Story Posted: 2024-10-08
Walking Alongside Kidney Health Patients: Kitsaki Management LP
From the Fall 2024 Spirit Newsletter
For Ron Hyggen, Chief Executive Officer of Kitsaki Management LP, partnership is key. A management company owned by the Lac La Ronge Indian Band (LLRIB) since 1981, the organization currently oversees eleven companies. Though Kitsaki has a significant focus on mining, the company also has investments in many sectors including transportation, hospitality, IT, insurance, and manufacturing, with plans to expand into clean energy. As a result, much of the work Ron and his team undertake includes conversation and connection with leadership from government and industry across Canada.
Engagement is an essential piece of Kitsaki’s mission. Ron explains that connecting the work of the company to the communities of Lac La Ronge, the largest First Nation in the province, is a vital priority. He especially wants to connect with the Nation’s young people, helping them to understand that “this is their group of companies and their future; they can be leaders.” After hiring new positions, Ron frequently calls back young people who have not been the successful applicant and talks to them about their career, discussing “what they want to do, and ways that I might be able to help them.”
Community connection first brought Ron to the St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation Board of Directors, where he served a total of six years as a director. Since he grew up on the west side of Saskatoon, St. Paul’s was the nearest hospital for Ron and his family. In more recent years, he felt a deep appreciation for the care his loved ones received on the Palliative Care Unit at the Hospital.
With many connections to the Hospital and its staff and a personal belief in the importance of quality end- of-life care, Ron joined the Board during the Close to Home Campaign for Hospice and End-of-Life Care. He also introduced Kitsaki Chief Operating Officer Alan Sklapsky to the Foundation, and Alan has recently joined the Foundation’s Board of Directors. Ron is now serving as Chair of the By Your Side Kidney Care Campaign, further giving of his time to benefit the health of those in our province.
Ron sees his role as “being a champion for what we’re doing, and opening doors that might currently be closed” through advocacy and connecting with leadership in health care and government. He names Chronic Kidney Disease’s “predominant effect on Indigenous people” as the number one reason why he chose to get involved, and feels that “if we can stop even a small percentage of people from needing to come to the Hospital at varying stages of kidney disease, I think we’ve already succeeded.”
He is excited to see the reach of St. Paul’s Hospital expand outside the walls of the facility itself, and into the communities the Hospital serves. He believes in the importance of looking not only inside the Hospital for a program or a piece of equipment, but also of looking at the overall impact of the project and “measuring what we’re doing so we understand where we’ve succeeded and where we need to grow.”
Ron believes the By Your Side Campaign is a good philanthropic fit for Kitsaki Management LP as well. Many people in the communities of Lac La Ronge come to Saskatoon and St. Paul’s for medical care, and approximately 2000 Lac La Ronge Band members live in Saskatoon. One of the Campaign’s goals includes the establishment of a pilot program focused on Early Screening in communities with a high risk of Chronic Kidney Disease, and this programming has already been implemented in partnership with Lac La Ronge Indian Band and Kinistin Saulteaux Nation.
Kitsaki Management’s collaboration with St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation and their phenomenal gift of $150,000 toward the By Your Side Campaign will help people not only in Saskatoon, but throughout the North as well: “You try to support where you can,” says Ron. “You can influence only the things you’re involved in.” In business, in industry, and now in health care, Kitsaki is having an impact and is shaping a stronger tomorrow for our province.