Justin Maxwell has accomplished more in a wider range of businesses than most people his age accomplish in a single business.
In 2005, he helped execute the largest pre-sale real estate sales event in North American history, a $425 million sale of condos in Hawaii. Starting in 2009 he co-wrote a paper on oil spill response that was presented at the White House, as well as negotiated multimillion-dollar contracts with British Petroleum. Currently Maxwell is chief operating officer at Angus One Professional Recruitment, one of the largest staffing companies in Canada.
“I’ve always been one who pushed the comfort zone,” Maxwell said. “I’m an entrepreneur; I’m always looking at the next problem to solve.”
Born in Victoria, he began looking early for problems to solve. He did part of his Grade 11 year in New Zealand, then went to the University of Western Ontario to complete his education. His first position after school was working for ING in the Czech Republic.
“I’ve always had the travel bug and wanted to do something internationally, and through my school I had an opportunity to do the finance management training program with ING,” he said. “We got to explore different areas of the business working quarterly in different financial capacities and then came back and worked with them briefly here in Vancouver.”
It was here that Maxwell transitioned into real estate development, taking a job with Intrawest Resorts Holdings. From 2003 to 2007 Maxwell moved up through the company and was part of the team that secured, in one day, the $425 million sale of 318 luxury condominiums on Kaanapali beach in Hawaii. In 2008, prompted by the real estate meltdown in the U.S., Maxwell decided to join a startup in California and immerse himself in the oil business, getting connected with Blue Planet Water Solutions and developing and marketing oil spill management technology, presenting the product to the U.S. Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Aftter 10 years in the U.S., Maxwell returned to Canada to work with Angus One, where he has been COO since 2013.
