Farrell was most recently Chairman and CEO of TransAlta Corp. before retiring in March 2021.
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Dawn Farrell has been named the new president and CEO of Trans Mountain Corp. and will officially take office on Monday.
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Farrell was most recently Chairman and CEO of TransAlta Corp. before retiring in March 2021.
It is tasked with completing the controversial Trans Mountain Pipeline, a project that has almost tripled its budget since the federal government acquired the project in 2018. In February, the company announced that the pipeline’s new projected cost was $21.4 billion.
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“The Trans Mountain expansion project has been in the planning and construction for the past 12 years, and as it passes 60% completion, I look forward to taking the organization to the end of this project as I lead the next phase of Trans Mountain’s future. the company. Farrell said in a statement.
The project will expand the capacity of the 1,150-kilometer pipeline between Strathcona County and Burnaby, BC, from 300,000 to 890,000 barrels per day. It is now expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2023, well beyond its previous target of the end of 2022.
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Farrell’s appointment comes after Ian Anderson announced in February that he would step down from the role in April.
She spent 12 years at TransAlta, including nine as president and CEO. During her time in the role, Farrell helped the company transition from coal-fired generation to natural gas and the expansion of wind and renewable energy.
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She was the longest-serving CEO in Alberta’s energy sector when she resigned.
Before joining TransAlta, Farrell was Executive Vice President of BC Hydro and was appointed as the first Chancellor of Mount Royal University in 2020.
Farrell also sat as a member of the board of directors of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., a position he has now resigned.
“Dawn, a community builder with a strong commitment to strengthening Canada, has proven to be a dynamic and thoughtful leader, successfully leading organizations through change and revitalization,” said William Downe, Chairman of the Board of Directors. of Trans Mountain, in the statement.
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Deborah Yedlin, president and CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, said Farrell will be the first woman to lead a pipeline company in Canada, highlighting the importance of seeing women leading companies like these.
“That’s the best we could see,” he said. “I think often we women talk about how if we can’t see ourselves in those positions, then how can we really aspire to take on those roles.
“This is a significant change for the energy sector to have a woman running this company and this very, very critical piece of infrastructure.”
Farrell has a long career leading complex major projects and working on regulatory processes, while building strong relationships at the federal level and with indigenous groups throughout his career.
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“She has tackled very complex issues and been successful,” Yedlin said. “The thing about Dawn is that she has always been solution-focused. What is the problem? What is the solution? Let’s figure this out. She likes to solve problems, that’s what she does”.
Kevin Birk, chief analyst for S&P’s Canadian oil markets, said the new chief executive’s two immediate challenges will be delivering the project on time and within the current budget. This is while opposition and division over the need for the pipeline and its viability continue to be debated.
Birk said there is a great need for pipelines that allow western Canadian producers to take crude to the tide without going through the US. Going south or relying solely on rail means Canadian companies are leaving money on the table. to export your product.
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“We cannot eliminate the volatility or exposure of Western Canadian producers to the world, but we can minimize the regional volatility that we have seen over the last decade as Western Canada has struggled to bring pipelines online to meet the growth,” Birk said.
“When it hasn’t or has gone short, the way the price has separated from other crudes around the world is sometimes very pronounced.”
Details of Farrell’s contract with Trans Mountain were not released. He earned $7.8 million in total compensation from TransAlta in 2021, including a $1 million cash bonus, and $6.7 million in his last full year with the company.
Twitter: @JoshAldrich03
