John Zaozirny

John Brian Zaozirny (born June 26, 1947) is a businessman as well as a former lawyer and provincial level politician from Alberta, Canada. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1979 to 1986. During his time in the Assembly he served on the Executive Council of Alberta as the Minister of Energy from 1982 to 1986.

Political career

Zaozirny ran for a seat to the Alberta Legislature for the first time in the 1979 Alberta general election. He won the new electoral district of Calgary-Forest Lawn defeating five other candidates to pick up the new district for the governing Progressive Conservative party. He ran for re-election in the 1982 Alberta general election winning a massive landslide and nearly doubling his plurality from the 1979 election.

After the election Premier Peter Lougheed appointed Zaozirny to the Executive Council as the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources. He negotiated the end to the National Energy Program on behalf of the Government of Alberta which resulted in the Western Energy Accord. In response to his work the Alberta Chamber of Resources named him Resource Man of The Year in 1985. Zaozirny kept his role in the energy portfolio after Don Getty became Premier in 1985. He decided not to run for office and retired from provincial politics at dissolution of the Legislature in 1986.

Business career

Zaozirny joined the law firm of Russell & DuMoulin as a partner after leaving provincial politics in 1986. He spent less than a year before joining McCarthy Tétrault LLP as counsel in their corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions group for Calgary and Vancouver. Later that year he was honored by the University of Calgary by winning the Distinguished Alumni award in 1987.

In 1988 Zaozirny joined Pengrowth Energy Corporation's board of directors and continues to serve with the company to present day as Chairman of the Board of Directors.

In addition to his work at Pengrowth, Zaozirny is Vice Chair and Director of Canaccord Capital. as well as a Director of a number of other public companies.