Hamiota-born entrepreneur to receive award

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This article was published 02/05/2024 (602 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Born and raised in Hamiota, entrepreneur Kim McConnell is set to be the 32nd recipient of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce and Haskayne School of Business Inspiring Business Leader Award.

The June 20 awards gala will honour McConnell’s business legacy, which began in 1984 when, working from a basement office with a degree in agriculture from the University of Manitoba, he turned $5,000 into what would come to be known as Fieldstone Marketing.

Though he now lives in Calgary, McConnell told the Sun that Hamiota, 83 kilometres northwest of Bradon, will always be his home.

“I was born and raised there, and that’s where my heart is,” he said. “I grew up on the farm.”

McConnell credits his parents, who made sure he understood the importance of getting a post-secondary education, with setting him on his course to success.

“That’s why I went to university, and then after university, I worked in the crop inputs business. And then I did come back home and farmed for one year,” he said, adding that when he took his first sales job, he continued working the farm with his family.

McConnell started Fieldstone Marketing to help sell agricultural technological breakthroughs and innovation. The business underwent a merger in 2002, and AdFarm, one of North America’s largest agricultural marketing companies, was born.

“In the early days … the companies had these technologies, but they didn’t really have a marketing department. They would have had a sales department and a research department, and administration and production, but they didn’t have marketing,” he said.

Throughout his career, McConnell spearheaded groundbreaking marketing campaigns for both national and international agricultural and food conglomerates. Along the way, he was named Agri-Marketer of the Year and the Canadian Youth Business Foundation Mentor of the Year. In 2012, his contributions were enshrined in the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame, and in 2017, McConnell was bestowed with the Order of Canada.

After McConnell turned 50, he decided to diversify his portfolio and move into the second phase of his career, which focused largely on leadership. Now, he’s moved onto the third phase of his career.

“I still have a number of companies and initiatives that I’m on the board of, but I also have eight mentees. These are emerging executives, and six of them are female, two are male,” he said. “Every six weeks, I spend one-on-one time with them, either virtually or in-person, and I’m having a blast doing that. I’m learning as much as I’ve learned or probably more.”

Earlier last month, the Calgary Chamber of Commerce and the Haskayne School of Business announced that McConnell would receive the 2024 Inspiring Business Leader Award. Gina Grandy, dean of the school, called McConnell a visionary and a well-respected leader in agriculture, whose work demonstrated how innovation, leadership and a deep respect for the industry can lead to the betterment of the entire sector.

“We celebrate not only his achievements through a storied career, but also his commitment to nurturing a sustainable future for all of us,” Grandy said in a University of Calgary news release last month.

McConnell is also known as a fervent advocate for public trust in food through his stewardship of the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity, which he helped to launch. He’s also been a trusted advisor for many companies, governments, and industry partners across North America, championing the cause of youth empowerment and rural development.

Noting that Calgary is a very gas- and oil-driven community, McConnell said he is thrilled to receive the award as someone who made their success in the agriculture industry.

“This is a big deal in agriculture, because we don’t get awards like this,” he said. “I am over-the-top excited.”

McConnell said it’s not so much he himself that deserves the award as the agriculture industry as a whole.

“I think our industry deserves this award,” he said. “The way I look at it, is it’s a team award, and I’m the one who is handling it.”

The awards ceremony will take place at Calgary’s BMO Centre on June 20. During the event, McConnell will participate in a fireside chat with Deborah Yedlin, the president of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, who said in the release that she was thrilled to recognize McConnell as the recipient of the 2024 Business Leader Award.

“His entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to the agricultural sector is unparalleled. Not only has he helped to transform ag-related businesses, Kim has always been generous with his time to mentor and support those involved in the sector with his advice frequently sought by businesses,” she said.

McConnell has no plans of slowing down, and his future ambitions include promoting the agricultural industry as a great place for people of all skillsets to gain careers in.

“Anything you can think of, that you like doing, you can do in agriculture,” he said. “If you like writing, you can be a reporter. If you like technology and gaming, you can do robots. If you like money, you can do financing. If you like science, you can do all of that in agriculture,” he said. “I’m not so sure that young people understand what we have here.”

McConnell says he is looking forward to continuing to work with younger generations as a mentor to help them get started in the industry, and he plans to continue to do so for the foreseeable future as his lasting legacy to the industry that he found success in.

» mleybourne@brandonsun.com

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