Rob Mackay's first encounter with what has become the world's largest industrial auctioneer was in 1968 in Saskatoon.
His father owned two highway construction companies – one moved dirt and gravel, the other focused on road paving. When one of his partners decided to retire, Mackay's father decided to hold an auction sale to dissolve the partnership, and the partners contracted Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers.
"These guys in funny orange coveralls showed up, came into our yard, put everything together and had an auction sale," said Mackay. "I was quite intrigued."
Today, Mackay is the president of the Vancouver industrial auctioneer company – the largest of its kind in the world. The organization was established in 1958, and since Mackay joined in 1985, it has grown from a business with $180 million in annual sales to $3.9 billion, conducting live auctions worldwide selling used equipment from industries ranging from construction and mining to forestry.
On July 5, 2013, 57-year-old Mackay announced his retirement after 28 years with the organization. He will remain in his role until October 31 of this year.
Mackay started with Ritchie Bros. after travelling the world and completing a commerce degree at the University of Saskatchewan.
When he had received a call from then-president Russ Cmolik offering him the job, he asked what it would entail – and the answer he received would be the basis of his career for the next three decades.
"'We need somebody to do a whole bunch of different things, so just come on out and it will be OK,'" Mackay remembers Cmolik saying.
At that time, the company was operating in Canada and the United States.
But toward the end of Mackay's first year, the British Royal Air Force decided to sell the equipment from the base it had set up in the Falkland Islands during Great Britain's two-month war with Argentina in 1982, and Ritchie Bros. was given the job.
Two auctions were held to sell this equipment, one of which was in Liverpool – the company's first sale outside of North America.
"That started my path of running around the world to different places where we were sourcing equipment, organizing ships and ocean freight – stuff a guy from Saskatchewan had never seen," he said.
The company has since been involved in liquidating industrial and corporate assets in the wake of many high-profile world events.
For example, in 1987, Ritchie Bros. bought all the assets left over from the building of the Trans-Gabon railway. They were auctioned off in South Carolina and Rotterdam, Netherlands, which become a Ritchie Bros. auction base and established a company beachhead in Europe.
After 1989's massive Exxon Valdez oil spill, Ritchie Bros. was in Anchorage, Alaska, selling off all the assets involved in the cleanup, from construction equipment and Zodiacs to rubber boots and fishing nets.
Mackay said at the time it was one of the biggest events the company had ever organized. "At one time we must have had three-quarters of the company up there. We were still pretty small."
For all of these events, and many others, Mackay was on-site as part of the company's boots on the ground taking care of any last-minute auction complications.
"In those days, the company was extremely entrepreneurial and your role was whatever needed to be done the day you woke up."
Those needs ranged from dealing with ocean freight and legalese to setting up auctions and negotiating deals.
"One day you would go to work and put a suit on and go downtown to ascertain how you were going to get a specific licence or something required to do business, and the next day you'd be in your jeans down at the port while your ship was unloading from somewhere."
During Mackay's time with the company, it has expanded its operations from North America to Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Australia.
"Getting our footprint in the door and starting to introduce the auction business to a foreign culture is a pretty exciting event."
Mackay estimates that he has travelled to more than 70 countries in his role with the company. For most of his career, he was away from home between 160 and 200 days a year.
"I've been to the Arctic circle in the middle of winter in Siberia; I've been to the opening of parliament in Cape Town, South Africa, and lots of different places in between," he said. "Every trip was an adventure."
Mackay's sense of adventure is not lost on those who have worked with him.
Randy Wall, Ritchie Bros. retired president for U.S. and Canada, and Mackay have known each other for 25 years. The two were co-presidents of the company from 2005 to 2008, each in charge of one-half of the organization's global operations.
Wall said Mackay isn't afraid to literally roll up his sleeves and dig his hands in the dirt and pitch in.
"He has gone all the way from the boardroom towers in Tokyo to staying in shipping containers in the jungle," said Wall, referring to the rudimentary accommodations they were once provided with while inspecting equipment in Sri Lanka.
"He is willing to do whatever is necessary to get the job done. He has spent lots of time in deep jungles."
Ritchie Bros. continues to evolve.
Mackay said its senior management is now looking at its executive structure and management committees and evaluating the company's business model to ensure Ritchie Bros. continues to grow. Nothing, he said, is set in stone.
So why is he retiring?
"You always read about people who get sick or have heart attacks or something has happened to them at this age in life that I'm at, and you think, 'Wow, you've worked really hard to get where you have in life and to provide for yourself in future years," Mackay said.
"I don't ever want to be the guy that, three months after I retire, something happens to me."
But that doesn't mean Mackay is prepared to slow down completely.
He has joined the board of Calgary's Rocky Mountain Equipment – his first stint on a board of directors.
In addition, he and his wife of 30 years, Joanne, have plans to see the world.
"There are a lot of places that I want to go and see and take my wife to that I've been to," he said. "So who knows where we'll wander?"
