1 Daryl Katz

Billionaire entrepreneur Pharmacy magnate, hockey team owner and now city visionary Daryl Katz at No. 1? No doubt about it in 2014. Sure, Katz doesn’t even live here full time. And the arena deal is loathed by many. And the Oilers have been the NHL’s worst team under him. All true. But in the past year Katz, 53, has transformed into King Daryl of Downtown. He’s terraforming the north edge. Katz and his WAM partners announced a 27-storey office tower for City of Edmonton staff in February, 2014, a 62-storey office tower with Stantec in August, and a 26-storey hotel with Delta in October. The reclusive billionaire (said to be worth $3.2 billion by Forbes) is even popping up himself to announce his various mega-projects. Such is the size of Katz’s shadow that the fear of his influence was one of the triggers that eventually led to Premier Alison Redford’s ouster this year, her election campaign having taken an ill-advised $430,000 bulk donation from Katz and his associates. Most importantly for the city’s collective psyche, the frame of Katz’s pivotal piece, Edmonton’s new arena, is now taking shape. It’s a signifier of bad blood fading away, new blood pumping. No more Deadmonton, not if Katz and his partners can pull off their $2 billion vision in the arena district. And, at long last, after many years of squabbling, Katz’s audacious, controversial vision started to become real in 2014.

2 Don Iveson

Mayor

Rookie mayor already playing like a veteran In any city, you might expect to find the mayor on a list of the community’s most powerful people. But after one year in office, Don Iveson, 35, has proven he deserves to be among the top power players, for reasons that go beyond his mere title. He’s proven himself an adept political player, bringing together a council that’s been able to work effectively, with remarkably little public strife. In March, when Alison Redford’s government failed to budget money to fund new LRT, Iveson deployed social media to leverage public opinion to great effect. A week later, in one of her last acts as premier, Redford backed down, and pledged $150 million in provincial support for LRT expansion. Two months later, the federal government came up with its own matching dollars. Iveson has also formed a powerful coalition of urban interests with Naheed Nenshi, CaIgary’s mayor. One of Jim Prentice’s first acts as the new premier was to meet with Iveson and Nenshi. That led to reignited work on a long-promised Big City Charter, too. Iveson has also been a moral force, taking a very public leadership role on urban aboriginal issues and marching (or rather, cycling) with his family in the Pride Parade. For this young mayor? Quite a rookie season.

3 Stephen Mandel

Politician

Newly minted cabinet minister builds on long-established base Stephen Mandel wasn’t supposed to be on a list of Edmonton’s movers and shakers in 2014. He was supposed to be retired. After serving as Edmonton’s mayor for three terms Mandel announced in 2013 he was leaving politics to spend more time with his family, particularly his grandson. A businessman with degrees from several U.S. universities, Mandel moved to Edmonton from Windsor, Ont., in 1972 and never looked back. He was first elected as a city councillor in 2001 and defeated three-term mayor Bill Smith in 2004. Mandel has been arguably one of the most effective mayors in Edmonton’s history, overseeing an ambitious expansion of the city’s LRT, leading a contentious fight to shut down the municipal airport and spearheading an equally contentious battle for a new downtown arena. Ever the seasoned politician, when Mandel retired in 2013, he never actually said he’d never be back. Now, at 69, he is not only a newly elected MLA, taking the Edmonton-Whitemud constituency in the October byelection with 42 per cent of the vote, but a hand-picked member of Premier Jim Prentice’s “new” government. And he is the minister of health. Once one of the most powerful people in Edmonton, Mandel has returned to politics as one of the most powerful people in Alberta.

4 Irv and Dianne Kipnes

Philanthropists

Galleria project may turn out to be power couple’s greatest achievement In a city grown wary of mega-projects, Irv and Dianne Kipnes have so far found a way to push forward with yet one more massive public-private project, the Galleria, the downtown arts campus. Kipnes, a prominent businessman in the development scene and with Liquor Stores N.A, and his wife Dianne, a psychologist, have worked for decades leading numerous arts initiatives in Edmonton, but the Galleria is their boldest move. If you want the megaproject that’s going to transform the city core, forget the arena deal, says city councillor Scott McKeen, the Galleria project is the real deal, mainly because it’s going to bring thousands of University of Alberta students to the core. Irv and Dianne have given millions to charity over the years, with a focus on medical research. They’ve also helped lead almost every major arts institution in the city, including the Edmonton Symphony, the Citadel Theatre, the Art Gallery of Alberta and the Edmonton Opera. The Kipnes are close friends with another power couple, the Mandels, and that’s helped them in their Galleria push, but the strength of the project is Irv and Dianne’s strong track record in public service and private business, as well as Kipnes’ vision of the Galleria project, to create a business model where profit from real estate development is used to fund the arts.

5 Robert Gomes

Engineering CEP

Piloting Stantec’s expansion into the big leagues It’s hard to overstate the kind of year it has been for Bob Gomes, the affable CEO of Stantec Inc. Five years after the Edmonton-born, U of A-educated civil engineer took over the top job at the local engineering and consulting services giant, amid the worst recession since the 1930s, Stantec is on a world-class roll. Revenues and net earnings are at record highs, the company’s share price recently touched the highest level in history, and Gomes announced the company’s second-largest acquisition ever in September. The purchase of Montreal-based engineering firm Dessau Inc. and its 1,300 employees suddenly gives Stantec a major presence in Quebec, a province it shunned previously due to corruption woes in the construction sector. But thanks to the work of Quebec’s Charbonneau Commission, Gomes says the industry has cleaned up its act. Now, with its expanded base in La Belle Province, he’s confident Stantec can play a key role in building some of the province’s massive P3 infrastructure projects. Closer to home, Gomes is also making waves. In August, he unveiled plans to build Edmonton’s tallest tower: a 62-storey, $500-million behemoth in the new downtown arena district that will house Stantec’s splashy new headquarters and more than 30 floors of luxury condo units. For an unassuming guy who had big shoes to fill when he succeeded Stantec’s previous CEO, Tony Franceschini, Gomes has been more than up to the task, emerging as one of the city’s most influential power brokers.

6 Michael Percy

Premier's chief of staff

Media-savvy economist-politician takes on new challenge When Jim Prentice appointed Michael Percy as his new chief of staff, it was a major political surprise. The two men weren’t close friends or colleagues. And Percy was a retired academic, the co-author of four books, and a former Liberal MLA. But take a closer look at Percy’s CV, and the reasons for Prentice’s choice become clearer. Percy first established his public reputation in the 1980s, when he was professor of economics at the University of Alberta, and regular media pundit. In 1993, he entered politics, as MLA for Edmonton-Whitemud, and Liberal party finance critic. He’d earned such respect, the Klein government later invited him back as a policy adviser. He went on to become dean of the University of Alberta School of Business, and as the president of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce. Over the years, he has also served as a director of Epcor, ATB Financial, Tolko Forest Products, K-Bro Linen, the Sawridge Hotel Group, Matrikon, and the western Canadian Military Museum Foundation. He’s also a past campaign chair for the Edmonton United Way. The media-savvy Percy is keeping a low profile as chief of staff. But that doesn’t mean his personal influence isn’t being felt every day in the legislature’s corridors of power, as he works to get the premier’s office, such a source of controversy during Alison Redford’s tenure, shipshape for the session ahead.

7 Dave Mowat

Bank president

ATB Financial CEO lightup profits and the High Level Bridge Bank executives tend to be a publicity shy and anonymous group, but not so Dave Mowat, president and CEO of ATB Financial. In May the company announced its strongest results in its 76 year history. But Mowat isn’t just a sharp business leader, heading up a $37 billion company. He also led the movement that is transforming the night in the downtown core. He was the driving force behind the successful “Light the Bridge” fundraising campaign, which saw the High Level Bridge lit up with 60,000 LED bulbs this year, doing so on the strength of $2.5 million in fundraising from private donors. The affable and quotable Mowat is also the face of the ATB brand. The company has a series of folksy advertisements, built around Mowat inviting people to come on down and give the bank a try. Mowat is now part of the committee that will advise Northlands on the future of Rexall Place. He’s also on Twitter and YouTube. He spoke at a Pecha Kucha hip idea generating event. He’s an executive of the new media world, who light up Edmonton in 2014 in a big way.

8 Patricia Misutka

Political gatekeeper

Deft adviser performs crucial behind-the-scenes role Patricia Misutka was always Mayor Stephen Mandel’s secret weapon. First, she led his successful election campaign in 2004. Then, for nine years, Misutka served as Mandel’s chief of staff and closest strategic adviser, writing his most powerful and influential speeches, deftly managing the media who covered City Hall, and sometimes managing the mayor himself, when his famous temper got away from him. When Mandel retired, Misutka’s plans were to work as a private business consultant and finish off a PhD in strategic management. It didn’t quite work out that way. This summer, she became the Edmonton chair of Jim Prentice’s Progressive Conservative leadership campaign. And in September, the new premier named her his principal secretary. Unflappable and pragmatic, determined and whip-smart, Misutka has earned respect across the political spectrum. A former history major, she got her start in politics working in Liberal leader Laurence Decore’s office, and later ran Sine Chadi’s Liberal leadership campaign. She has never sought the limelight. She doesn’t engage in Twitter spats and rarely speaks to reporters on the record. She’s low-profile, and she prefers it that way, diplomatically wielding her influence behind the scenes. But her power? It is all the more real for being understated.

9 Indira Samarasekera

University president

High-profile engineer builds world-class U of A As a metallurgical engineer, Indira Samarasekera knows all about strength and power. And as president of Alberta’s flagship university, and as the boss of some 5,000 academic and administrative staff, she wields it, too. Under her tenure, the University of Alberta has grown to almost 40,000 students, with revenues of roughly $1.8 billion. Since Samarasekera became the U of A’s first female and first South Asian president, she’s presided over the opening of the Enterprise Square downtown campus, seen the university complete nearly $1.5-billion worth of capital construction, including the National Institute of Nanotechnology and the Edmonton Clinic, established the Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology and the Peter Lougheed Leadership College, and forged international research partnerships with institutes in Germany and India. She’s also a member of the board of The Bank of Nova Scotia and Magna, a past chair of the National Institute of Nanotechnology, and a past member of the Conference Board of Canada and the Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee on Public Service. In recent years, she’s drawn sharp criticism for her $1.14-million salary and benefits package, for her globe-trotting public speaking schedule, and for her divisive spending cuts. And with her term winding down in June 2015, some might see her as a lame duck. But as the most powerful, charismatic, and high-profile president the university has had in a generation, her influence, on and off campus, remains very real.

10 Brad Ferguson

Business booster

Fingers in a variety of economic pies Don’t be fooled by Brad Ferguson’s boyish looks and easygoing manner. He’s no pushover. The 45-year-old head of Edmonton Economic Development Corp. isn’t afraid to speak his mind, even if it means challenging the status quo in Tory Alberta. After a stint with U.S. consumer product giant Procter & Gamble and several years running his own public policy consulting firm, the Edmonton-raised U of A grad has headed the city’s business-boosting agency since 2012. Ferguson’s business smarts and blue-blood lineage — his father John is a former U of A Chancellor and ex-chairman of Suncor Energy — gave him access to the corridors of power early on. So it was no surprise when he was named to former Premier Ed Stelmach’s Council for Economic Strategy, where he and other panel members called on the province to reduce its reliance on non-renewable resource revenues. Although the report has gathered dust since, Ferguson has used his bully pulpit at EEDC to push for more economic diversification and a greener, more competitive energy industry. Under his watch, EEDC’s Edmonton Tourism arm has won kudos for its clever marketing efforts, and Ferguson is spearheading a more aggressive city branding and marketing campaign, set to launch on several Ontario university campuses in 2015.

11 Rachel Notley

NDP Leader

Polls say party is on the rise in city Naming newly elected NDP leader Rachel Notley as one of Edmonton’s most influential people in 2014 is perhaps a bit like U.S. President Barack Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. It might seem premature, but it’s all about the promise of things to come. A native of Fairview, Notley, 50, earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Alberta and a law degree at Osgoode Hall in Toronto before practising labour law in British Columbia and Alberta. Married with two children, Notley was first elected an MLA in 2008, quickly proving herself one of the most accomplished politicians in the Alberta legislature — and one of the biggest thorns in the side of the government. As daughter of Grant Notley, popular leader of the NDP until his death in an airplane crash in 1984, Rachel has been immersed in NDP politics since birth. On Oct. 18 — the eve of the 30th anniversary of that crash — NDP members overwhelmingly selected her as their new leader. According to public opinion polls, the NDP is proving to be more popular in Edmonton than the Liberals — and able to raise much more money. Notley is hoping that under her leadership the NDP will replace the Liberals as the party of choice for progressive voters — and use that as a launching pad for the next election where, if the Progressive Conservatives and the Wildrose battle each other to a minority government stalemate, the NDP could find itself holding the balance of power.

12 Doug Goss

Lawyer

Volunteer comfortable in board rooms and political backrooms If you want something done, goes the cliché, ask a busy person to do it. Perhaps that’s why Edmonton lawyer Doug Goss, QC, AOE, has become Edmonton’s busiest man. He’s currently president of the University of Alberta board of governors and chair of both the TELUS Edmonton Community Board and the Fort Edmonton Management Company. He’s also a director of the Hockey Canada Foundation, and a member of the board of the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation. That’s just this week. In the past, he’s also been chair of the board of NAIT, chair of the board of the Edmonton Eskimos, chair of the board of the Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation, and a volunteer and fundraiser for a dozen other charities, from the Mazankowski Heart Institute to Kids’ Kottage to the Minerva Foundation. He’s also a former VP of finance for the Alberta’s Progressive Conservative party. In a hockey and football-mad city, where sports and politics are inextricably intertwined, Goss is the ultimate power-player, whether he’s organizing huge sporting events like the Heritage Classic and the Grey Cup, or stickhandling Tory party strategy behind closed doors. During the Redford regime, he saw his status as a party insider diminish; but within the Prentice government, he’s likely to see his star rise again.

13 Paul Douglas

Construction CEO

Heading for the $10-billion billings mark As CEO of PCL Construction, Canada’s top builder and the sixth largest in North America, Paul Douglas has helped create some of this country’s most iconic structures. From the retractable roof atop B.C. Place Stadium to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg and the construction of Edmonton’s new downtown arena, Rogers Place, PCL has led some of the most high-profile projects in Canada. The Edmonton-based company has been a fixture in the city for decades, of course, and Douglas, who spent 20-plus years in various management roles before he was named CEO, is a relative newcomer to the top job. But he has already made an indelible mark. When the straight-shooting Ontario native succeeded Ross Grieve in 2009, the global economy was just emerging from the deepest downturn since the 1930s. The delayed impact hammered PCL in 2010, when company billings and profits both plunged by double digits. But Douglas rolled up his sleeves and went to work, relentlessly expanding PCL’s book of business and winning major contracts across Canada, the U.S. and even Australia. Today, PCL’s annual billings are roughly $7.5 billion — well over $1 billion higher than in 2009 — and Douglas’s long-term target of $10 billion appears within reach. By the time the Edmonton Oilers play their first home game at Rogers Place in 2016, PCL also expects to complete work on Mosaic Stadium in Regina, the new home of the Canadian Football League’s Saskatchewan Roughriders. For Douglas, one of Edmonton’s most admired and influential business leaders, it’s all in a day’s work.

14 Lorna Rosen

Chief financial officer

When she talks money, council listens closely Knowledge is power, and there’s no one at the City of Edmonton who knows more about finances than veteran Chief Financial Officer Lorna Rosen. Rosen comes across as both a doer and a fiscal hawk. She finds ways to get things done at one moment, while gently scolding council’s grand dreams if they threaten to push the debt load too high. She made her reputation during the heated controversies of the downtown arena debate. She and city manager Simon Farbrother helped lead the city’s negotiating team. When Rosen explained the intricacies of the deal to council, they listened carefully. No one at the city had a clearer, keener understanding of all the moving parts of deal, from the Northlands lease to the new deal with Katz, from the complexities of the Community Revitalization Levy (CRL) to the significance of any new borrowing on the city’s debt load. Her sober take on the benefits of the CRL encouraged council just enough to push ahead. The plethora of grand announcements for downtown in 2014 has now affirmed Rosen’s cautious optimism and added to her stature as a sane voice on civic money matters.

15 Andrew Leach

Environmental economist

Sorting through the spin on oilsands pro and con Andrew Leach might not be a household name for most people in Edmonton, but give it time. He is an expert on two of the most important, yet at times contradictory, issues facing Alberta: the environment and the oilsands. Leach, 39, is the Enbridge Professor of Energy Policy at the University of Alberta, but he is no apologist for the oilsands. Nor is he a tree-hugging protester. One day he’ll be questioning Neil Young’s attack on the oilsands, the next he’ll be questioning the Alberta government’s assumptions on how much money it will make from future energy revenues. Besides teaching courses on energy markets and environmental policy, Leach writes guest columns for national publications and hosts a well-respected blog which asks difficult questions such as, “Where does Canada fit into the global discussion on climate change policy?” — and by his own admission is a hyperactive tweeter on all things energy related. A graduate of the University of Guelph with a PhD from Queen’s University, Leach moved to Edmonton in 2006 where he has become an influential voice of reason on the oilsands file, offering facts and analysis to counter the hyperbole and spin from both sides of the often overheated debate.

16 Mike Hudema

Environmental activist

Career oilsands protester commands a national audience For the past decade Mike Hudema, 38, has been the canary in the open-pit mine, issuing warnings of the environmental impact of Alberta’s oilsands industry. Those warnings were rarely subtle and included, in 2004, setting up a fake open-pit mine on the constituency lawn office of then-Edmonton MP Anne McLellan and, in 2008, unfurling protest banners and hanging from the rafters during a speech by then-Premier Ed Stelmach at the Shaw Conference Centre. A native of Medicine Hat and a graduate of the University of Alberta, Hudema ran unsuccessfully for the Alberta NDP in the 2001 election. Soft-spoken but hard-nosed, he has helped galvanize opposition to Alberta’s multibillion-dollar oilsands industry. Considering the importance of the industry to the economies of Alberta and Canada, his contrarian stance is courageous to some and an annoyance to others. A decade ago, he was often dismissed by government as irrelevant, but nobody is saying that anymore. Nowadays, Hudema is the man environmentalists love and oilsands supporters love to hate. That alone makes him influential. This is one canary that refuses to keel over dead.

17 Anne McLellan

Political veteran

From front of house MP to behind the scenes adviser Anne McLellan bucked the Liberals’ unpopularity in Alberta to serve four terms (1993-2006) as an Edmonton Liberal MP. She was appointed Deputy Prime Minister in the governments of Jean Chretien and Paul Martin, and was minister of many key portfolios. Born in a small farming community in Nova Scotia, McLellan earned a law degree from Dalhousie, followed by a master’s from King’s College, University of London. She began teaching law at the U of A in 1980 and served as acting dean before going to Ottawa. In 2006, McLellan joined an Edmonton law firm as a senior adviser and her experience and strategic counsel netted her many corporate board appointments. McLellan, appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2009, received the province’s highest honour last year, the Alberta Award of Excellence. Her citation noted her “energy, passion and dedication” can be seen in her remarkable resume of volunteer leadership. She has particularly focused on initiatives that serve women, strengthen health care and extended support to vulnerable people. McLellan, 64, has continued to shape public policy and debate as a member of the Premier’s Council for Economic Strategy and as a director and vice-chair of the Institute for Research on Public Policy.

18 Margaret Bateman

Public relations CEO

Communications specialist knows how to influence this city When government agencies, big corporations, property developers and social activists want to send a message in Edmonton, they call on Margaret Bateman. The CEO and co-founder of Calder Bateman Communications, Bateman is one of the most quietly influential power-players in Edmonton. You don’t often see her name in print, but you see her firm’s media messaging everywhere. Recent high-profile, provocative, award-winning examples? The No Homophobes campaign for the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies, and the Plenty of Syph campaign for Alberta Health. But Calder Bateman is also the go-to consulting firm for clients such as PCL, Epcor, the Valley Zoo and Ambleside at Windermere. Before opening her firm in 1990, Bateman spent 17 years as a senior civil servant, including three as managing director of Alberta government’s public affairs bureau. In the 2000s, she chaired the Edmonton Airport Authority, where she worked effectively to consolidate service at the Edmonton International and close the City Centre Airport. She was on the bid committee for the 2001 World Championships in Athletics, and still serves on the board of the Edmonton 2001 Legacy Foundation that distributes profits from the championship to charity. She’s also a former vice-chair of the Edmonton Police Foundation, and a current director of Alberta Blue Cross. Incidentally, she’s married to Edmonton lawyer, developer and Grant MacEwan board chair John Day — making them one very busy Edmonton power couple.

19 Rakesh and Raj Dhunna

Residential developers

Changing the city’s skyline At 31, Raj Dhunna has overseen more major downtown condo projects than developers twice his age. The chief operating officer of Regency Developments, headed by family patriarch Rakesh Dhunna, says he has earned a few “white hairs” along the way. Still, Dhunna exudes a quiet confidence that’s well beyond his years. Regency’s most high-profile project, The Pearl on Jasper West, is nearing completion. Occupants will begin moving into the 36-storey condo tower’s units — some of which sold for $3 million-plus — by year’s end. At the opposite end of Edmonton’s main strip is Regency’s 700-unit Edgewater Village complex, which targets the city’s extremely tight rental market. Edgewater’s two highrise towers will be finished in 2015, and an adjoining campus of four-storey walk-up units — all 276 of them now rented — are already injecting new life into a previously drab part of the city. Regency’s first big downtown project, the 22-storey Quest condo tower, was completed in 2010, and other projects, including the Madison condos on Whyte Avenue and Serenity Gardens, near Southgate Mall, are fully occupied. There’s more to come, however. A new condo project on the site of the former Molson Brewery — tentatively called Westmount Residences — will break ground within weeks, and Dhunna says plans for still another project will be unveiled soon. “At Regency, we’re bullish on the future of Edmonton,” says Dhunna, whose parents moved to Alberta’s capital city from India in 1980, with little but the clothes on their back and dreams of building a better life. They have accomplished that, and then some. Along the way, the Dhunnas have also built a better Edmonton.

20 Leo DeBever

Investments

Rock-solid financial management star An admiring bank CEO once dubbed him a “rock star” of the investment world, but Leo de Bever would never describe himself that way. The veteran pension fund manager, who has guided Alberta Investment Management Co. (AIMCo) to impressive returns since it was formed in 2008, is light on glitz and glam. But he does exemplify the qualities you’d hope to find in someone who guides some $80 billion of public-sector financial assets, including the $17.5-billion Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund. The well-travelled Netherlands native, whose career spans four decades at half a dozen major financial institutions on two continents, is a sophisticated thinker with a broad view of the global economy. In a world riven by geopolitical conflict, economic instability and volatile markets, de Bever’s performance has been rock-solid. AIMCo posted the best results in its history last year, and the Crown corporation has generated $23.2 billion of total returns since it was formed. That includes a record 16-per-cent gain last year for the Heritage Savings Trust Fund. De Bever, 65, is due to step down as AIMCo’s boss when a successor is named. But he hopes to play an ongoing role in Alberta by helping to commercialize new technologies to reduce the oilsands’ environmental impact, and cut operating costs. “I’m now the oldest CEO in the pension industry in Canada,” he noted, earlier this year. “The board felt that they should start a CEO search because they want to make sure they have someone in place for the next five or 10 years. In the meantime, I’m in place and it’s business as usual.”

21 Simon O'Byrne

Stantec vice-president

Winter-loving urban leader takes a role in many projects What Don Iveson is to city politics, Simon O’Byrne is to city business circles, an articulate spokesman from a new generation with a vision for a more vibrant and urban Edmonton. O’Byrne, 40, is involved in almost every major project in the city. At Stantec, he’s vice-president and practice leader for urban planning. He has a hand in both the downtown arena district and the redevelopment of the Legislature grounds. In the political realm, O’Byrne is chair of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Vibrancy Task Force and the University of Alberta’s School of Urban Planning committee. O’Byrne’s main influence, though, comes from his heartfelt admiration for Edmonton. For example, as co-chair of the recent Winter City committee, he talked about his passion for winter sports, such as skiing and skating. “Those kinds of things have made me fall in love with (winter), and made me realize how precious it is because I can only do it for a couple months a year. And doing that totally changed my attitude toward winter, so that I really actually look forward to it. I actually prefer when there is snow outside.”

22 John Day

Developer and lawyer

Builder befriends city’s beleaguered architectural heritage Edmonton-born lawyer John Day has gained citywide admiration by buying older buildings and rebuilding them in a more modern style while retaining some historical integrity. In 2003, he stepped in when a massive fire destroyed three buildings on Whyte Avenue and 104th Street and replaced them with a three-storey retail building that incorporated period facades. Day went on to renovate the Garneau Theatre district and the old Cecil Hotel on the corner of Jasper Avenue and 104th Street. A keen skier, he is also one of the owners and managing director of Mountain Park Lodges, Marmot Basin Ski Resort and the Jasper Tramway. Day serves as chair of MacEwan University’s board of governors and is a major supporter of many local charities. A work in progress today is the downtown development of an estimated $250-million, 29-storey office and hotel tower on Rice Howard Way. The development, on the site of the fire-ravaged Kelly Ramsey Block, will feature commercial and retail space on the main floor and offices above, with 4-1/2 storeys of underground parking. City council has given Day the nod of approval for his work and directed $1.8 million from the Heritage Reserve Fund to help with the Kelly Ramsey Building restoration.

23 Radhe and Raj Gupta

Real estate

Land and housing and good works are family affair Radhe Gupta came from a humble Indian family and when he worked later as an engineer in the Libyan oilfields, he prudently sent funds back to his new home in Edmonton. He built a single-family house in the early 1980s and, working from home with his wife Krishna, their business grew steadily into today’s Rohit Group of Companies, a diversified organization with interests in residential and land development, commercial assets and real estate lending. The strategy of vertical integration he pursued helped made the company an industry leader. This year, Rohit won what is arguably the most prestigious honour for entrepreneurs in the real estate and construction field, the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Radhe serves as Rohit’s CEO and his son Rohit is the president. Rohit’s current portfolio includes Edmonton and Fort McMurray residential construction operations. He has also introduced the family’s newest division, Rohit Capital. The family never stops giving back, here and in India. There isn’t space to mention all they have helped. But Krishna and Radhe raised $50,000 for the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation in 2011 by joining the Edmonton party that climbed Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro.

24 Rod Knecht

Police chief

Ambitious goals mark stellar policing career When you land a plum job like police chief of a major city like Edmonton, it’s normally a given you’re a career cop. And in the case of current head man Rod Knecht, what a career. When he was hired as chief of the Edmonton Police Service in June 2011, 34 years into his stellar career, Knecht was posted in Ottawa as the Senior Deputy Commissioner of the RCMP, the Mounties’ most senior uniformed police officer. Prior to that Knecht was RCMP deputy commissioner for Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Northwest Territories and Nunavut and commanding officer of Edmonton’s K Division. Obviously, Knecht brought a powerful resume with him to be police chief in his hometown. Knecht’s vision for the EPS is ambitious, but simple to articulate. “We want to make Edmonton the safest major city in Canada,” Knecht told the Journal last December. “And we want the Edmonton Police Service to be a leader in policing in Canada.” Knecht, whose contract runs through Oct. 31, 2018, believes both goals are achievable during his tenure. Central to his vision is the concept of the police force being a “partner in public safety” with community groups and social service agencies. Knecht also lobbies city council to expand the staffing level beyond the current 2,500 employees. The most recent request came last month in the context of a police commission report asking for 400 employees to be added over the next five years, including 314 officers and 86 civilians. When you’re chief of police in city growing as rapidly as Edmonton, your mandate expands to keep pace.

25 Guy Smith

Labour leader

Tough negotiator makes government blink If there is one person who has scored clear victories against the Alberta government in 2014, it is Guy Smith, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees. A youth counsellor by training, 47-year-old Smith has spent 20 years as a union activist. He was elected as head of Alberta’s largest public-sector union in 2009. Smith has forged a reputation as a tough-nosed negotiator who stands his ground. This year, he led the fight to defeat Bill 46, the Public Service Salary Restraint Act, an attempt by the government to unilaterally freeze the wages on 22,000 AUPE members. Not only that, after forcing the government to back down, Smith helped negotiate a three-year, 6.75-per-cent wage hike for the members. He also put up such a fight against two bills that threatened the pension plans of AUPE members that the government, under Premier Jim Prentice, gave up the battle and went back to the drawing table — promising that any review of public-sector pension plans in the future would include a “more constructive and inclusive approach” with the AUPE. Smith has gone eyeball to eyeball with the government in 2014 — and it was the government that did the blinking.

26 Chris La Bossiere

Software business owner

Creative entrepreneur helps redefine his city There have been myriad conversations in recent years about change in Edmonton, remaking the city’s image, polishing its brand and self-made businessman Chris LaBossiere has been a necessary voice in many of those discussions. In 2010, LaBossiere, a pilot, made effective use of social media to lobby, perhaps counter-intuitively, for the closure of the City Centre Airport. His reasoning came down to: “How many airports do we need?” a simple, but clarifying approach to an issue that had devolved into rhetorical gridlock. When former mayor Stephen Mandel created the city branding task force that become Make Something Edmonton, LaBossiere was named volunteer co-chair of that group. It’s not hard to see why. The position called for someone keen to test fresh ideas, unafraid to set aside tired slogans, like ‘City of Champions.’ LaBossiere has been engaged in the civic dialogue for years. He has been a board member of the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation (EEDC) and board chair of Startup Edmonton, the non-profit ‘creativity lab’ that supports local startup companies. The 43-year-old ‘progressive entrepreneur,’ as he has branded himself, co-founded Yardstick Software in 2002, and the online examination and e-learning provider has been named one of the fastest growing companies in the province seven times in the last eight years by Alberta Venture Magazine. LaBossiere’s engagement with the city’s rebranding efforts is driven, in part, by self-interest. As his company continues to grow, recruiting top talent from elsewhere becomes more important. He figures to be part of the ongoing civic dialogue in Edmonton for years to come.

27 Andrew Ference

Oilers defenceman

Team captain has an impact off the ice Before he skated in his first Oilers practice, let alone became the 14th captain in franchise history, Andrew Ference was making an impact in his hometown. The 35-year-old defenceman, who helped the Boston Bruins win the Stanley Cup in 2011, brought the mass-participation, early morning outdoor fitness movement called the November Project with him when he moved back to Edmonton in 2013. That effort merely presaged Ference’s commitment to community engagement across a varied tableau of interests. A longtime environmentalist, Ference worked with Mayor Don Iveson on the city’s Go Bagless campaign. He led a group of elementary schoolchildren on a tour of the city’s Waste Management Centre. During his time in Boston, Ference helped the National Hockey League Players Association (NHLPA) set up a carbon neutral program in which players could buy credits to offset the environmental impact their jet-set lives produced. Last June, Ference marched in the Edmonton Pride Parade, becoming the first team captain in North American pro sports to do so, according to Patrick Burke, founder of You Can Play, a non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating homophobia in sport. At the urging of one of his daughters, Ference and his family attended the Truth and Reconciliation hearings into abuse of aboriginal children at residential schools. So, it was fitting Ference was awarded the NHL’s King Clancy Memorial Trophy for his leadership and humanitarian contributions. Nor should it have been so surprising he also was invited to address the federal NDP caucus about leadership and community-building when they held strategy sessions in Edmonton in September. Evidently, strong leadership qualities are transferable.

28 Terry Wickham

Festival director

Impresario makes the city sing his tune There are many different kinds of power. Political power. Economic power. Power based on status or class. Terry Wickham, artistic director of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival since 1989, has a different kind of power. He’s the Simon Says, the pied piper of Edmonton. Wickham says, “Line up!” — and thousands of Edmonton folk music fans line up. Wickham says, “Buy tickets!” — and his festival sells out instantly, every year, as fast as those ticket orders can be processed. Wickham says, “Enjoy this music, by a group you’ve never heard before!” — and thousands brave thunderstorms, torrential rains, mud and blistering sun, just to be part of one of Canada’s most successful music festivals. As the King of Gallagher Hill, commander of an army of loyal volunteers, Wickham has exercised his power over a quarter-century to bring some of the world’s biggest folk, jazz, blues, country and world beat stars to Edmonton. He’s has promoted rising talent and launch careers. And he hasn’t hesitated to use his influence to lobby municipal, provincial and federal governments for support for the arts, or to help to save CKUA. Terry Wickham says, “Listen!” — and everyone does.

29 Kristopher Wells

LGBTQ activist and academic

Educator combats homophobia and builds inclusive community There are many passionate, articulate voices for inclusiveness and tolerance in Edmonton, but Kristopher Wells serves as an overarching civic conscience on those crucial social themes. Wells, a University of Alberta assistant professor and director of the university’s Institute for Sexual Minority Studies, is engaged on a variety of fronts. He chairs the Edmonton Police Service’s Sexual Minorities Liaison Committee, for example, and is co-founder and co-director of Camp fYrefly, Canada’s only national leadership retreat for sexual and gender minority youth. Last February, Wells was central to the U of A cementing a partnership with You Can Play, the New York-based organization combating homophobia in sport. Starting in January, Wells will teach an elective course in the U of A’s faculty of education called Sexuality, Gender and Culture in Education. The course aims to help teachers talk with their students about sexual identity. As director of the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies, Wells works with Alberta schools, in effect teaching educators about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) issues to help foster safe and inclusive classrooms. The starting point for that begins with everyday language use, eliminating derisive or hateful words and expressions many people use unthinkingly. Which is why Wells helped launch the website, nohomoophobes.com in September 2012 to track such usage and combat what Wells refers to as “casual homophobia.” Building the vocabulary of inclusion will be crucial as Edmonton’s population grows and becomes more diverse.

30 Reg Milley

Commonwealth Games promoter