Power of Community: Ian Macdonald

Today was for getting to know Ian and what he's all about. Those who know him will know he's really just a fan of community, Calgary, and people. Keep up with him on his LinkedIn, he has his finger on the pulse of anything and everything going on in the city. 

Who is Ian Macdonald? 

I'm Ian Macdonald, Business and Innovation leader with KPMG High Growth Ventures in Calgary and based out of the Platform Innovation Centre. My role is threefold:

First, I help KPMG support the technology and innovation sector, which includes startups and scaleups in our city and province. We do that by speaking to companies at an early stage, providing advice and guidance, and helping to give back to support our local ecosystem. As a trusted advisor, we’ll speak to founders in incubator and accelerator programs, offering guidance and knowledge when it comes to startup accounting and bookkeeping, government tax incentives, Canadian, US, international, and personal tax, cyber risk and security assurance, ESG, corporate finance, M&A, financial due diligence, and many other accounting related challenges businesses will go through as they grow.

Second, I help create client collisions. Picture a cleantech startup and a large oil and gas client. I make these introductions to see where synergies exist. The startup could be looking for a pilot opportunity, while the client could be looking to reach an ESG goal. The startup is grateful for the opportunity to work with a potential customer while our client is excited that we're taking an active approach to identifying opportunities for them. It's important for the growth and sustainability of our rapidly growing technology and innovation sector to be connected with corporate Calgary and Alberta.

Third, I help identify various challenges a scaling business is going through and connect them to the right service offering at KPMG or through a third party, partner, or connection. As companies grow and scale, there are many services that we can offer to support, some of them are listed above, but what's also important is that if we're not right for the company at their current stage we want to help find the right solution for them so that over time as they scale we're right there ready to work together when the time comes.

Ultimately, I just love to help people and helping the founders of future successful companies is what I'm very passionate about.

I should also mention that my friends and family refer to me as an unofficial tour guide of Calgary. If a friend visits from out of town, I'll rent them a bike so we can go on a bike and brewery tour.

My wife thinks that when I retire I'll be one of the greeters at the Calgary airport informing travellers of what spots to check out and what to do.

"Whether it's community development - literally developing a community - or developing our local tech community, it's always been about the same thing."

Shoutout to the café for a delicious hot cocoa

What are you doing here at Platform?

KPMG is a Pillar Member sponsor, we're the KPMG Pitch Stage sponsor, and we also have a 1,000-square-foot innovation centre called Ignition, where we bring in corporate Calgary clients, run design thinking sessions, help them breakdown complex business problems, and provide solutions. It could be a solution that we offer, from a third-party, or from a startup or scaleup.

As someone who’s worked in restaurants for ~8 years, I gotta ask you about what your experience working in the hospitality industry was like. What value do you think you got out of it?

So much value! My first job while going to university was working at Earls. I started at the bottom, washing toilets, vacuuming floors, cleaning dishes. I then made my way through the kitchen; portion prepping, appetizers, pan fry, forno oven, etc. Then one day my boss said, ‘Hey, you seem to be really good with customers, do you want to be a server?’ And so that's when I got my experience working on the floor and serving people. I believe my experience in customer service and working with the public was incredibly important and led to my customer driven and service-first approach.

There’s huge value in it. In the past, I would hire people specifically for certain roles if they came from the hospitality industry.

You’re also involved in the Entrepreneurship program at the University right?

That’s right, I’m a mentor through the Haskayne business program. I volunteer with students as they work through from the ideation to pitching stage of their businesses. I listen, provide feedback, help refine, answer their questions, and offer ideas while helping them form an entrepreneurial mindset. I hear pitches all the time, from startups here at Platform, in incubator or accelerator programs, angel investing networks, and various other organizations, but it's so great to hear from the student's perspective.

What do you see in these kids? What do you see in the next generation coming into Calgary?

Well, there's a lot of different technology out there for young people to consider applying in ways that we hadn't thought of before. Sometimes we can get stuck in doing the same thing over and over again or "we've always done It this way" mindset, but if we can take new technology and apply it in different ways, get new ideas, and innovative ways of thinking, I think that's a huge opportunity for the next generation in Calgary.

We've been dependent on one sector for many years and we have so many young, and innovative minds here. We're seeing huge growth in our burgeoning tech sector along with many new technology application in CleanTech, AgTech, HealthTech, PropTech and more. I think people have been starved to look for innovation and technology in these traditional sectors, and now they're really riding this wave of growth and optimism in Calgary. There's new confidence that we'll be able to provide tomorrow's solutions to today's challenges.

What brought you from the Okanagan to Calgary?

It was initially career in community and real estate development, I was working for Macdonald Development Corporation, no relationship to my last name. There's an estate community in the NW called Watermark at Bearspaw that brought me, and before it launched I was selling and marketing multiple multi-family projects throughout Alberta.

In the early days of Watermark it was just bare land and hard to envision a community. One of the first things I did was my research on the local schools, touring them, meeting with the principals, learning all about them so when parents came in with their kids, newborns, or were just thinking about having kids, I could speak knowledgably about where their kids would be going. Parents would be blown away that I would take the time to figure out what they really cared about. Understanding the real pain points of your customer is critical. It wasn't about their home, I knew their home was going to be amazing, giving them confidence that their children were going to grow up with a great education in an amenity-rich community was what mattered most.

You were already focused on what the community would be about before the home was built. 

Yeah. Like what's it all about? It's about community. That’s what attracted me to this role at KPMG, to Platform, to being here and everything I do. I was the VP of Marketing & Sales at a tech startup for two years before this role and I loved the camaraderie, the culture, and the people. And I wanted to still be a part of that same feeling while helping others. This role is a great way to stay involved in the industry and be a part of the community.

Whether it's community development - literally developing a community - or developing our local tech community, it's always been about the same thing.

And you’ve integrated yourself so deeply into a Calgary Community. You’re at the Chamber of Commerce, Platform, the University.

Big Brothers Big Sisters, and various other charities around the city.

If you think about it, if this is where you want live, where you’re investing in living, or the city you’re raising a family in, why wouldn't you want to give back to it?

I can think of one of our partners in our office, Chris Marra, who works with a lot of our tech clients. The reason he is investing in working with tech companies is that he wants his kids to continue to live in Calgary after they graduate. If there isn’t a growing and diversified economy for them to thrive and grow in, he runs the risk of seeing his kids move elsewhere.

So that's a good reason why that we want to invest in this so that our kids are going to be here, and that we're going to have a thriving community in the long run.

I make this observation about people in Calgary, and use the analogy of when I went backpacking in Thailand. When I looked around a remote beach I was surrounded by other backpackers who shared the same values: being open-minded, open to experiencing new cultures, open to exploring and travelling the world. And there we all were, from all around the world but on the same beach because we shared common values.

When I look at Calgary, I see the common values that we share because for many of us we left some other place to come here and make a name, grow a business, start something, be entrepreneurial. There's a lot of similar threads that we all share in our city. And if you grew up here, you were also raised with these values, you endured the ups and downs of the economy, endured, innovated, became resilient. It’s an interesting thing to consider, that we've built this city around similar values.

Another exercise I do every couple of years, is I'll go, ‘Okay, blank slate, I can live anywhere in the world that I want.’ Well, it will need to be English speaking as I don't speak another language. Do they have a good health care system? Is it safe? Do I have the ability to thrive in business? I’ll start going through the priorities. And as I get older, the priorities shift a bit. But as I go through that list one by one, I start to narrow down to the countries and cities I could live In, and I get back to the same city every time. It's always here.

"I look up to the people in the city who are community builders, that go out of their way to help"

What are you proud of? 

I'm proud of the help I've been able to offer people, businesses, colleagues, and my community.

The older I've gotten, the more I've settled down and realized what matters most to me. Being married recently to the love of my life has also helped me to realize what it is I really value. I think my life's purpose is to help serve other people.

I sometimes think of all the past work I've done, all the files, folders, documents, all of it. It doesn't do anything today. It's either recycled paper or ones and zeros. What has lasted are the relationships. The people, the connections I've built, knowing that someone I helped get a job is thriving. Those are the things that motivate and inspire me.

Where do you think that came from? 

My parents. My mom loves to help people, she goes out of her way. She'll also call up a local business just to let them know she likes their coffee or really appreciated an employee's service. My Dad was an entrepreneur and successful businessman who has a very giving and caring nature. He's also a great connector, storyteller, amazing people-person.

My wife Kelly also helps me every day to be a better person because I am in constant awe of how amazing she is with friends, family, colleagues, and her team.

Who do you look up to now? 

I look up to the people in the city who are community builders, that go out of their way to help and support. That will grab a coffee with you and will lift other people up.

I massively look up to my wife, like it's crazy. I'm just the biggest fan of her. She's so inspiring, she’s my best friend, and throughout the pandemic my work colleague as we worked from home. I could be going through something challenging at work and the second I close the computer, we would just chat about it and problem solve.

I also look up to my colleagues here at KPMG because they're the ones who are doing the really challenging work, or at least really challenging to me because I am the furthest from an accountant. They're the ones who have studied and worked hard to understand tax complexities and audit assurance and all that. They're the ones doing the really hard and complex work for our clients.

When I was growing up, even until the past few months, I would almost take an inventory of the things I’m good at and the things I care about. And I would look at like job postings or career paths and just think ‘This is not at all for me’. I got discouraged because I was horrible at calculus, but I was passionate about stories and communicating. I’ve realized lately that there is a way for me, in the same way it’s worked for you.

I was always creative, and love to problem solve. When I meet with founders, and hear what challenges they have, I can now help support and bring it all together because I can connect the dots. That doesn't mean I'm the one who knows a complex tax code, but I know someone who does.

I have someone who does my taxes, I’m not strong at all in that area. Do not get discouraged that you don't have a certain skill set. I was not strong in school, I just didn't test well, I was terrible at exams, but I can quote Zoolander start to finish, remember random facts, help people feel important, lift up my team, tell great stories, and network like nobody’s business. We're all unique and have our own skills.

You mentioned Zoolander, are you a big movie guy? Have you watched anything recently?

Well, I rewatched The Lobster because my wife hadn't seen it. I wanted Kelly to get who Yorgos Lanthimos is, his movies, his evolution. Just to understand the genre and style because we’re going to go see Poor Things.

I’m also reading the second half of Dune because the second movie. I read the first half before the first movie too.

What comes next in 2024?

You know, I think more the same, more support, more awareness, more growth. More connecting companies to the industry. I think there's a lot of innovation here and I don't want to lose any of the talent in the city. I want to keep it here.'

Thank you Ian.

Writer and Photographer | Sam Doty