Bob Sartor will be leaving his position as head of Big Rock Brewery in January to become president and CEO of the Calgary Airport Authority.
After four years at the helm of Big Rock Brewery Inc., Bob Sartor will exit the beer business to become president and chief executive of the Calgary Airport Authority, on the heels of the opening of the new 186,000-square-metre international terminal. Mr. Sartor will take up his new post on Jan. 1.
You're moving from being the head of the province's largest craft-beer enterprise to running Canada's fourth-busiest airport. Before Big Rock, you spent more than a decade at sports retailer Forzani Group Ltd. The move doesn't, on the surface, appear to be the most natural of transitions. How did this come together?
I've made a career out of being in different places. I have worked in building supplies, in food wholesaling. I've worked in sports. I've worked in beer. And now I'm going to work running an airport. And really what is being asked of me is not to physically run the airport. The team that's in place has obviously done a phenomenal job doing that because the Calgary airport's historical numbers – as it relates to costs per passenger – are the lowest of any major airport in Canada. So really, what I'm there to do is to look towards the future. As the city surrounds the airport, future expansion is going to be a consideration. The airport itself is a brand. One of the things that I have spent a lifetime in is branded businesses. So because of my consumer-centric background, and because of the fact I have probably flown over two million miles and been to God knows how many airports, I bring a very different view. That's really what I think the board found attractive about me as a candidate, and that's what attracted me to it. How do we make airports fun? How do we make them more consumer-friendly?
What will you miss most about the beer business?
The thing I will miss most about the beer business, absolutely, is the beer business. I went from a dream job in sports to a dream job in beer. But you know what, I did what I set out to do – I said five years. We're almost at five years. And really what I will miss most, I will really miss the Big Rock family – the people who work there, the people I was able to bring on board who believed in my vision and shared it. It's a small public company that feels like a family business.
The Calgary airport has just opened a new international terminal in the midst of a severe economic slump, with Alberta companies going out of business and unemployment in the city and across the province running high. Does it worry you that the new terminal has come on stream at this time?
I don't think any CEO would not be worried about that. But there are a couple of things we need to look at. First and foremost, there's the sheer volume of travel going through the airport. even in this Alberta recession, the numbers are up. Certainly, certain routes are going to be down – Calgary to Houston, probably. But there's an awful lot of other routes that are up. And there's new capacity coming online all the time because people travel more today. I think the biggest issue is really to build this airport; clearly, there was some debt taken on by the airport to do that. And we'll be looking at how do we generate revenues at the airport to ensure that we can, on a timely basis, retire that debt. But at this stage, I'm not concerned about the overall numbers at the airport because from what I've seen – even in the thick of things, which would have been last year and this year – the numbers are up.
You are being hired in part because the airport liked your consumer-oriented approach to business. Is there anything in that regard at the Calgary airport that needs to be changed?
I don't view the airport as a place for just carriers. Carriers are critical, clearly. We're a hub. We have Air Canada and we have WestJet as key hub partners here. And we have to be very mindful of what their needs and their requirements are. But ultimately, I look beyond that, to the person who's going to get up at five in the morning to go to the airport and take a business flight to Toronto – what's their experience, and what can we provide them that we're not providing them today? What about that family that's going to Disneyland? How do we surprise and delight [passengers] with the overall airport experience? That's going to take some market research. With a view to our mandate as an airport, which is clearly to make sure that we are safe, that we are efficient and that we do what we are expected to do based upon our federal charter. But it's also important that people enjoy coming to the airport. That's where I'm different – because my mind is wired differently, I think, than somebody who spent an entire lifetime in the aviation industry.
What's one destination you would like to head to from the new international terminal? In other words, what does a great faraway trip look like to you?
A great faraway trip always starts with ease of getting into airport parking, or taking a cab, and getting to the departures level. And then there's always what I call the negotiation through security. And obviously, the airport does not control the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority – that is a federally regulated thing. But security is all-important, and I have been through security lines that are wonderful, and security lines from hell. And then it's the amenities that I experience as I'm waiting for my flight – and then the whole gate experience, and the onboard experience is critical. But where we need to really, really work hard is to make sure that all of those – some of which we control directly, some of which we don't – flow seamlessly. And if it were a faraway destination, I'm probably going to visit relatives at their vineyard in northern Italy. That's pretty good.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Kelly Cryderman