Ryan Schmidt to vacate position as CEO of Agricultural Society

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Ryan Schmidt, president and CEO of the Strathmore and District Agricultural Society, has announced his resignation from the position, which will take effect before the end of March. 

He has served with the Agricultural Society for the last six years, commenting that his resignation does not come as having been an easy decision to make. 

Immediately following his departure from the Agricultural Society, Schmidt will be starting work with the Catholic Church, on a renewal project to reinvigorate the parishes within the Calgary Diocese. 

“I had actually been volunteering with this initiative for a number of months and it just organically turned into a full-time job opportunity to work on that,” said Schmidt. “It is Director of Pastoral Renewal and I will be spending a lot of time at the different Catholic churches in southern Alberta visiting with their pastors, with their parish renewal team members to support them in renewing their parishes.”

Schmidt added he very nearly became a priest when he was in his 20’s, however ultimately at the time elected to choose a different path. 

Over the last six years of working with the Agricultural Society, Schmidt described the greatest highlight to him being the people he has had the pleasure of working with. 

“The highlight for me is just the people I have met and worked with on the board, on the rodeo committee, the celebration of lights committee, all the volunteers the stampede committee has –they are just amazing people who give their time as a gift to the community,” he said. “Some of the projects over the last six years that we have accomplished together have been founding a rodeo school which is now the largest in Canada. We started the cowboy town concert series, we brought back the stampede royalty program, and we started the Friday night roundup.”

On the financial side of his tenure as president and CEO, Schmidt was proud to say that the organization has been brought back into profitability, as well as having established a “rainy day fund.”

Regarding capital projects, Schmidt oversaw the construction of the new infield suites and the Link building, the expansion of the campground, and the renovation of one of the baseball diamonds.

Additionally, the Western Events and Cultural Centre project has been launched, and the Strathmore Stampede has seen record ticket sales each year for the last five years.

In the interim, Megan Miller, head of operations will be taking over for Schmidt while the Board of Directors seeks applications for a new president and CEO of the Agricultural Society. 

Applications have already been posted for the position, which Schmidt will officially be vacating as of March 21. He will not have any say or input on the decision for who to hire as his replacement.

“My advice is to focus on the people and relationships. As the CEO of an organization like this, your staff will do 99 per cent of the work, so your job is to make sure you are setting the right culture and having great people around you and supporting them,” he said.

Schmidt added he will return to the Agricultural Society as a volunteer for the Strathmore Stampede as the event returns.