidents, aged 30 to 45, by saying:
“It’s an honour to be selected to this program. It means that you’ve worked awfully hard. You’ve been successful and you’ve accomplished great things. But I’m here to tell you that you can never get yourself promoted again. It’s over.”
Lindsay pauses. At this point his listeners could be forgiven for thinking, What on earth? Then he explains, “The only people who can promote you from here on are those around you. If they don’t want you to succeed, if they don’t want to be led by you, you won’t be.”
Lindsay seeks leaders people want to have around – as opposed to those who try to intimidate or make them feel inadequate.
“The ones who are going to be really successful are going to go and talk to the customer, or talk to the potential partner, find out what their concerns are, find out what their needs are, find out how they like to work. They collaborate and figure out how to do it best together. Both sides feel they’re accomplishing something, and they’re moving forward.”
Previously, as president of CIBC World Markets (TSX:CM), Lindsay “learned a lot about people management, because there, especially on the investment banking and corporate banking side, you’re dealing with a lot of smart, capable, highly driven people. Learning how to manage a group like that was pretty valuable experience.”
Joining Canada’s largest diversified resources company in 2005 was a closing of the circle for Lindsay. The first two shares he ever bought – at age 10, from his dad – were from Leech Gold Mines. The chairman was Norm Keevil Sr., who built the modern-day Teck. The vice-president was Norm Keevil Jr., Lindsay’s current chairman.
Lindsay studied mining engineering at Queen’s University, worked underground in Uranium City, Saskatchewan, and was foreman at the Iron Ore Company of Canada.
“I learned about mining from the ground up,” he said. “That was my true love, and where it all began.”
Lindsay’s immediate challenge at Teck was the one all mining companies face: “Every day your assets are getting smaller. As Norm Keevil says, you can never rest on your ores. The goal of any CEO of a mining company has to be to acquire three to five large ore bodies to sustain the company for all of the stakeholders for the next generation.”
Teck Cominco, as it was called then, was resource-challenged.
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