Building More Than Infrastructure: Gord McPhail’s Enduring Impact

When Gord McPhail joined KGS Group in 1989, the company was a very different place.

There were 15 employees at the time. Six engineers would huddle around a single shared computer. According to Gord, the company’s computing capacity doubled when one employee brought his personal computer to work. Yet even in those early days, there was a sense that KGS was building toward something bigger.

Nearly 40 years later, that vision has become reality.

As Principal – Hydro Structural, Gord has helped shape KGS as a recognized leader in the hydroelectric field. Along the way, he has had the chance to work on projects worth hundreds of millions, and sometimes billions, of dollars. He has lent his expertise to projects that have shaped communities, but more importantly, he has helped shape the next generation of engineers who will carry a legacy of excellence in engineering forward.

Ironically, Gord’s connection to KGS began years before he officially joined the company.

Fresh out of engineering school in 1981, he worked on the Nipawin Hydroelectric Project assisted by the four KGS founders while they were all at Acres. When that project was constructed, he returned to U of M and completed his Master of Engineering and he then worked for the next 6 years for PFRA (Government of Canada) in Regina designing structures and dams. During that period, he resisted several attempts by our founders to get him to leave Regina to join the newly formed KGS Group but then in 1989 he agreed to join KGS Group and the explanation as to why then is delivered with a laugh.

“Demetrios was always good at strategic planning. He approached me two weeks after I had my first daughter and said ’wouldn’t you rather come home to Winnipeg so the grandparents can help with the baby? I accepted his offer not long after,” recalls Gord.

What followed was a career defined by steady growth. Personally, and professionally.

As KGS Group grew, so did the scale and complexity of the projects entrusted to the team. Gord describes the success not as a straightforward line, but as a series of small steps. Each major project created new opportunities, new expertise and ultimately new responsibilities.

“It wasn’t a linear process,” he recalls. “Each project was kind of an incremental step up. Then there was always another opportunity for another big step.”

Today, many of the projects Gord works on are measured not only in dollars, but in generations.

His work supporting hydroelectric development with Indigenous communities, rehabilitating century-old infrastructure or supporting major dam safety programs across North America often spans decades. The decisions he makes today can influence communities and energy systems for 50, 100, or even 150 years.

That long-term perspective is what makes the work most rewarding for Gord.

“Working with the First Nations in their own traditional territories and having them not just be consulted but involved in the decision-making, to me I just think it’s critical.”

But when Gord was asked about the secret to KGS’s success, his answer shifted the focus away from himself. It instead pointed to others.

Throughout the interview, Gord returns to the importance of teamwork, mentorship and learning. While tools and technologies have transformed engineering since the late 1980s, he believes KGS’s greatest strength remains in its ability to develop talented people and help them grow into brilliant engineers.

Gord has spent much of his career helping others build the skills needed to tackle increasingly complex projects. Many of today’s senior engineers, once junior engineers under Gord’s guidance, are now mentoring the next generation.

“The real trick is having enthusiastic EITs (Engineers-in-Training) that want to learn. We’ve had some great ones who have gone on to become junior, intermediate and then senior engineers. Those senior engineers then mentor the next batch of EITs. That cycle is one of KGS’s defining strengths.”

That outlook on mentorship reflects something larger about KGS itself.

Throughout its 40-year history, the company has built its reputation by continuously improving, embracing increasingly challenging work and always doing what Gord describes as “the right thing” for clients, even when that means going beyond what is required in the scope of work.

For Gord, great engineering is not about chasing recognition. It is about serving clients, supporting colleagues and leaving infrastructure better than you found it.

In many ways, that approach mirrors his own legacy.

Gord is respected as an expert in his field across Canada and his influence can be seen in the major hydroelectric and dam safety projects completed over the past four decades, but perhaps even more importantly, it can be seen in the engineers he has helped develop, the teams he has helped build and the culture of collaboration he has helped sustain.

And while Gord is proud of the projects and accomplishments that have defined his career, his answer when asked about his proudest achievement is immediate. It is his four daughters.

He is equally quick to credit his wife for making much of his career possible.

“Beside every good engineer in this place, just about, is a very forgiving partner. One who doesn’t mind the weekend work and doesn’t mind the weekend calls and doesn’t mind the trips all over the place and short notice and all the rest of it. I’ve been able to do what I can really because of some of the sacrifices that she’s made.”

Gord remains focused not on what has already been accomplished, but on the opportunities ahead.

The projects he works on continue to evolve, and the technology certainly continues to change.

But the principles that have guided Gord’s career, continuous improvement, strong teams, technical excellence and doing the right thing, remain as relevant today as they were when six employees shared a single computer.

And in many ways, those principles have helped shape KGS Group into the company it is today.