The business leaders who brought God to work — and weren't afraid to say so

Among the several thousand interviews I’ve conducted, two of the most riveting were with business leaders who believed that God was the driving force in their lives and were not afraid to say so. The first was Keith Dorricott, then chief financial officer at Bank of Montreal. When he took his annual physical in 1988 at 45, his blood work showed he had chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

With luck, they said, he might live 10 to 15 years. In the days after, he and his wife, Sandra — then the parents of three children aged eight to 18 — read everything they could find about the disease. They discovered a chilling statistic: the average span from diagnosis to death was seven years.



By the time we talked in 2001, Dorricott had already suffered through multiple and massive doses of chemotherapy that reduced his weight by a third and caused him to lose his hair four times. While he had the support of family, friends and colleagues, there was another powerful factor at work: prayer. Hundreds of adherents of Dorricott’s church, the Church of God, began praying for him in their homes and at special services held in countries from Australia to Nigeria, Burma to Ireland.

Dorricott, a lifelong Christian, told me that he didn’t hesitate to pray for help. “I made a vow to God. I said, ‘If you decide to heal me, I’ll make sure you get the credit.

’ ” The disease also made him realize that most business success comes through relationships, not structures. “It’s getting along with people and working harmoniously. I found that if I opened up a little bit, told them a little bit more and showed them that I was vulnerable and wasn’t totally in control — because I wasn’t — I found other people opened up.

” In December 2000, when Dorricott retired, he declared his love for the Lord in front of fellow employees at his send-off party. Dorricott died in 2016, 28 years after his diagnosis, four times longer than predicted by the research. He shared his beliefs in his book, “I Want To Live.

” Written in 2010, it’s still available online. The other business believer, Sam Kolias, chairman and CEO of Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust, was drawn to God not by illness but by forces within. There was also a sign from without.

When I interviewed Kolias in Calgary in 2000, he showed me what was outside his office window. Across the street, emblazoned on the cement-block wall of the Immanuel Church, were the six-foot-high words “Jesus is Lord.” The phrase loomed over Kolias’s life just like that roadside billboard in F.

Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” where the eyes represent God watching the tawdriness of those times. While Kolias hadn’t written what was on the church wall, they were his watchwords. Unlike many executives who hide behind bespoke tailoring and masks of their own making, Kolias understood from whence his power flows.

“He’s everywhere,” said Kolias, with heartfelt reverence. Kolias told me that it was on that rock that he built his business, owning and managing apartment buildings. “We’re sinners first, believers of a higher order second, and Jesus who is the son of God is the ultimate person we should follow.

Trying to live like he did is the ultimate goal. Anything we can do that somewhat reflects that is very rewarding.” Founded in 1984, Boardwalk went public in 1994 when the company had 3,000 apartment units.

Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust now has more than 34,000 apartment units in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec. Unlike most everyone I’ve interviewed, Kolias readily confessed his sins. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes.

I haven’t treated people properly. I haven’t been as patient as I would like to be, as respectful as I should be, when I was younger. There was a time in my twenties and early thirties when I thought bigger was better.

We learned that trying to be better is more important than trying to be bigger.” Among his outreach efforts, Kolias has served as a volunteer with the Jesus Loves You Society in Calgary. Kolias grew up in the Greek Orthodox Church and understands that not everyone comprehends how Christian beliefs can become corporate strength.

“It’s really a different understanding of the word sacrifice. A lot of people believe if I give something up, it’s gone forever. The sacrifice of the God I know is whatever I give comes back 10 times.

” There was a final touching moment in what had become more of a confessional than an interview when he explained the religious icons displayed in his office. Taking a small card off a shelf, he viewed the portrait of St. Francis of Assisi, then said: “He gave up everything and just walked the streets.

” I got the idea that, someday, Kolias might just do the same..