Kevin Clarke, chairman of Calgary-based Niko Resources Ltd., gets his mind away from his high-stress job by shooting clay pigeons at the Country Club of Buffalo. The club has the only skeet-shooting Bushwalk, where two shooters walk down a path while clay pigeons are launched into the air randomly as they make their way through the bush.Glenn Lowson for The Globe and Mail
24/7 Executives is a series of stories on high-performing professionals who are as serious at play as they are in the conference room. See the other stories here.
Kevin Clarke was looking for an outlet last decade to release the pressure built up through 60- and 70-hour work weeks as president of Quebecor World's book and directory division.
Even "Saturdays were up at 6 a.m., in the office and home by 1," says Mr. Clarke, who has since left Quebecor and is currently the chairman of Calgary-based Niko Resources Ltd. "I needed a break and wanted something to take my mind off it. My kids were gone, and I loved playing golf, but I wanted something else."
Mr. Clarke, 64, who has spent much of his 40-year career working in Canada, but is actually an American based just outside Buffalo, became intrigued by an activity offered at the Country Club of Buffalo, a private facility where he was a member – shooting. Mr. Clarke had shot a gun before – but never seriously. At the club, he became fascinated by the art and sport of shooting.
"What I found was what many executives seek – any type of activity that removes all those other thoughts that clutter up your mind," he says. "People say, 'How can you be relaxed when you have a loaded weapon?' For me being incredibly aware of the weapon, of the bird and all the things that are necessary to come together to be a competitive shooter, was what I needed. All the thoughts of balance sheets, P&L, customer problems, vendor problems and market problems disappeared.
"For me it was pure unadulterated concentration. Ninety per cent of my life was business, but all of those thoughts got vacated because I had a loaded weapon in my hands. It was total concentration."
For more than a decade, Mr. Clarke has become adept at shooting, utilizing a special 28-gauge shotgun, which has half the pellets of a standard 12-gauge shotgun and therefore requires greater accuracy. However, when he started, his fellow club members told him to hold off purchasing a gun until he recognized what he wanted to shoot. He eventually purchased a Beretta Silver Pigeon shotgun, but it was just the start of his habit.
"One of my friends said it would be the first of many that I'd own," Mr. Clarke says. "I couldn't figure out why I'd need another one. But now I have a safe full of them. I'm not sure I need them all, but they will be treasures that I hopefully will hand down to my son, grandsons and granddaughter."
In the ensuing years since he started shooting, Mr. Clarke has moved around as workplace demands led him to Vancouver, where he took over Catalyst Paper and helped it through a financial restructuring in record time, and now to Calgary where he's preparing Niko Resources for a sale. Along the way, Mr. Clarke's interest in shooting has travelled with him. In British Columbia he joined the Vancouver Gun Club – "Just a beautiful club," Mr. Clarke says, adding, "It really improved my shooting" – and he continues to find time to shoot, especially in the fall. While he remains an avid golfer, he says people who haven't shot for sport don't recognize the challenges it presents.
"I have a friend who is a really good golfer and I have another friend who is a really good shooter, but not good at golf," he says. "When we took him shooting the golfer got really frustrated shooting. My friend who shoots looked at my other friend and said, 'Now you know how I feel when I play golf.'"
Mr. Clarke also belongs to a duck hunting club in Southern Ontario. The club is deeply connected to the families that own the property, Mr. Clarke says, and stakes in it are often passed down from father to son. There's a long and interesting history at the duck hunting clubs in Ontario, he adds, noting one club he visited had pictures of the most famous hunters who had been there, including aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh and former U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt.
Out with a dog and a duck blind, Mr. Clarke is removed from the pressures of his corporate career. He'll head to the duck camp a half dozen times a year, noting he doesn't shoot anything he won't eat. But Mr. Clarke's real interest is passing on his love of the sport to others, mentoring people at his club and at the duck camp.
"I love to pass on the courtesies that people afforded me when I first shot," he says. "I tell people to relax. Yes, it is a loaded weapon, but if you treat it safely and with respect, you don't have to worry about it.
For friends, he conducts on-field instruction. "I worked with two young students, who are grandsons of a friend, and they went on to win the club championship. Helping people become comfortable with the weapon is key."
In the end, Mr. Clarke says shooting has presented him with a different form of stress release than any other sport he's tried, including scuba diving, another pastime he actively pursues.
"I'm creating an environment where you have to concentrate as much or more than in a business environment," he says. "For me it is pure stress relief."