Venturi is a full-service pipeline hydraulics and energy analytic consulting firm. Our mission is to build safer and more sustainable energy networks with technology, expertise, and data. Venturi offers comprehensive pipeline domain expertise, a proven approach to client success, and an agile team to service our partners. Core to Venturi’s mission is our culture of giving back to the community. Team members are encouraged to volunteer and contribute to the causes that matter most to them. Our inclusive culture is built upon collaboration and curiosity. And last but not least, we believe in flexibility and work-life balance for our greatest asset – our people.
Venturi was founded by its principals primarily through a common desire to focus on efficiency, quality, and innovation. We believe that service to the client – flawlessly providing what the client wants and beyond – is our company’s prime objective.
Our Values:
- Nurture and Harness Excellence, Curiosity and Creativity
- Harmonize Work-Life Balance
- Cultivate an Open, Inclusive, and Encouraging Work Environment
- Elevate Yourself, your Team, and your Community
Tell us about yourself?
My name is Anthony Chan, and I’m the CEO of Venturi Engineering Solutions. I’m a Mechanical Engineering grad from the University of Alberta. My first job was at Enbridge, where I was fortunate to be mentored by Ho-Shu Wang. He was the “Master Yoda” of pipeline hydraulics, a well-respected engineer with a wealth of experience in the pipeline industry. As an engineer, I got to experience a wide variety of roles and responsibilities with Enbridge. I also always had a keen interest in the world of business, and while working on my P.Eng. designation, I completed the CFA exams.
As I was progressing in my career as an engineer, I realized that I wanted to explore other passions, and I decided to take a six-year sabbatical from engineering. During that time, I pursued my interest in the arts and photography. Together with my wife, Rina, we travelled the world and shared our passion for art with others around the globe. In photography, we learn to empathize with our subjects to bring out the best in them. With a new perspective on life following our travels, I wanted to revisit my engineering background with an empathetic approach to business. Outside of a firm belief that we must relate to our team members, I also believe in empathizing with our client and their challenges. All of this led to me starting up Venturi – to take the new perspectives that I learned and transfer them to a business’s culture, or what we call “the Venturi Effect”.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
Lead with the heart instead of your gut. The best outcomes allow room for kindness during execution. You’d be surprised that this rings true in the world of engineering, where decisions are not only made with numbers and figures but also credibility and trust.
What problem does your business solve?
Venturi Engineering Solutions Inc. (Venturi) is a boutique pipeline engineering firm specializing in:
- Steady state and transient analysis for pipeline systems
- Lead detection software integration and development
- Pipeline trainer model development, support, and maintenance
- Process control optimization, PCV & VFD tunning, and field commissioning
- Pipeline and facility hydraulic data analytics
What is the inspiration behind your business?
Outside of what I have already shared, I’m passionate about our mission – to help build safer and more sustainable pipeline energy networks. It’s inspiring to do meaningful work with the people we admire. Besides that, it’s always exciting to help modernize a vital industry in our home of Alberta using the latest tools from data science.
What is your magic sauce?
I believe in the concept of Ikigai – living life in equal parts spiritually and practically. It’s incredibly rewarding to find the intersection between what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, and getting paid to do it. It might sound cliché, but our success is defined by the success of our greatest asset, our employees.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
As a team, we want to achieve organic expansion into global markets. As the industry evolves, we also want to grow into other forms of hydraulic analysis for emissions reductions, such as hydrogen and carbon sequestration. Long term, we want to put Venturi on the world map as a leader in energy management and pipeline hydraulics.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
As a remote-first company, embracing a shift to working without an office has been an interesting challenge. We shifted to all-remote since the pandemic and have seen both challenges but also many positive changes from this decision. It has required our executives and managers to step up and be better leaders, both from a technical and cultural perspective.
As a startup, changing your strategy is second nature. We were incredibly close to signing a five-year office lease only to realize that over 80 per cent of our staff wanted to work remotely permanently (based off a company-wide employee survey). We decided to put our people first, and after hearing their opinions, we committed to converting into a remote-first work environment. We value our employees and are proud to have an ENPS (Employee Net Positive Score) of 85. Currently, we have employees working across Canada and even internally, like Argentina.
Having a remote-first company is not without its challenges. Training is more difficult when conducted digitally versus in an office. We’ve also had to put in extra effort to maintain our culture and connect with our people. Finally, cybersecurity has an added layer of difficulty when each employee is working on a laptop in their homes versus on a private network inside of an office.
How can people get involved?
Connect with us through LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/venturies or visit our website www.venturies.com. We want to connect with pipeline operators who are serious about making a dent in ESG and prioritizing safer operations!