The greatest influences on professional success can come in the most surprising forms – and they’re often not even work-related. Activities like practicing a team sport and playing an instrument show us how to build relationships, adapt to life’s changes, and learn how to set and achieve goals. From the first time on ice skates to the first strum of a guitar, these skills can set the pace for the rest of our lives.

That’s been the case for Christian Schacher, True North Solutions’ Director of US Operations. Although he hasn’t touched his guitar in years and credits his wife with being better at hockey than him, his dedication to learning something new and working hard to achieve his goals impacts his professional career to this day.

Since the beginning, Christian’s dedication to the automation industry has been a driver for him. Out of high school, he spent a few years in university at his home city of Lethbridge, where he studied pre-engineering and physics; he eventually moved to Calgary to complete a mechatronics engineering degree at Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT). After graduating in 2002, and not fully understanding the market for his educations and skills, Christian moved back out of the city to find work elsewhere, as it appeared opportunities were scarce for automation-specific roles.

When the oil and gas market started to pick up in 2005, Christian moved back to Calgary to take on a role in electrical design. “The job I got when I moved back to Calgary wasn’t really what I wanted to be doing,” he says. “I wanted to be doing more programming.

Luckily for him, True North Solutions opened its doors a few years later, and Christian submitted his resume when the company was just six months old. “True North was almost non-existent. It was a startup, basically, but they were hiring, and I wanted in,” he says. “It was a really tight-knit group that felt like a family. And I stayed, not only because of that, but because there were continuous opportunities for growth.”

And growing is exactly what Christian has done with the company since 2007. Since joining the True North team, he’s taken on roughly five different roles — spanning multiple disciplines and interfacing with clients across multiple industries. “We do so many different things, and I’ve been able to take an interest in other things that weren’t necessarily in the original job description,” he says. “I’ve never been held back or siloed.”

One of the most recent and exciting career opportunities for Christian was his move to True North’s Denver office in October 2021. “I think one of the driving factors behind that move was to try and help expand other services that we had built up in Calgary and expand those to the US,” he says. “And since I had exposure to all of it in Calgary, it seemed like a really good fit for me to serve as an ambassador, leverage what worked in the Calgary office, and help build that talent here in the US.”

Even now, as Director of US Operations and after more than a decade with the company, Christian still enjoys working directly with clients, building lasting relationships, and navigating the challenges of everyday work that helped get him to where he is today. “One of the things that I’ve always valued is being a trusted advisor where my clients or colleagues say, ‘Christian might have the answer to this,’ or, ‘Christian might know how to solve this issue,’” he says. “That kind of stuff reminds me that I really do make a difference here.”

Christian’s dedication to operational technology automation, the relationships he’s built from his time with True North, and his ability to achieve goals and adapt to different situations are what keep him going year after year. And he’s excited for further growth and the company’s future in the US. “We’re a smaller fish in a much bigger pond here, but I’m looking forward to helping strengthen the True North name and brand recognition in this market,” he says.

After many years and many experiences with the company, both in Canada and the US, Christian hopes to inspire others to join the True North team in Denver. “There are lots of opportunities for people with an entrepreneurial spirit to take the initiative and grow their career,” he says. “It truly is a great place.”