A company is only as good as those who run it. We have a strong group working together to build and manage our properties to produce success for the company, its customers, and clients.
Devonian embraces diversity and believes in the business mosaic, where each member of the team offers a unique and necessary skill set to the company, but our combined creativity brings a much larger perspective to our development process.
Our diverse team of professionals is highly motivated, intelligent, and committed to producing excellent results. Our management team includes:
Stephen Ross, President
Devonian owes its existence — and to a large degree, its success — to Stephen’s vision. He gained what he calls “a triple PhD in business” while working in the land and housing division of MDC Holdings, a large, publicly-owned American development company. In 1990, he returned to his home province of Alberta and formed Devonian Properties, with Doug Churchill as his first employee.
Stephen developed the company’s philosophy of responsibility to our customers, investors and employees. Devonian’s success came quickly, in part, Stephen believes, because “we’re small enough to take opportunities when they come up.”
Stephen sees continued growth in the company’s future. Currently 80% of its work is being done in Fort McMurray, and other new markets are under exploration. “We try to give out a good product first and foremost,” he says modestly. “We focus on sticks and bricks, without too many moving parts.”
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Doug Churchill, Vice President, Planning and Construction
Doug graduated from Ryerson in 1976 with a degree in landscape architecture and was Devonians first employee. Over the years Doug’s experience in all phases of the development process has proven to be a great asset to the Devonian team.
One of Doug’s biggest strengths is a great ability to work with various municipalities and government agencies to see our projects through to successful completion. His amiable personality and considerable intellect are helpful qualities to the man whose job description involves “overseeing all interests of the company.”
Doug is a huge fan of Canmore and all the community offers.
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John Gillett, Chief Financial Officer
Born, raised and educated in Calgary, John has strong and varied CA experience, including in oil and gas, agriculture, small business, and real estate.
John is directly responsible for the financial reporting and fiscal management of the company and its various joint ventures. He credits his accounting team with being able to “handle a great deal of work efficiently and effectively,” but his guidance is certainly a tremendous asset to the department.
John believes Devonian’s future involves continuing to find good projects and good people to carry them out. “We’ll look for the balance between having fun and being successful as we develop projects.”
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Brian Talbot, Vice President, Sales and Development
With over 20 years of real estate experience, Brian has specialized in the acquisition, disposition and leasing of existing and proposed commercial and residential properties, as well as new project development and existing project redevelopment. His extensive experience with two multi-national real estate firms and a regional development company has honed his extensive experience in all aspects of real estate. Brian has been fortunate enough to establish relationships with local, regional, and national real estate owners, investors and users.
As a result of this broad experience base, Brian is very aware of what is required to enhance and maintain an asset and the key milestones required to achieve all parties goals in a timely matter.
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Devonian’s employees like the company for many reasons, but it basically boils down to: lots of opportunities, no restrictions, and a good team to work with.
