Greg Barnes

Biography

After graduating from RMC in 1971 with the rest of you, I continued my mechanical engineering studies at Queen’s University and completed an MSc in 1972.

Following Phase IV Land Ordnance Engineering (LORE) training in Borden, I served four and a half years in Lahr, West Germany, with the Canadian brigade group. After Europe, I was posted for two years to Royal Roads in Victoria as a lecturer, teaching calculus. My final military posting was in Calgary, where I served for two years as a maintenance company commander. In 1981, I left the military to try life as a civilian.

Over the next 13 years, I worked in engineering, design, and the management of construction projects in the oil patch—initially smaller projects such as pipeline compressor stations and eventually as Project Director for a billion-dollar heavy-oil upgrader, the largest in Canada at the time.

The third phase of my career, from 1994 to 2007, was spent as an executive and ownership partner in a large engineering firm specializing in engineering, procurement, and construction for pipeline, heavy-oil, and oil-sands facilities. After selling the company in 2007 to an Australian firm, I continued as Chief Operating Officer for Canada until retiring, as planned, in 2010 and moving to Victoria.

On the personal side, I am happily married to Linda. Our children, Karen in Calgary and Adam in Victoria, are capable and considerate adults with wonderful spouses and families. Our three grandsons—Jackson in Calgary, and Spencer and Elliott in Victoria—are a delight. Living at the southernmost point of the West Coast, I can golf, ski, hike, sail, and bicycle—often in the same week. We travel and dabble in various projects in the house, garden, and community. It’s a good life.