Saskatchewan Wheat Pool CEO Leroy Larson Looking Toward Retirement

Brendaren Farms - January 16, 1999 By: Edwin Wallace

Looks like Leroy Larsen, President of the Saskatchewan Wheat Corporation, is about to retire. His siding with that assemblage of Knuckledraggers, the Western Canadian Wheat Growers, as demonstrated in this week's Western Producer, would suggest he is already feeling the freedom associated with anticipation of retirement on a fat pension based on an obese salary of $200,000.00 per annum! His remarks, reported accurately I assume, show a marked departure from the conclusions reached by the NEW Canadian Wheat Board. Some of us thought Larsen might end up as an appointee to the CWB. His expressed views of the Estey report may very well lend credence to the rumors that he was either lobbying for and/or being considered for a CWB job. Failing in his lobbying effort, or being deemed 'unfit' by the powers that make such appointments, his siding with the Knuckledraggers may be his way of expressing hurt feelings. But most likely his pre-retirement feelings of freedom induce him to speak for his own personal future. (You can't expect a guy who's been in the lime light all these many years to just lay down in the dark!) Larsen may be betting on the new direction the grain industry seems to be going; a deregulated, open marketing, no holds barred, survival of the fittest, no man's land. He has, by pandering to the Knuckledraggers, paved the way to continue as a bit player in that big, ugly, picture. Under Larsen's leadership, the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, went from a very successful prairie cooperative with a very loyal membership to what is fast becoming a very lackluster publicly traded corporation. A corporation whose future may be as shaky as that of the farmers he and his Board of Directors and CEO abandoned. (CEO's Salary - a vulgar $486,000.00 (Asking) per annum.) Therefore, in the parlance of the day, Leroy has decided to package himself into a marketable commodity. And, he's betting that the big buyers will be ON THE OTHER SIDE. Good bye, Leroy. At last we will see you as you really are. I'm Edwin