Since landing his first job with the Saskatchewan government a little more than a decade ago, Kent Campbell has risen quickly through the ranks and is now deputy minister of the province’s Ministry of Energy and Resources.
And to think it almost didn’t happen. A native of Regina, Mr. Campbell moved to Ontario to complete his Master of Business Administration at Queen’s University after acquiring two undergraduate degrees from the University of Regina. “After my MBA I was planning on staying in Ontario but I ran out of money,” Mr. Campbell recalls with a laugh. So, he returned home, moved in with his parents, and started looking for a job. He remembers thinking that if nothing turned up in a couple of months, he’d seek his fortune elsewhere.
Fortunately in that summer of 1996, he landed a job as a budget analyst with the Treasury Board branch of the province’s Ministry of Finance. Mr. Campbell went on to hold major economic development positions at several provincial departments and agencies, including Economic and Co-operative Development, Industry and Resources, and Crown Investment Corp. In 2007 he was appointed chief executive of the province’s Forestry Secretariat and a year later to his current position, where he oversees the management of Saskatchewan’s energy, mining and forestry sectors.
Mr. Campbell was recently appointed acting chief executive officer of Innovation Saskatchewan, a new agency responsible for implementing the province’s innovation agenda. “All of my jobs have focused on economic policy, which I really enjoy,” Mr. Campbell says.
His interest has spilled over into his volunteer pursuits. Mr. Campbell, who is a certified management accountant, was a sessional lecturer in public finance at the University of Regina, and now gives his time to the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, with campuses at both the University of Regina and the University of Saskatchewan. He spends time with students to give them a better understanding of what it’s like to be a senior government official. “I remember when I was a student, it was hard to get a sense of what a job is really like,” he says. “By participating in some of these sessions you get to have a real dialogue about what the job entails, what the good parts are and what the challenges are.”
Mr. Campbell has served as co-chair of the Ministry of Energy and Resources United Way campaign. He sits on several boards and committees and enjoys travelling and hiking with his wife of 10 years.
“They can even spell ‘ophthalmology.’ And that’s not an easy task,” he says.
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