Jim Peplinski 24

PLAYING HISTORY

Peplinski played junior hockey for the Toronto Marlboros of the Ontario Major Junior Hockey League (OMJHL) between 1977 and 1980. He scored 101 points in 67 games in his final season of junior. The Atlanta Flames selected him with their fourth round selection, 75th overall, at the 1979 NHL Entry Draft. Following the franchise's relocation to Canada, he made his NHL debut in 1980 and was an original member of the Calgary Flames, scoring 38 points in his rookie season. Playing his 100th career game on November 17, 1981, Peplinski scored four goals against the Winnipeg Jets as part of a career high 30-goal, 67-point season in the 1981–82 season. Jim represented Canada at the 1988 Winter Olympics. Jim’s professional playing career culminated as co-captain of the Flames’ Stanley Cup win in 1989.

Business Career

I would retire from hockey if we won the Stanley Cup. That decision, leading up to the spring of 1989, came as I began to consider what my next career would look like. After we won, I was happy to follow through on that promise to myself. I began to develop all sorts of ideas for a business that would be fulfilling. In the fall after the Cup, my father-in-law Stew Esplen called to suggest I look at an ad he saw in the Globe and Mail. Peters and Co., an Alberta based company, was selling “non-core assets” that turned out to be a small leasing company called “Hartfield Chieftain Leasing.”

I had no experience leading a business but was convinced it was an opportunity to test the lessons I had learned in professional sport. We started with 565 units between Calgary and Edmonton and the business was barely breaking even. In 1998, the Western company (Jim Peplinski’s Leasing) was thriving and we merged with my father-in-law’s leasing company in the East (Leasemaster), creating a national leasing firm.

In addition to the leasing business, I also am the Chairman of Properly Investment Company. Properly Investment Company philosophy is simple.  We look for great operators with runway to deploy and redeploy their skills. In public markets we passively invest in companies that share these characteristics.