Yahoo Finance 'The opportunity of a lifetime': How ATB's Stuart McKellar turned a short sojourn into a remarkable career
When Stuart McKellar joined ATB Financial in 1997, the commercial litigator figured it would be a two-year gig.
“I thought it would be really interesting to be involved for a couple of years and it would be good exposure to the practice area I was looking at, and then I would go back to private practice,” McKellar recalled in a recent interview, before deadpanning: “I failed.”
Fast forward 25 years, and McKellar — recipient of the 2022 WCGCA Lifetime Achievement Award — is still going strong at ATB, as chief legal and sustainability officer and corporate secretary.
Along the way, he’s helped and shape the growth of one of the country’s most unusual public-facing financial organizations.
Established as the Alberta Treasury Branches in 1938 during the Great Depression by Social Credit premier William Aberhart, ATB has 280 locations, oversees $59 billion in assets, serves more than 815,000 clients, and employs more than 5,000 people.
However, as an Alberta Crown corporation, it is not subject to federal banking laws. “It’s a unique beast with its own (provincial) enabling legislation. It’s neither a bank nor a credit union,” McKellar said.
Over the years, ATB has been subject to legal attack over whether the organization was onside with the Constitution, given the federal government’s jurisdiction over banking.
Under McKellar’s tenure it was no different. When he joined as associate counsel, ATB was struggling financially with a bad loan portfolio. It was also accused of being too close to its political masters.
Just before his arrival, the Alberta government put a new board in place and hired a new CEO and a new general counsel with a mandate to overhaul governance and clean up the balance sheet.
McKellar, who had insolvency expertise, was brought in to help manage the litigation fallout.
A guarantor who ATB sued to make good on a bad loan argued the guarantee was no good because ATB was operating outside of federal banking laws. The defendant argued “we were literally a bank without legal authority,” McKellar said. “This was very serious litigation compared to anything I had worked on before,” he said, noting it went to the “root of our existence.”
Working with a small team comprising McKellar and a couple of external lawyers, ATB succeeded in having the guarantee upheld.
He would soon rise to assistant general counsel and assistant corporate secretary, where he focused on governance and corporate law matters.
We were literally a bank without legal authority
Stuart McKellar
When the financial crisis hit in 2007 and the $30-billion Canadian asset-backed-commercial-paper (ABCP) market seized, ATB was holding $1.3 billion in notes, amounting to 35 per cent of the organization’s liquidity.
It signed on as part of the Montreal Accord, a group of ABCP participants that sought to restructure the market and salvage their investment.
McKellar represented ATB, one of the smallest players at the table.
“It was the best file I ever got to partake in because of the complexity and challenges. It was so stimulating but exhausting,” he said.
It was also successful, with ATB recovering 97 per cent of its holdings.
He went on to manage a range of projects covering both legal and operational issues, including consolidating six corporate locations into a new $30-million Calgary campus, undertaking branch rebuilds, and overseeing a $50-million head office relocation in Edmonton.
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He also spent time as vice-president of operations, where he revamped the procurement team, which went from overseeing less than half of the organization’s spend to more than 85 per cent — generating $10 million of new value annually. He also oversaw ATB’s automation process for things like accounts payable, expense management and payroll systems.
The University of Alberta law school grad noted that in-house legal jobs haven’t always been seen as a place “where you would go to make a difference.” That’s changed, he said. “I have been able to reinvent myself and take on new challenges throughout my career. I had so many different opportunities in one place for growth and making an impact. I am grateful.”
Those who nominated McKellar praised his management approach, which he calls servant leadership. He believes his job is to serve his team and help people develop their own skills. “My role is to create leaders far better than I ever hope to be.”
He’s not done just yet. He was recently tasked by the CEO to bring ATB’s “Greater Good Strategy” to life. It is the firm’s corporate responsibility effort to help build healthy communities by finding ways to increase mental health supports, improve access to education and remove barriers to technology.
“It’s the opportunity of a lifetime for me to help ATB live its purpose,” McKellar said. “We were created to help the province be economically viable and successful. We still believe that is our role. We’re focused on the prosperity of not only bringing the right economic conditions to the province, but also on bringing the right social outcomes.”
