Female CEO vows to design a better energy company

Dan Healing, Calgary Herald | 10/11/2013

It’s been quite a week for Suzanne West, an energetic 48-year-old Calgarian who bikes to work downtown most days and is currently teaching four fitness classes a week.

On Wednesday, Calgary intermediate Twin Butte Energy Ltd. announced it was buying Black Shire Energy Ltd., the private oil and gas company West founded three years ago and heads as president and CEO. The deal is worth $358 million.

On Friday, West received confirmation that she is the western finalist for the 2013 RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards for excellence in entrepreneurship. The winner is to be chosen next month.

The news is enough to cast the spotlight on any individual, but what convinced the publicity-shy Calgarian to chat with the Herald are not her past deeds but rather her next one — creating a new oil and gas company that will commit to a set of environmental and people-first principles she calls Project Step-Up. Read full Article>