Robin Silvester, Port Metro Vancouver
Vancouver port president and CEO Robin Silvester comes to the West Coast from England, via Australia, to oversee a generational change.
As an engineering student at Cambridge University, Robin Silvester studied jet engine design and aerodynamics. It may seem a world apart from his current work as president and CEO of Port Metro Vancouver – at least until you realize that Silvester’s role is to give wings to the ambitions of the continent’s fourth-largest port.
Silvester took the helm of the port in March 2009, a year after its formation by the merger of the three port authorities that previously oversaw Lower Mainland port operations. The economy had yet to recover from the recession precipitated by the collapse of financial markets in October 2008, and pressures on industrial land were demanding a long-term vision for growth.
It was the ideal challenge for Silvester, who saw an opportunity to apply his business management skills to the port. As an outsider, he lacked intimate knowledge of the three predecessor authorities, but his independence also allowed him to bring a fresh perspective to port operations.
Silvester, now 43, originally came to Vancouver from London in 2003 to serve as president and CEO of P&O Ports Canada, a company formed earlier that year when London-based P&O Ports bought Canadian Stevedoring and the Centerm container terminal. He had previously worked in the chemical and steel industries in England, overseeing the creation of Corus, now Tata Steel Group, in the late 1990s while at British Steel. This background was what landed him a job at P&O Ports in London in 2001 as chief development officer, where he played a critical role in the Centerm acquisition. His appointment in 2004 as executive director of P&O Ports, then the world’s third-largest ports business, saw him move to Australia. When DP World Ltd. bought P&O in 2006, he stayed in Australia with his wife, Claire Waters, and joined the engineering and property services firm United Group Services ANZ as president and CEO.
“I’ve worked in business management and strategy and M&A, really, for the last 15 years,” he says in his office overlooking Coal Harbour. Then, anticipating the next question, he offers an explanation of the common thread underlying his varied experience: “capital-intensive, asset- and service-focused large corporate customers.”
This history suited him to lead Port Metro Vancouver, a business with revenues of $180.6 million in 2010 that handles $200 million in goods daily. The port, he points out, supports one in 12 jobs in the Lower Mainland when direct and indirect employment is factored in. “Those are jobs that are here because we have a port here,” he says. “It’s a huge part of the Lower Mainland economy, it’s a big part of the B.C. economy, and it’s materially important to Canada.”
The port is under growing scrutiny as it pursues what Silvester describes as a “generational change” in its operations. It plans to invest $750 million in upgrading road and rail infrastructure to service the port and billions more are expected to be spent on additional infrastructure and port-oriented development.
“These are projects that have been talked about for a generation. We’re actually building them now,” Silvester says, noting plans for a new $2-billion container terminal in Delta. “If you look at the whole west coast of North America, there are very few expansion opportunities for the container trade and we have that opportunity in Delta.”
But if container traffic is important – it accounts for approximately 18 per cent of the port’s overall cargo traffic – diversity is even more critical. The port remains largely a bulk cargo handler, with approximately 68 per cent of its trade bound up in products ranging from grain to potash. Break bulk cargo and autos account for the remainder. The mix has helped cushion the port’s overall volumes through economic turmoil and, this year, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
Still, the port’s ambitious container-oriented expansion plans have drawn fire. Despite improvements to its public consultation process, the port regularly attracts the ire of agriculture advocates who denounce the loss of farmland to port-oriented development such as the South Fraser Perimeter Road.
Silvester acknowledges the critics and emphasizes the importance of consultation with communities where the port operates. While the port, as a federal institution, is independent of local planning authorities Silvester sees it working alongside residents and local governments in managing the Lower Mainland’s limited land base.
“It’s critically important that the Regional Growth Strategy and the municipalities recognize industrial land must be preserved. Otherwise, the economy will, over time, wither,” Silvester says. “Agriculture is emotionally important, but economically [of] relatively low importance to the Lower Mainland. And in terms of food security, [it] is almost meaningless for the Lower Mainland.”
Silvester is as much affected by the decisions the port makes as anyone. Born in Weymouth, England, he and his wife (no kids) live in the West End and are pursuing citizenship. He has no plans to leave the city any time soon. He enjoys the lifestyle in Vancouver, with its abundant outdoor recreation opportunities, including hiking and kayaking. Between these activities and his work, he’s content.
“I’ve wanted to put myself in environments where I can make a significant contribution based on my experience and aptitude, where I can learn, where I can deliver value and where I can enjoy myself,” he says. “And this certainly fits the bill on all of those.”
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Emotional Importance
Submitted by Ehrlich on Wed, 2011-10-19 16:56.Mr Silvester says that,
" “Agriculture is emotionally important, but economically [of] relatively low importance to the Lower Mainland. And in terms of food security, [it] is almost meaningless for the Lower Mainland.” "
Is that so?
Well he must think that we're all very stupid then. I live in Richmond, and we are constantly being told that Richmond is there to feed the Lower Mainland. Of course, that doesn't equal food security, but it could do.
It is such old-fashioned thinking to claim that economic growth is all. For years now, scientists and environmental organisations that have been warning us to transform the way we think. We need to examine our values and decide what is really important, because if we don't, there is no future.
They have presented us with sustainable models, economies don't need to wither on the vine, just not expand exponentially.
If we protect the environment we have, if we encourage both industry and individuals to use more emotional intelligence in their thinking about every aspect of daily life, then we will see exciting changes to our society. We need to challenge our thinking and the way we live, so that we're not the generation that stopped the clock.
And I see that Mr. Silvester likes kayaking and hiking - me too, like so many people in beautiful British Columbia. I would like our Province to remain beautiful for many, many generations to have the same opportunities.
Agriculture is emotionally important? You bet! So is our Land. So are the health and futures of our children and their children.
As a nation and ..well, just as human beings, we are clever enough to come up with better solutions. I'm surprised that Mr. Silvester cannot see that.
Food security
Submitted by fizrat on Wed, 2011-10-19 08:19.Robin Silvester clearly has no idea what "food security" really means to many people. Or, just as likely, he just chooses a definition of "food security" that fits with his business goals. Food security does not mean shipping our food from China or other countries, as this is hardly secure: we cannot feel secure that their growing methods are safe or healthy; we cannot feel secure that they will always willingly provide us with food when they have their own mouths to feed; we cannot feel secure if there is a supply line disruption due to weather, fuel shortages, or political unrest.
The only way I would feel secure about our food is to grow what we can locally and use trade as a supplement to this. And you can't do that on pavement.
Agriculture and the "Economy"
Submitted by michael_barkusky on Tue, 2011-10-18 18:59.Recent global economic developments have confirmed for me, that the best economic thinking these days comes from ecological economists, rather than from the mainstream growth-oriented macro-economists who tend to dominate the media headlines, but whose main prescription for prosperity is more growth in GDP.
Ecological economists understand the thermodynamic and biophysical constraints under which any process of meeting human "economic" needs must take place, and understand also, the limitations that exist on the inter-substitutability of inputs, the constraints of waste absorption capacity, the serious hazards of being indifferent to the loss of biodiversity and the threat of climate change, and the critical need to sustain natural capital assets, rather than to simply post impressive GDP figures while filling up landfills with high-entropy wastes. The best ecological economists are not naive, and understand that this may require pricing previously un-priced goods (and "bads"), something which isn't always popular, and also requires an end, fairly soon, to the idea that human population and the material dimensions of our affluence can carry on growing forever.
I won't presume Mr Sylvester is unacquainted with the insights of modern ecological economics. I certainly hope he is interested in allowing them to influence his vision and strategy for the Port of Vancouver. It would certainly help him, in my view, get the relationship with Metro Vancouver communities off on a very promising footing.
Michael Barkusky