Sean Ivens
The first time a prospective client asked Sean Ivens to submit a proposal for providing ambulance services, he had to go to the public library to find out how to write one. In fact, Mr. Ivens didn't even have an ambulance. His company at the time, Medic North First Aid Training and Supply, sold first-aid kits and provided first-aid training to companies.
Nevertheless, Mr. Ivens sent a proposal to the oil exploration company, located in a remote corner of the Northwest Territories. And he got the contract.
"I somehow managed to borrow some money and went and spent $15,000 on medical equipment and an old GMC Suburban, which became the ambulance," recalls Mr. Ivens. "My revenue that year went up to $40,000 from about $9,000 the last couple of years.
"The following year it shot up to $400,000 and the company went from just me to a staff of about six."
Today, Medic North Emergency Services Ltd., is a multi-million dollar company with about 45 employees, that include nurses and critical-care paramedics. Because most of the contracts are with companies operating in remote locations, Medic North employees typically work on-site, rotating every three to four weeks.
Recently, Medic North landed a contract with the Northwest Territories government to provide emergency medical staff for the territory's air ambulance service.
"It was a challenging contract because it required us to have this fully functioning operation with staff on call 24 hours a day," says Mr. Ivens, noting that his company provides only the medical services, not the helicopters. "It's a very busy service - we're transporting close to 1,000 people a year."
And to think, Mr. Ivens wanted to a be cook.
Growing up in the small town of Hay River in the Northwest Territories, Mr. Ivens worked part-time through high school at a local restaurant. He left Hay River to attend cooking school in Calgary but decided he wanted to become a firefighter instead.
"But when I moved to Fort McMurray, I was told that, in order to become a firefighter, I needed to be certified as an emergency medical technician," says Mr. Ivens. "So I went to Lac La Biche in Alberta for emergency medical training."
The old GMC Suburban is now gone, replaced by "mobile treatment centres" that look like campers stuck on the back of a pickup truck. Inside, the campers - which can be moved from one truck to another - are equipped like a state-of-the-art ambulance.
Mr. Ivens is a long way from the days when he didn't know how to write a business proposal. In addition to Medic North, he owns 13 other companies in businesses ranging from property development to hotels and mini-storage.
"Being from the Northwest Territories, we have a fairly limited sense of economic opportunity," says Mr. Ivens, who lives in Yellowknife with his 13-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son. "So, yes, I'm pretty amazed at where this journey has taken me."
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