It’s fitting that Mayo Schmidt, CEO of Viterra Inc., carried the Olympic torch in Calgary, one of three regional head offices of Viterra, Canada’s largest grain-handling company.

Not only is Schmidt an accomplished triathlete, having competed in several Ironman triathlons, he has turned Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, a company on its last legs 10 years ago, into a Canadian leader in the international grain trade.

“I’m thrilled to have this opportunity,’’ said Schmidt, who was a college track star and football player in his home state of Kansas. “It’s going to be one of the most exciting 300 metres I’ve ever run.’’

For Schmidt, having the competitive spirit — the will to win — is what separates leaders from the rest of the pack. Few would have given Schmidt, an undersized wide receiver, a chance of making it in the National Football League. But that didn’t stop him from trying out with the Miami Dolphins in the 1980s.

Fortunately for the grain industry, he decided to employ his competitive nature in the world of agribusiness, working with General Mills Inc. and ConAgra Foods Canada Inc. before joining the Pool in January 2000.

The Pool had been the largest company in Saskatchewan and a major player in the Canadian grain industry for most of its 77-year history.

But by 2000, the former co-operative was drowning in a sea of debt, weighed down by money-losing assets — port terminals in Poland and Mexico, doughnut shops, meat companies, flour mills, even fish farms. More important, the Pool was suffering from a lack of vision.

“When I came to Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, it was, to some degree, a group of people in denial of the circumstances in which they found themselves,” Schmidt recalls. “They certainly didn’t see through the darkness to the light. [My job] was to bring the vision of how one could find their way through that.’’

Schmidt immediately began the painful task of restructuring the Pool — a company built in the early 1920s — to compete in the 21st century.

Hundreds of old, wooden grain elevators were sold or closed down; hundreds of workers were laid off; whole divisions were scrapped and their assets sold off to pay down debt.

In 2003, Schmidt had a showdown with bondholders holding $350 million worth of the Pool’s debt. Bankruptcy seemed inevitable. Instead, Schmidt hammered out a last-minute deal that would see the bondholders take over the company in exchange for turning their debt into equity.

The deal saved the Pool, but the company wasn’t out of the woods. Other grain-handling companies were joining together to consolidate the industry’s aging and overbuilt fleet of inland terminals. The Manitoba and Alberta wheat pools merged, then joined with United Grain Growers, another former co-operative, to form Agricore United. The Pool seemed to be the odd man out.

But Schmidt hadn’t spent seven years saving the Pool, just to see it swallowed up by another company. Instead, he launched a hostile takeover bid for Agricore in November 2006. Despite the fact that Agricore was twice the size of the Pool, the fierce resistance of Agricore’s board of directors and a strong counter-bid by James Richardson International Ltd., Schmidt prevailed. The Pool acquired Agricore for $1.8 billion, creating a new company, Viterra, in May 2007.

Two years later, Schmidt was in acquisition mode again, this time making a friendly bid for ABB Grain Ltd. of Australia for $1.4 billion. Schmidt convinced the ABB board of directors and its customers — the grain producers of Australia — that the two companies were a perfect fit. With ABB, Viterra now has a foothold in a country that is close to the growing Southeast Asia market.

But these achievements aren’t the last word. Schmidt is already looking ahead, planning for even more growth at Viterra. “The foundation is built,’’ he says. “The rest of the house — it’s time to complete that.” ’ IE