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Alberta Entrepreneur Dave Werklund Launches Story of Successes, Shortcomings and Advocacy for Alberta Oil Patch in New Autobiography, Unconventional

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One of Alberta’s most successful entrepreneurs, Dave Werklund, is set to release a new book that outlines his incredible life’s journey growing up in rural northern Alberta and his dedication to industry-leading work as an environmentalist in the province’s oil patch. The autobiography, titled “Unconventional: The Story of an Entrepreneurial Environmentalist Inside Alberta’s Oil and Gas Industry,” details Werklund’s early days in Valleyview, Alberta before leaving school in grade nine to begin an entrepreneurial life, and ultimately building a multi-billion dollar company focused on cleaning up oil field waste and pioneering environmental protection techniques.

Part of the focus of Werklund’s memoir is on his strong contention that Canada’s oil patch operates under the most stringent environmental standards anywhere in the oil world and yet Ottawa treats it as if the industry is a pariah.

“Alberta and Saskatchewan oil isn’t being refined in Saint John, New Brunswick, and Montreal, Quebec, but 600,000 barrels of oil a day are being imported from the United States and jurisdictions with non-existent environmental regulations like Nigeria, Saudi Arabia…,” Werklund states in Unconventional.

While Werklund’s memoir touches on many of his career’s shining moments, readers will also learn about some of the hardships and failures that he encountered as well, including losing control of his oil services company, watching it fall into bankruptcy and having half of his billion-dollar net worth wiped out. Unconventional provides an in-depth look at lessons learned from Alberta’s most critical and volatile sector, however readers will find many of the book’s ideals and messages to be applicable to their own life.

“What I hope resonates with people that read Unconventional is the importance of living your life with integrity, and with a set of values that you can be proud of,” says Werklund.

Former award-winning journalist and bestselling co-author Robert Brehl co-wrote Unconventional with Werklund. Brehl has previously helped pen bestselling books Relentless: The True Story of the Man Behind Rogers Communications, Right Hand Man: How Phil Lind Guided the Genius of Ted Rogers, Canada’s Foremost Entrepreneur and Hurricane Hazel: A Life with Purpose about Mississauga’s Hazel McCallion, the longest-serving mayor of a major city in Canadian history.

In Unconventional, Brehl says Werklund’s honesty rings through the pages. “For such an incredibly successful person, someone who has so often envisioned opportunities and improvements long before others, Dave is not afraid to delve into his failings from certain business decisions to his role as a father and husband.”

Unconventional is set for release on March 14, 2023.

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