Throughout Leathard's life he has seized opportunities and overcome challenges, including some of the most expensive undertakings in Alaska's recent history.

As the president of Anchorage headquartered Veco Corp. since 1987, he has been a leader in Alaska business and developed Veco into an international engineering company.

Leathard quit school when he was 15 years old to pursue an apprenticeship in boilermaking and welding. Six years later, he traveled more than 8,000 miles from New Zealand, where he grew up with his father, to his mother's home in Merryville, La.

While he was there, Leathard's stepfather encouraged him to take a few exams at a nearby university. He did well enough to be admitted on the condition that he had to make passing grades the first semester to stay on.

Having never attended high school, Leathard struggled through foreign concepts like nouns, verbs and molecules, he said. "I started right from day one and worked for it."

Leathard's hard work and determination paid off: He graduated first in his class in McNeese University's College of Engineering and Technology in Lake Charles, La.

Atlantic Richfield Co. offered Leathard his first engineering job while he was still in college and hired him full-time upon graduation.

While leaving the lush hills of New Zealand to attend school in the marshes of the United States' deep South was not easy, Leathard said "I have never been one to stay in a place because I like it."

During Leathard's 13 years with Arco, he jumped on each opportunity that came his way, taking him to the southern coast of California, northern Canada, west Texas and eventually to Prudhoe Bay.

"If somebody cracks a door open I will step through," Leathard said.

The opportunities came with their share of challenges.

Leathard was 30 years old when he began supervising the development and operations of Arco's eastern half of the Prudhoe Bay oil field, a multi-billion dollar project that is still the largest oil field in North America.

The project had huge challenges with a lot of unknowns, requiring Leathard to continually look ahead to ensure he was prepared for what had to be done next. He added that the success or failure of Arco's half of the Prudhoe Bay oil field was on his shoulders, making for one of the two most stressful times in his professional career.

The other most-stressful period began March 24, 1989, when the Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, causing the nation's worst oil spill. The tanker spilled nearly 11 million gallons of crude oil that spread across 1,400 miles of Alaska's coastline, killing and injuring species such as bald eagles, rockfish and algae. Remnants are still visible today.

At the time, Leathard had been with Veco for seven years and had served as its president for only two years.

In the first days after the oil spill, Veco had already committed $50 million in supplies and labor to the clean-up based on the word of Exxon Corp.'s top management, he said.

Leathard added that he knew Exxon was used to handling huge projects so it would take a well-thought-out organizational structure on Veco's part to handle the clean-up the way Exxon expected it to be done.

After Exxon approved the spill-response organization Leathard had set up, Veco became the principle contractor handling the clean-up.

In the six months preceding the spill, Veco's revenue was about $50 million and it had about 1,000 employees. In the six months after the spill, the company ran $1 billion through its books and had hired more than 17,000 additional employees, Leathard said.

"Just having a payroll system to get everyone paid each week was a huge challenge," he said.

In the first nine months after the spill, Veco purchased more than $300 million in equipment and materials, including cruise ships to house its clean-up crews and repeater towers that were installed around Prince William Sound to facilitate communication.

Leathard said that in the same year Veco's operations unrelated to the spill grew by 60 percent.

In his view, the company's growth is a product of its people.

"I think you have to put it down to hard work and determination; having people who believe they can do it," Leathard said. "It's amazing what people can do when you get them excited and give them a challenge."

It also takes some talent and the right approach to risk, he said. "You have to be willing to take risk and be able to manage risk."

During Leathard's 23-year career with Veco, the company has been a pioneer in Alaska business and developed into an international engineering company, he said.

Before 1983, all major construction contracts on the North Slope had been performed by Outside companies. Veco opened the door for Alaska businesses to secure these lucrative contracts by proving that an Alaska-owned company could take on large jobs within its borders, he said.

The result: Alaska contractors have completed nearly all of the North Slope's major construction projects since 1985.

Leathard said that Veco also pioneered Alaska-built truckable and sealift modules.

In 1987, the company built the state's first truckable modules - components of industrial equipment small enough to be transported by semi-truck - in Wasilla for the Kuparuk oil fields.

Since then, other locally owned businesses have joined the industry. Now, hardly any truckable modules used in the state are fabricated Outside, he said. "We proved it was less expensive to do here."

The company has also built many sealift modules - components of industrial equipment transported by barge and truck - for oil and gas fields as well as mines within the state, Leathard said.

About half of Veco's business is in engineering, performing large engineering contracts in Alaska, the Lower 48 and overseas.

While Veco will never be one of the biggest engineering companies worldwide, Leathard strives for it to be considered one of the best, he said. "I would like for us to be recognized by the major clients worldwide as a top-line project company."

Achieving this goal comes down to Leathard's philosophy of hard work plus confidence that he can make it happen. Knowledge drawn from nearly 40 years in business couldn't hurt either.