Rick George, born and raised in Brush, Colorado, liked the shiny new pick-ups of the local guys who worked in the oil patch, so he got a summer job as a labourer. He liked the work and took an engineering degree to pursue it further. The rest, as they say, is history. From there George went on to work for Texaco in various locations, to complete a law degree, a business degree and to take on bigger and bigger challenges until one day, while living and working in London, he was offered a seemingly career ending move: to run the struggling and money losing Canadian oil sands operation for the American company, Sun Oil. Many of his friends and colleagues advised against the move, suggesting a move to the oil sands would be "quick sand" for his career, but George combined his small town personal skills (he says his dad knew everyone and always listened to people), his middle-class work ethic, his eternal optimism, his desire for a good challenge and his entrepreneurial spirit, and transformed the seemingly hopeless enterprise into Canada's largest energy company and second biggest company overall, far and away outstripping its once parent company.
