Michael Lang, '81 MBA

You’ve been involved in developing and financing a wide array of successful businesses throughout your career. What have been some of your career highlights?

Career highlights would include:

• Being a co-founder of Beau Canada Exploration Ltd and taking the company to be a successful oil and gas company that became one of Canada’s 300 largest public companies.
• Having Stonebridge Equity partners be a successful private equity company with the same two co-founders which over 23 years invested in 16 companies and achieved a financial return (sometimes small, sometimes large) on each of the investments.
• Incorporated Aventrock Ventures with my wife Omi Velasco and have jointly invested and supported 30+ early stage technology companies and VC funds in Canada.

You’ve founded and co-founded several businesses, what are some lessons about entrepreneurship that you would pass on to others?

Biggest lessons that I have learned include:

• To be respected and listened to, then know more than everyone else in the room about the topic being discussed; 
• Success is collaborative… get everyone to agree to a common mission and plan of action; 
• Do what you say you are going to do and when you say you are going to do it; and 
• Don’t be afraid to ask the ‘dumb’ (common sense) question

What made you decide to pursue your MBA at the Alberta School of Business?

All my friends were going to go into medicine, so after finishing my BSc, that is what I thought I would do as well… for some reason I applied to the U of A MBA program, and even though I was young, without any real work experience, I was accepted into the program (I think largely through the support letter from a University of Lethbridge biology professor that had mentored me while in high school). At that point I thought that if the admissions group wanted me in the program, I had better accept and then do the best I could.

How has your MBA contributed to your career? What other experiences do you credit with getting you to where you are today?

Back in the days that I took the MBA it was very quantitative, so I certainly learned the quantitative items required to succeed, but more importantly I learned to collaborate in assisting in running the campus graduate bar called the Power Plant. I learned friendship through joining the Theta Chi fraternity, and teamwork through the MBA University flag football team.

Can you tell us a bit about your board and community work, and what drives this involvement?

I have been on about 20 public, private and charitable boards and have been grateful in learning through each of them. At it’s core the desire to participate in each of them is driven through the desire to learn and contribute to make something I participate in more successful than if I had not participated. The most significant ‘community’ boards I have been involved with are CUPS in Calgary which has been around for over 25 years. When I first got involved as Chairman, we had revenues of about $400,000 per year and a handful of employees. Today CUPS has about $18 million in revenues helping about 8,000 Calgarians a year through its 165 employees.

You’re involved with the BAA’s student/alumni mentorship program - why are you so passionate about this program, and what role has mentorship played in your own career?

As mentioned earlier I and a small group of high school science students were mentored by a University biology professor who allowed us to progress and undertake activities that were far more advanced than high school. This developed a curiosity for knowledge and provided the initial confidence in achieving things outside of societal norms. After that, my partner in the initial stages of my business career encouraged me to just go out and do things. Both these mentors were instrumental in developing confidence and courage to take calculated risks further on in my career. Given the knowledge that I obtained from these two individuals, and others, it made sense to support the U of A business school through the mentorship program and hopefully our committee’s efforts will assist other students in their road to success.

If you’re interested in connecting with the Alberta School of Business Alumni Association – check out current opportunities for alumni to get involved, or email to find out more.