The Jim Pattison Group’s 33-year-old managing director for sales, marketing and procurement was hired in 2012 as the private company’s youngest such executive. He works under a chairman who is Canada’s best-known entrepreneur, a president who is a former B.C. premier and a corporate development managing director who is a former Vancouver Canucks and Vancouver Olympics executive.
“I count my lucky stars every day,” Grauer said. “Jimmy is a legend in this community; [I’m] learning from Glen [Clark], learning from Dave Cobb and the other people in here, understanding their vision and how they operate.”
No two days are alike in a $9.1 billion company whose diverse holdings range from groceries and packaged goods to car dealerships and advertising.
“I can’t pretend to know everything about all these industries and the diversity and all the details that go on in one industry, let alone 26 major operating companies. Listening and trying to understand their business the best that I can, so we can add value to their business and help them grow, is one of the best parts of my job.”
After high school, Grauer tried a variety of jobs, like parking cars, washing dishes and selling door to door, and he went to Alberta’s oilsands and worked on rigs. His stepmother, sports and event marketer Leila Bell-Irving, inspired him to take a volunteer gig with the launch of a PGA Champions Tour Boeing Classic in Seattle that turned into a director of operations job. That prepared him for a job in the sponsorship and out-of-home advertising sales department of Vancouver’s 2010 Winter Olympics organizing committee. Grauer later joined the Olympic torch relay tour team as a logistics manager.
After the Games, Andrea Shaw, the Vancouver Olympics’ vice-president of sponsorship sales and marketing, was so impressed with Grauer that she made him a founding member of her TwentyTen Group marketing agency until the Pattison opportunity came along in 2012.
Join us to celebrate the 2016 Forty under under 40 Awards January 25, 2017 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. For tickets and event info visit http://www.biv.com/events/40under40
