Some Hall of Fame inductions celebrate one career. The 2025 Southern Alberta Business Hall of Fame class included a pair built on two, when Michael and Heather Culbert were recognized together for the kind of combined impact that is rare even in a city as full of high achievers as Calgary. Their induction reflects a pattern the Hall of Fame has leaned into in recent years, recognizing not just individual executives but the partnerships behind them.
Mike Culbert’s Four Decades in Energy
Mike Culbert brings more than 40 years of experience to Alberta’s energy sector. He co-founded Progress Energy and served as its President and CEO before later becoming Vice Chairman of PETRONAS Energy Canada Ltd. He also played a central role in advancing Canada’s LNG strategy as President of Pacific NorthWest LNG, work that put him at the center of one of the most consequential energy infrastructure decisions Canada has made in the past decade, one with direct implications for Alberta producers looking for new markets beyond North America. Today he sits on the boards of TC Energy and ARC Resources, following earlier board positions at several other companies. As a founding member of the Energy Stream at the Creative Destruction Lab at the University of Calgary, he has stayed close to the technology and innovation side of the industry as well. He is also a Patron of the Rogers Charity Classic PGA Champions Tour, which has raised over $130 million for Alberta youth since it began, and in 2019 he received the Distinguished Business Leader award recognizing ethical leadership from the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business and the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.
Heather Culbert’s Boardrooms and Fundraising Campaigns
Heather Culbert has spent 35 years in leadership roles across the public and private sectors, including as a former Senior Vice President at Enerplus. She currently serves on the boards of Export Development Canada, Catapult Environmental, and the Fraser Institute, and has previously chaired both SAIT and ARIAC, roles that placed her at the center of how the region trains its future workforce and commercializes new technology, work that runs parallel to her advocacy for getting more women into boardrooms. She has also championed gender diversity in business through co-founding Board Ready Women and Axis Connects. As Co-Chair of the OWN.CANCER Campaign, she helped raise $300 million in support of Calgary’s Arthur J.E. Child Comprehensive Cancer Centre, one of the largest healthcare fundraising initiatives in the country. Her own recognition includes being named Calgary’s 2024 Citizen of the Year, along with the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal and the Governor General’s Sovereign Medal for Volunteers.
A Partnership Built on Giving Back
Together, the Culberts are founding investors in the United Way’s All In for Youth initiative, and they have backed transformative Calgary campaigns including OWN.CANCER and the RESOLVE campaign to end homelessness. Beyond the specific campaigns, the couple has become known in Calgary circles for showing up together, whether at a boardroom table or a hospital gala, a visibility that has helped normalize the idea of philanthropy as a shared family project rather than a solo pursuit. What stands out about the Culberts’ joint induction is not just the size of the numbers attached to their philanthropy, but the range of causes they have chosen to support, from cancer research and homelessness to youth mentorship and gender diversity in business. Few couples in Calgary have built parallel careers of that scale while still finding time to co-chair the same campaigns.
The Culberts’ full laureate biography is available on the Southern Alberta Business Hall of Fame website, where they were inducted together as part of the 2025 class.
When a husband and wife build separate careers that both circle back to the same causes, what does that say about how Calgary’s business community takes care of its own?
