Though Kim McConnell grew up on a farm in rural Manitoba, his parents always emphasized the value of education and the potential of life off the family homestead. It’s not surprising then that McConnell’s path led to a career merging his agriculture roots with entrepreneurial proclivity, and that he wound up a leading pioneer of Canada’s agricultural marketing sector.
The recipient of the 2024 Inspiring Business Leader Award, presented by the Haskayne School of Business and Calgary Chamber of Commerce, McConnell credits his success to a penchant to have fun, rely on others, take risks and learn at every opportunity. In the third act of his career now, he has enjoyed every step of the way.
“I’ve had a very blessed life and business career,” McConnell says from his home just south of Calgary. “I’ve enjoyed three phases which have all been fantastic: operational leadership, directional leadership and inspirational leadership. And I’m having a blast, always have.”
McConnell’s family farm dates back to 1884, when his ancestors immigrated from Scotland to Canada. “I had a wonderful childhood,” he reminisces. “My parents were very progressive, very good farmers, and extremely community oriented and involved. I got absolutely exceptional training from them on getting involved and giving back to the community.”
His father had been forced to quit school to help on the farm, so education was always paramount to McConnell’s parents. After graduating high school, he attended the University of Manitoba and received a Bachelor of Agriculture. He then took a job with a crop inputs company in Edmonton, where he met his wife.
After two years, McConnell returned to Manitoba to farm land he had leased, and also kept his job with the inputs business, now based in Brandon. A year later, he lost the lease on the farming land so agreed to move to Calgary with the inputs business.
“I was in charge of public relations, promotions, and marketing,” he says. “I learned very quickly that there were all these new technologies coming out in agriculture – – new seeds, crop inputs, fertilizers, pesticides, equipment – – and the companies making them had money, but no marketing or communications experience. I saw an opportunity.”
In 1984, with $5,000, McConnell set up Fieldstone Marketing in the basement of his Calgary house. “I had the support of a very good wife,” he praises. “She’s a pharmacist and would pay the mortgage and feed us during that time. That’s how we got started.”
Over time, Fieldstone picked up more and more clients. McConnell eventually took on a partner and grew with employees. “I’ll say I got lucky,” he says, “and my definition of luck is when preparation meets opportunity. There was a spot there, and we started to fill it. And for the next number of years we had tremendous growth. We set up different offices and bought a couple of agencies.”
By 2001, Fieldstone had 75 employees. It then merged with The Parker Communications Group, to form AdFarm, one of North America’s largest agricultural marketing companies. “The reason for the merger was to get a critical mass so that we could attempt to go after the U.S. market,” McConnell explains. “We were a big fish in the Canadian market, and thought we could do some things in the U.S. That was when AdFarm really got humming and grew. It was a lot of great fun.”
A big believer in brand promise, McConnell clearly delineated AdFarm’s own promises: to be crazy about farming, to know more about agriculture than its competitors and more about communications and advertising than its clients, and to be a connector and enabler.
“All we did was agriculture,” he looks back. “We were very specific on that and it served us well. We developed campaigns that would resonate. We knew a lot about the industry and hardly ever lost a client.”
When he turned 50 in 2006, McConnell was ready to transition from the operational leadership phase of his career, to the directional leadership phase. He retired from AdFarm (to this day he still goes into their offices at least once a week, providing what guidance he can to the younger employees) and became a director of a number of companies. He also did a lot of industry and volunteer work and was awarded the Order of Canada. “I still don’t know why,” he chuckles. “I don’t even have a clue who nominated me.”
He was instrumental in setting up the Canadian Center for Food Integrity (CCFI) in 2015, an initiative to build public trust in food and farming. “Agriculture and food is very important to Canadians, but the vast majority take their food for granted,” he says. “It’s a very large and progressive, high-tech industry which needs awareness.”
Today, the CCFI has the support and involvement of the entire AgriFood ecosystem – – from primary agriculture to processors to food companies to restaurants – – and from the provincial and federal governments. “We need more of the whole ecosystem working together,” McConnell urges.
Now officially a senior, McConnell has entered the third phase of his career, focused on inspirational leadership. “Though my days of operational leadership are over, my days of contribution are not,” he reflects. “Today I’m focused on mentoring the next generation.”
To this end he mentors eight different emerging executives across North America. “Six of them are female, two are male,” he explains. “Six are in the corporate world, two are in government. And their bosses have identified them as rising stars in need a bit of coaching and outside support. About every six weeks I meet with them individually.”
“And I must admit, I am having a blast,” he continues. “I can use my Rolodex to introduce them to people, I can review what they’re interested in, and help them when they bring forward a challenge they’re facing. But by the same token, I am learning a ton too, about managing people today, the issues of remote working, mental health – – all of those things were considerably different from when I was in phase one of my career.”
He has several pieces of advice for his mentees, and anyone else looking for a little career inspiration.
“Find something you can be passionate about,” he implores. “Be like Gretzky. He loved hockey. Loved practicing, loved playing. He was the total student. His passion made him strive to be even better and better.”
Second, he says, don’t be afraid to skin your knees. “Don’t bleed to death,” he cautions, “but don’t be afraid to get a little hurt. You’re going to learn some things and then be able to go from that.”
A true people-person – – during his first and second phases, McConnell would have either breakfast or lunch with somebody every day – – he advocates expanding one’s network. “Get to know others, learn from them and have fun,” he says. “One of the commonalities I see with the younger people that I mentor today is that they don’t know anybody. They know networking is important but they don’t know how to do it. So that’s been part of my role, to help them expand their networks. And it’s been fun to see how they blossom when they do that.”
“I’m a firm believer that success is a team sport,” McConnell continues. “The successes I’ve achieved are because I was able to work with others who are great, and collectively we moved things forward. It’s not just me, I’m just one individual. Success requires a team, and I’ve seen that in our businesses, and in the organizations and communities I’ve had the opportunity to work in.”
A great way to learn leadership, he says, is to volunteer: “At the volunteer level everyone is equal. From the CEO to the teacher to the stay-at-home parent to whoever. But you’re all working together towards the common goal, and you learn so much.”
McConnell’s many volunteer roles include director of the Calgary Stampede Foundation for a couple of terms and a Stampede volunteer on the International Agri-Food Committee for over 30 years. With his mentor, Jim Gray, McConnell has worked on several initiatives, including the Top 7 Over 70 program which he chaired from 2020 – 2022.
An advocate for Calgary, McConnell is as optimistic as ever about this city’s prospects. “Calgary is a wonderful place, an entrepreneurial community,” he praises. “It’s got all the right things: great land, good industries, natural resources, and people who are smart and passionate. It has all these things that make it a really vibrant and critically important component of the agricultural world, in particular.”
In this regard, McConnell laments the lack of support from the federal government for the agricultural and food industries in Alberta, considering one of the most important issues facing Canadians and much of the world today is food security. “Canada is one of five or six countries in the world that exports more food to other parts of the world than we consume here,” he points out. “It surprises me that the Prime Minister isn’t hugging us yet. We’re not at the senior tables. Yet we can contribute so much as an industry. We want to contribute more.”
And so, he concludes, this award is even that much more important to him: “This is an indication to me that maybe we’re starting to get a little recognition for what we do, what we contribute, and how we can contribute going forward in this city, this province and in this country.”
McConnell received his award at the Inspiring Business Leaders Award gala on June 20.