Building on a Family Legacy

Wayne Clifton, Chief Executive Officer and the Clifton Associates team celebrated their 40^th Anniversary in 2018.

An entrepreneur, a visionary, a leader and a mentor, Wayne Clifton has a list of accomplishments, similar in length to the credit list at the end of a movie. 

Like Father, Like Son

When asked how this legacy began, Clifton’s immediate response was that in his youth, his “father was his inspiration”.

An immigrant with farming, road building and heavy equipment skills that were in high demand at the time. The province was rapidly expanding; experienced, knowledgeable leaders were highly respected. Clifton absorbed his father’s example and decided that he was best suited for a career in engineering.

He graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering in 1963, his P.Eng. and an M.Sc. in Civil Engineering in 1966. He obtained a Diploma and an M.Sc. from the Imperial College of Science and Technology at the University of London in 1967.

His career started with a stint in the military, employment in the public sector, at two consulting engineering firms and in 1978 the doors to Clifton and Associates, an engineering, science, and technology company, were open for business.  As of 2018 the firm has 6 offices and 250 employees. Clifton has been involved with thousands of projects across the province, the nation, and internationally: the Big Dig in Regina, assisted Mexico with meeting NAFTA regulations, contributed to the Iraq clean up after the Gulf War.

Clifton’s commitment to engineering education, promoting his profession and the consulting engineer industry led him to a leadership role on The Canadian Committee on Women Engineering formed in February 1990.  The goal was to determine effective practices to recruit, retain and advance the careers of women engineers.  “Our profession must reflect the demographics of our population,” said Clifton.  Progress has been slow, but he believes that the goal can be reached.  Clifton and Associates has made changes within their own firm to accelerate recruitment and retention of female engineers.

He has taken leadership roles with numerous professional associations and his contributions are continuously recognized.  Clifton and Associates became an ACEC-SK member in 1979 and he accepted 1982-1983 Chair of the Board responsibilities.  The ACEC-SK 2003 Lieutenant Governor Meritorious Achievement Award was presented to him in 2003.  In 2017, Clifton was awarded the Canadian Consulting Engineering Industries most prestigious award – the Beaubien Award.  Recipients are selected by their peers for their lifetime contributions to our national association, ACEC and the advancement of the consulting engineering industry.

Growing a business, building relationships with clients locally and throughout the world, finding satisfactory solutions for challenging projects has kept Clifton at the top of his game.  He definitely followed in his father’s footsteps. But he admits that his wife Anita’s contribution was pivotal to his success. “I couldn’t have accomplished what I did without her support,” he acknowledged. And now his sons, Craig and Kevin, both engineers, are the third generation of Clifton’s taking on the challenges.

August 23,2018