Canadian chair Ed Brown aims for visibility, value, influence.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey

To Edward J. Brown, FEI Canada's incoming chair, a key challenge for the organization is meeting the basic value proposition: making sure the services and cost, in both money and time, justify joining and staying and building "an involved and stable membership."

"My focus is trying to keep people involved in FEI--we're just one of the choices in people's lives," Brown said in a June interview from his office at Duke Energy Field Services in Calgary, Alberta. "Chapter meetings need to have the necessary value to compete for people's time."

In length of membership--he joined FEIC in 1996 in Calgary--Brown may not be up there with some of the association's volunteer leaders. But he's risen quickly through the ranks, starting with his first position as Chapter Membership Chairman, followed by Chapter Vice President and President. He joined the board of FEIC in 1999, and was Vice Chairman in 2003-4 as well as Chair of the Finance and Audit Committee (2001-2), Chair of the President's Council of FEIC (2002-3) and Co-Chair of the Canada/U.S. Relations Committee (2003-4).

Clearly, he's made a considerable impression. "I've known Ed for 25 years, and I've never heard anyone say a bad word about him," says FEIC President and CEO Isabel Meharry. "I think it's because he's a consummate professional. He always deals with the issues, and he always sees the big picture. He's able to really cut to the chase, and he deals with matters very efficiently. Ed can accomplish in one meeting what it might take other people three meetings to accomplish.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"The other thing that strikes me about Ed is that he's always been an extremely hard worker, but also a hard player. He's a guy who likes to have fun, and he has a very good sense of humor, and always keeps things in perspective."

Starting as a public accountant with KPMG in 1978, after getting a bachelor of commerce degree at the University of Toronto, Brown took a job at TransCanada PipeLines in 1984 and rose through the finance ranks there as assistant controller, director of evaluation and planning, vice president of corporate services and planning, and eventually as vice president of commercial services. He left in 2002 and spent a year as an executive consultant before joining Duke Energy Field Services earlier this year as controller of its Canadian division.

Brown, who's articulate and informal in conversation, says the Calgary area...