JOHN HOKANSON

John Hokanson grew up in Peace River, Alberta in a hard working entrepreneurial home. He moved to Edmonton in high school and went on to complete a degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Alberta. After graduation he moved back home to Peace River to take a job building and maintaining highways with Alberta Transportation. Within a few years his work ethic was noticed and he was approached by a group of local businessmen who were interested in starting an oilfield camp manufacturing business. In 1977, at 29 years old, with 4 kids under the age of 7, he remortgaged the family home and went “all in” and Peace Trailer Industries (PTI) was born. As the first President of the company he grew it through the balance of the oil boom and successfully raised venture capital to consolidate the camp rental business through the difficult depression in the 1980’s. When John retired from PTI in 1994 it had grown to become the largest camp and catering provider in western Canada.

At the time of his retirement from PTI John recognized the value that the solids control industry was creating in the energy sector and bought Wadeco Oilfield Services. He anticipated strong demand for the equipment and expertise associated with managing drilling fluids as a means to reduce the environmental impact, and time required, to drill a well. Over a period of 2 ½ years the company grew 400% under his leadership before a successful sale to an American oilfield services conglomerate.

Shortly after the sale of Wadeco, John again recognized an opportunity in the oilfield services industry. This time it is was to create a new drilling company with modern, safe, deep, efficiently moving rigs. It had been close to 20 years since new drilling rigs had been built in Alberta and the technology to move the equipment quickly and operate the rigs safely had yet to be incorporated into the western Canada’s drilling fleet. John’s answer to this problem was H&R Drilling. Over the next 5 years H&R Drilling grew into Enserco Energy Services, a TSE 300 listed company, and one of the largest providers of drilling rigs and of service rigs in the country.

From the successful sale of Enserco in 2002, until his retirement in 2009, John acted as President and CEO of Hokanson Capital where he continued identifying successful opportunities, including investing in Edmonton commercial real estate, residential development land, and was one of the first people to indentify farmland as an asset class worth owning. Through understanding the valuable role that investors can play in the farming business, Hokanson Capital has gone on to become the largest private owner of farmland in western Canada.

John’s entrepreneurial spirit extends into his support of the Edmonton community in which he lives. He kicked-off the fundraising for the PET Scanner Facility at the Cross Cancer Institute, as well as the fundraising campaign for the revitalization of the culinary arts program at NAIT. John has also actively supported the University of Alberta, Mazenkowski Heart Institute, the Alberta Art Gallery, and has donated his time to many community boards, including NAIT, Capital Health Authority, and Workers Compensation.
Beyond building and selling successful businesses, John is proud of the tremendous accomplishments of his partners and employees, and relishes in the opportunity he has had to work with so many great people.

John’s past awards include ACVCC Entrepreneur of the year and the Milner Finerty Pinnacle Award. John and his wife Susan have been recognized by NAIT as “Friends of the Institute” and as Outstanding Philanthropists by the Association of Fundraising Professionals. John has 4 children and is Grandad to 9 grandchildren, his interests include golfing, boating, motorcycling, and economic history.