Redefining Investment Management
by Rennay Craats | Photos by Riverwood Photography
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uilding wealth is one thing, but sustaining and managing it is quite another. Entrepreneurs by nature are risk takers adept at capitalizing on opportunities to transform the unknowns into tangible rewards. While this skillset is critical for success in business, it takes something very different to manage the wealth that results from it. Mac Van Wielingen, chairman of Viewpoint Group, understands this dichotomy well. He spent decades at the helm of ARC Financial Corporation and ARC Resources Ltd., building these entities into leading forces in the finance and energy industries, and he recognized that managing private wealth requires a long-term approach that favoured using diversification to reduce concentration risk. “There’s an understandable tendency for successful businesspeople and investors to think they built wealth because of their own prowess, initiative and intelligence – ‘I’m really smart therefore whatever I do will work out.’ The advice I give them is you’ve got to diversify – not just financially, but also diversify away from yourself as a decision maker,” says Mac. He followed his own advice when it came to his personal financial affairs, establishing the Viewpoint Family Office in 1998 to manage the financial, investment and administrative needs of the Van Wielingen family. The family brought two part-time employees on board and as the family’s assets grew and their needs changed, the office evolved and grew as well. Spearheaded by Mac’s wife, Susan, philanthropy took centre stage and the office adapted, introducing the Viewpoint Foundation in 2001 to manage the family’s transformative philanthropic initiatives. All the while, the professionals managing the Van Wielingen’s capital were redefining their Viewpoint Group | Page 1
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