It hasn’t been a tranquil few years for Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.
But Leroy Larsen has stayed at the helm to steer the company through the tempests that have beset the pool and the prairie grain industry in the past few years.
And while Larsen is now 65, the Canwood farmer says he has no plans to retire from the often taxing position of president of Canada’s largest grain company.
“The secret to my success is that nobody challenged me,” joked Larsen about being elected president for the seventh year in a row.
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In recent Saskatchewan Wheat Pool elections the company maintained the stability that has seen it through recent times and added newer, younger directors to its board.
In the past several years Sask Pool has gone through the wrenching process of becoming publicly traded, has undergone major expansion into new areas and has been hard hit by the downturn in the agricultural economy.
During the move to the stock market, Larsen was the subject of both praise and condemnation. Those who saw the move as necessary portrayed him as a wise leader, while those who opposed the move portrayed him as untrue to the co-operative’s principles.
During the good farming years that followed, Larsen and the pool were often lauded in the business press for expanding the scope of the company and creating good profits for shareholders.
But in the past year, as the farm economy has suffered, Larsen has been criticized by members who blame the pool for some of their problems.
It hasn’t always been easy being at the helm, but Larsen said he is committed to leading Sask Pool, good year or bad year.
“Farmers and most members realize we are undergoing immense change, starting right at the farm. Saskatchewan Wheat Pool has tried to adapt to the changes.”
Pool presidents are elected for one-year terms, but even though Larsen admitted he feels some apprehension each year as his term comes up for renewal, he has no desire yet to leave the limelight.
And he’d like to be there for the good years that should follow the present downturn.
“I would like to see Saskatchewan Wheat Pool strong and moving forward into the future before I step down.”
New to the pool’s board of directors is Thad Trefiak, a 41-year-old Leross farmer, who has been a pool delegate since he was 23 years old – Larsen’s first year on the board of directors.
Trefiak said the bad farm economy didn’t put him off wanting to take a leadership role.
“The outside pressures on us and our members parallel the ones that formed our association (in 1924),” said Trefiak, who has a mixed grain-cattle operation.
The challenge today is no different than 75 years ago. “They wanted to keep and control their own infrastructure, to keep the profit at home.”
Trefiak said he has been able to witness the wrenching grain industry changes in his own town, where the local pool elevator is closing.
“It’s not easy. But most realize we have to grow.”
