Executive Team

Sami Saad, Chief Executive Officer

Having worked within public and private companies with portfolios exceeding $500M, Sami Saad focuses his management experience on value-driven activities that drive stakeholder confidence, employee engagement and team building. Sami’s career experience has included a range of projects encompassing upstream and downstream in oil and gas, construction and other commercial ventures. Sami has recently held roles as project manager; directors, vice president and executive office of large corporations.  Whether managing industry and government relations or engaging with local communities, he develops and fosters a fair, inclusive and performance driven culture.

With over 35 years of experience, Sami has cultivated executive leadership skills building relationships, building teams, building vision and leading people along the journey.

Ryan Hall, Chief Financial Officer

Ryan Hall is a Chartered Professional Accountant with over 25 years of experience in financial management and business advisory services.

Ryan’s professional career has spanned across several industries, including energy, mining, construction and manufacturing, for both private and public corporations. He has a passion for developing strong Finance support processes and teams that can effectively support Operations.

Ryan has recently held roles as a Chief Financial Officer with Indigenous organizations including a majority Inuit owned mining and civil construction contractor, where he managed financial relationships for 10+ active joint ventures, with projects between $5M-$500M. Ryan’s experience includes international experience working in Africa with a global mining leader in progressively senior directorate financial roles. He gained valuable experience in working with and developing local workforce finance talent in Canada and Madagascar.

Jonathan Grant, Vice President; Operations

Jonathan is a long term resident of Fort McMurray and has been involved with heavy construction for more than 20 years. He has experience in projects ranging up to $100M in reclamation, overburden, haul road construction, MSE walls, light vehicle and pipeline corridors and site preparation.

Jonathan started with a large contractor in the oil sands and progressed from project manager to operations manager eventually managing a team of approximately 400 people over several projects. His experience also includes serving as regional manager for one of western Canada's largest and oldest petrochemical maintenance and facility firms with responsibility for Wood Buffalo. 

Jonathan has a passion for developing talented and committed people enhancing and broadening their experiences in Operations.

David Armstrong, Vice President; Health, Safety, Environment & Quality

David brings more than 30 years' experience internationally with 13 years in Canada in oil and gas, upstream, downstream, construction and major projects.

David has held senior management positions in major international companies which includes experience developing and implementing health and safety strategy and application and execution of health and safety management systems through site management. 

David’s portfolio has included a broad range of health and safety practices and oversight in areas such as safety legislation, inspection, auditing, compliance and project coordination and execution in the resources sector most recently in the mining industry.  His strength’s include applications of safety policies and programs management, which he uses for coaching and mentoring at all levels of the business.

Mary Beth Green, Vice President; Human Resources

Mary Beth Green brings a vast range of experiences and perspectives to the Fort McKay Group of Companies. Beginning her career in HSE as a first responder, the core of her passions have always been around helping people, which ultimately led her down a path towards competency management, learning, training and HR. Mary Beth's innate ability to develop and implement programs that strategically build and grow talent brought her around the world focusing on workforce nationalization and local content development in third world countries and emerging markets. She has managed portfolios in every industry from oil and gas, hotels, emergency services and governments (among others) in Africa, Australia, Canada, Central America and the U.S in both public and private sectors including SAIT Polytechnic, Shell Canada and most recently at LNG Canada.

Mary Beth's diverse career gives her a unique skill set including commercial business development, strategy creation, project management and execution, joint venture governance, LMS and HRIS system implementations and developing effective and culturally/regionally appropriate strategies for talent acquisition, talent management and talent development. Joining Fort McKay Group of Companies in 2020. She is responsible for the entire HR portfolio developing and implementing an HR strategy aligned with the company core purpose and values.

David Morley, Vice President; Steep Bank Earth

David Morley joins the Executive Team with over 15 years experience in the earthmoving, construction and heavy equipment industry. Starting as a labourer, David went on to acquire experience in a variety of roles including estimating, project management and senior management. David has worked with local contractors and large, multinational organizations including majority-owned Indigenous companies and partnerships. Coupled with extensive education in construction engineering and management, business and risk management, David leads the development of key structural implementations furthering an organizational asset strategy and division. As Director of Steepbank Earth, David’s strategy includes his commitment to building opportunity, capacity and people.

Michael Chwelos, Vice President; Strategic Initiatives

Michael Chwelos has over 25 years leadership experience in oil & gas, industrial plant maintenance, heavy equipment and mining operations. Michael has spent over 15 years in the Fort McMurray region and has actively contributed his expertise to various community and non profit organizations supporting the enhancement and development of the Wood Buffalo region. Michael's career has a proven track record of delivering safe, productive and quality results in both the union and non union settings through several leadership roles most recently with Suncor.