HyLife's long serving President and Chief Executive Officer Grant Lazaruk had his last day of work with the company on Thursday. 

Lazaruk announced his retirement in early January, choosing the leap day as his last. He jokes he just wanted to get one more day in.  

He notes he started with HyLife way back in 1997 at the age of 33. 

“I was working with the Royal Bank and had this opportunity with these businesspeople in the community, the Vielfaures and Don Janzen, and at that time they were looking to expand their management group. They wanted some expertise in marketing, financing, etcetera, so they asked me to come work.” 

Lazaruk says a lot has changed at HyLife since he started. 

“I remember the first Christmas party, we had 65 employees that we invited to the Christmas party, and it was actually a curling bonspiel in Ste. Anne. Anyway, those 65 employees have grown today in excess of 2,550 employees, so that's pretty cool.  “ 

Naturally, as he prepared for retirement, Lazaruk says he spent a lot of time reflecting. Looking back, he says the number one highlight from his time at HyLife has been the people.  

“I've been very fortunate to work with a great group of people and too many to name.” He adds “through the most challenging times and we've had some of those, we've always found opportunity and I'd have to say working with people that can create that opportunity, is quite a privilege.” 

Another highlight is travel. Growing up as a country boy, Lazaruk says he hadn’t travelled much outside of Canada before 1997. In fact, he laughs noting “I was never farther south than Minot. I took my wife to Minot, North Dakota for our honeymoon, I don't know how many people have done that but that's where my honeymoon was.” 

However, with HyLife, Lazaruk says “I've put on over 1.3 million miles in Air Miles, I've have been to the US, Mexico, Brazil, Europe, China probably 40-plus times, Japan over 60 times. I've been to Korea several times, Thailand and Russia so the travel has been amazing and the experiences that travel and culture have given me has truly been a highlight.” 

Lazaruk says he is also proud of what HyLife has been able to achieve since he started with the company. 

“We became the largest supplier of chilled pork to Japan and Korea and that is an amazing accomplishment. Today we export in excess of 70 loads a week to those two countries and that has brought in opportunities for everyone within our company.” 

So why retire now? Lazaruk says it was just time.

“I don't want to put age to it, but you look in the mirror and you say ‘oh yeah, you are 60 years old’. So, at this time in my life, what do I want to do? I want to focus on things like my community in Steinbach and in the area here, I want to focus on my family, I want to focus on me. Those three things have to come to the top now and those are the things that I need to be doing as I move forward.” 

Lazaruk says this past week was full of meetings with various levels of management within HyLife and he took that as an opportunity to say his goodbyes. 

Talking of work in the community, Lazaruk is the President of the Southeast Events Group and the President and Governor of the Steinbach Pistons and he is excited to dedicate more of his time to both organizations. 

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