Levi Sampson banked on his sportsmanlike work ethic to save two ailing B.C. companies before he reached the age of 30
Mission: To convince the business world the employee-ownership model works
Assets: A dedicated work ethic learned through sports and from his father
Yield: The rescue of Harmac pulp and CHEK TV
Levi Sampson doesn’t take things slowly.
In fact, the 30-year-old’s career might best be described as meteoric.
In less than a decade, Sampson has gone from being a track-and-field star to being president of Nanaimo’s Harmac Pacific pulp mill and chair of Victoria’s CHEK TV (he also owns a portion of both).
Last month, he told Business in Vancouver that he would be hosting a new TV series this year called Sky’s the Limit, which will focus on tourism and culture tips for business travellers.
Sampson is best known for swooping in to support an employee-ownership model at Harmac, saving the mill from closure in 2008.
He went on to champion a similar move at CHEK TV in 2009, rescuing B.C.’s oldest private TV station from a permanent blackout.
As such, he’s managed to save more than 350 jobs and establish a golden reputation on Vancouver Island.
“I have tremendous respect for Levi,” commented Rob Germaine, news director at CHEK News.
When the station was about to go under, Germaine contacted Sampson about the nuts and bolts of an employee-ownership model and whether it would be viable at CHEK.
As Germaine tells it, within days Sampson met with CHEK’s employees to talk about the benefits of a company where every staff member has a vested interest.
Sampson was also the first private investor to publicly back the employee-led purchase of CHEK.
“He’s somebody who really believes in the value of the employees putting their own equity [in], and taking a risk and making business work,” Germaine said. “I think he realizes the potential that he has in harnessing the energy and productivity of a workforce that have a stake in the company.
“You can’t say much bad about a guy who has saved two institutions on Vancouver Island.”
Despite his whirlwind success, Sampson told BIV that none of it was planned.
In fact, when he was 19 his major focus was sports.
“I wasn’t giving a whole lot of thought to what I’d be doing at 30,” he said.
Back in those days, Sampson spent most of his time on the racetrack, sprinting against the likes of Olympic medallists Donovan Bailey and Bruny Surin.
His personal record on the 100 metre is 10.3 seconds (the current world record, held by Usain Bolt, is 9.58 seconds.)
“Sports for me was always goal oriented and always pushing yourself to be better and reach new goals,” he said. “That’s what I took into the business field.”
Born and raised in Surrey, Sampson learned about hard work from his father Edward Sampson, the president and CEO of Niko Resources Ltd. (TSX:NKO) and one of Canada’s top-paid executives.
After high school, he spent a summer in the oilpatch to earn money for his first year at the University of Victoria.
While he worked toward a degree and maintained his athletic edge, Sampson took a part-time job at a local golf store.
Despite his family’s wealth, Sampson said he takes pride in doing things for himself.
“I worked all the jobs that a normal kid would work,” he said. “We never got handed anything in our family, [just] a real hard work ethic and that was instilled in us.”
Harmac first came to his attention in 2008.
The mill’s previous owner, Pope & Talbot, had slid into receivership, but the employees weren’t interested in punching out.
Unfortunately, they didn’t have the financial means to buy the asset themselves.
That’s when Sampson got involved.
Despite the forestry industry downturn, Sampson committed his own funds to Harmac and convinced his family and two other investors to get on board.
Each worker then put $25,000 into a pot as well.
But even though the group had the funds to rescue the mill, they still had to convince a judge to approve the deal.
So, at 27, Sampson stepped in front of a judge and spoke from the heart.
“And it worked,” he said.
Today, Harmac is back in the black while other pulp mills continue to flounder.
Sampson said it couldn’t have been done without the employee-ownership model.
“With an employee-owned model you have a situation where if something needs to be done over lunch or after work a supervisor doesn’t have to ask a guy or a group of guys. It just gets done because they own a piece of the company,” he said.
“That’s one of the major differences I see between our mill and other mills.”
These days, Harmac’s ownership is broken into three groups, Sampson said.
He and his family have a 33% stake in the mill, another investor owns 33% and the workers own 33%.
The mill boasts a six-member board, with two representatives from each ownership group.
Harmac workers have also signed an unprecedented 11-year labour agreement, sending a message to customers that Nanaimo will continue to ship pulp for years to come.
Now, Sampson travels the world championing the employee-ownership model and hopes his new TV show will also spread the word.
“I’d like to see more companies have an employee-owned model because the productivity is through the roof,” he said.
But naysayers often wonder if it slashes profitability for owners.
“What I often say to that is, ‘you can make more with a smaller piece of the pie with a more productive workforce than you could with the whole 100% owned by yourself,’ so you’ve got to look at those economics as well.”