Larry Berg, CEO, Vancouver Airport Authority

A volcano in Iceland, a SARS outbreak in Asia, a tsunami in Japan; handling the disruptions is all in a day’s work Larry Berg, the chief of the Vancouver Airport Authority.


In his office on the fifth floor, Larry Berg overlooks the tarmac, massive hangars and control tower of Canada’s second-busiest airport, with Vancouver’s famous mountain backdrop rising to the north. The airport he oversees handled nearly 17 million passengers in 2010, hosts 160 shops and services and employs 23,600 people on Sea Island. 


It’s hard to imagine how one person manages to hold it all together, but in fact it’s far from a one-man show, Berg says: “As in any corporation, if you’ve got the right strategy and the right people around you to execute it, those are the fundamentals of success.” 


The confessed BlackBerry and iPad addict starts his workday between 6:30 and 8:30 a.m., dealing with “something new every day,” and usually leaves the office around 5:30 p.m. if he’s not in another city. Naturally, his work involves a lot of travelling. He likes to get in a workout on the way home to his wife of 40 years, and reserves a half-hour before lights-out to catch up on the latest popular novel.

 

The CEO has a touch of lingering laryngitis and an annual general meeting tomorrow to prepare for, but he talks in a charming, reassuring voice, assisted by lemon tea. With his white button-down shirt, blue paisley tie and glasses set on a face that might belong to your friendly neighbourhood hockey coach (indeed, Berg is a “huge hockey fan”), he has the look of a professional everyman.


Berg first joined the airport authority in 1992 as senior vice-president of operations, but his connection goes back a lot farther. He first arrived at Sea Island in 1960, when he was 13 years old. “I was here as an air cadet with 442 Squadron from Cold Lake, Alberta. I came here for two weeks of summer camp,” he says, recalling a time when the area still had a barracks and a mess hall. “Certainly, I never thought then that I’d be here heading up the airport authority one day.” Thanks to this childhood experience, he was “no stranger to aviation.”


Berg did not end up taking a direct route to his current position; his first career was as a high school teacher. “I taught for four years,” he explains, “but once I taught them everything I knew, I knew it was time to quit.”


Berg returned to school after his teaching stint to obtain a master of science degree in business from the University of Oregon, then moved into a human-resources management role with Luscar Ltd., an Edmonton-based coal-mining company, before ending up at the Vancouver Airport Authority, where he was appointed to his current role in 1998.


Running an airport is very different from working for a mining company in at least one key way, Berg notes: “You have a corporate office function here, but it is also an operating site. No two days are alike and when an emergency hits, you can feel the impact here immediately. A volcano over Iceland, a tsunami, terrorism, SARS, the world recession, one thing after the other.” A big part of his job is ensuring the airport is prepared for those kinds of unexpected situations, which can leave passengers suddenly stranded.


Berg focuses on the positive and is particularly proud of how the airport’s efficient running helped contribute to a successful Olympics, thanks in large part, he says, to the Green Coat ambassadors. The corps of volunteers has a waiting list two years long. “Any time you’ve got people lining up to volunteer to work at your business, you know you’re doing something right,” Berg says, beaming.


That customer-service focus is the key to the airport’s ability to compete in future, Berg says. He repeats the phrase several times for emphasis. He points out that new airplanes have greater range, reducing Vancouver’s geographic advantage as a key air hub on the Pacific Rim. To compete against new airports (China is building 57 airports this year alone) and attract airlines, Vancouver will need to offer incredible customer service. “That’s the challenge and that’s the prize,” he says.