Age: 37
Job Title:Owner and president, Morgan Construction and Environmental
Why He’s a Top 40: For contributing to Alberta’s economy through his oilfield construction business and by reclaiming beneficial land
Earthmovers, excavators and graders are not items most Edmontonians think about regularly, but they provide a lot of the heavy work necessary to power our society. Peter Kiss, owner and president of Morgan Construction and Environmental, has used his B.Sc. in environmental and conservation sciences to expand Alberta’s capacity for this type of industry. And he’s not forgetting about the preservation of land, either. With a reclamation side to his family business, Kiss returns oil and gas sites to a usable state by cleaning up the site, planting trees and making the area look natural again.
Morgan works in small communities across Western Canada, and Kiss says it’s important that the company doesn’t just come in, bring all its own workers and then leave. “We try to purchase local materials, hire locally and build capacity in the communities we’re in so that the effects of our work are positive.”
Many of these small communities have large abor-iginal populations, Kiss notes. “We make a big effort to hire aboriginal workers and firms. We attempt to help them grow their businesses and to create safety programs to assist their work with us.”
Kiss loves flying his Cessna (which he pilots to jobsites to avoid arduous road trips) and eating at Packrat Louie Kitchen and Bar, of which he’s part owner. But what he loves most is building, and that’s what drew him to the construction business. The combination of construction and environmental work motivates him to see a healthy picture of growth and replenishment for the future.
“I love building things, and I love the rush from doing deals and then doing a good job. And what separates [Morgan] is our technical ability, in both environmental and construction work.” His drive earned his company a spot onPROFIT‘s 100 list of Canada’s fastest-growing companies in 2008. Kiss is also a board member for the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation. “I joined the organization because I really want to have a say in the strategic position of Edmonton’s economic future,” he says. “I was born and raised in Edmonton. It is still a frontier, and there are so many opportunities here.”
