The Calgary skyline in June, 2025. Jaime Watt launched Navigator 26 years ago after serving as an adviser to the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party.DAVE CHIDLEY/AFP/Getty Images
Navigator Ltd., a national communications company known for crisis management, is dealing with its own internal crisis as members of the firm’s Alberta team break away to form a competing public-relations agency.
On Friday, executives at Navigator’s 13-person Calgary office told at least seven corporate clients they were leaving the company and relaunching their practice under the name Signal Hill, according to three sources familiar with the developments.
The executives left after Navigator founder Jaime Watt turned down an offer to buy control of the firm from two senior employees in Calgary, Jason Hatcher and Randy Dawson. Navigator has been dealing with succession planning and some staff have been frustrated with a lack of clarity on the firm’s future ownership.
The Globe and Mail is not naming the sources because they are not permitted to speak for the companies.
Mr. Watt launched Navigator 26 years ago after serving as an adviser to the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. The firm’s website lists 47 professional employees.
Crisis management firm Navigator names new CEO, founder Jaime Watt remains board chair
In January, Mr. Watt stepped down as chief executive officer, handing the reins to former media executive Laas Turnbull. Mr. Watt became Navigator’s executive chair.
On Monday, Mr. Watt said in an e-mail that Navigator will continue to have a strong presence in Western Canada, where it also has offices in Vancouver and Edmonton.
“As Navigator celebrated its 25th anniversary, we undertook a strategic review to build the next chapter of our firm. We are now in the process of implementing meaningful changes, including a leadership transition and a new partnership model,” Mr. Watt said.
“As part of that process, an honest review of our operations revealed a difference in direction with a small group of colleagues in Calgary,” he continued. “We’ve decided to part ways, and we sincerely wish them well.”
On Monday, Mr. Hatcher and Mr. Dawson did not return requests for comment.
The Alberta team’s new brand, Signal Hill, evokes both a Calgary suburb with mountain views and Mr. Hatcher’s roots in St. John’s. He and Mr. Dawson will run the new firm after serving as managing principals of Navigator’s Western Canadian operations.
Navigator’s slogan, “When you can’t afford to lose,” reflected a firm with strong relationships with corporations and individuals, specializing in crisis communications for clients facing scandals and other critical public-relations issues.
Besides its Toronto office and Western operations, it also has branches in Ottawa and Montreal, both of which have cut head count over the past two years, and an overseas office in London.
In recent years, Mr. Watt faced multiple health issues, including a kidney transplant. He has been working on succession with senior employees at Navigator over the past year, a process that would see the next generation buy out the founder, the sources said.
Mr. Hatcher and Mr. Dawson opted out of the succession process after Mr. Watt declined their offer to buy a controlling stake in Navigator. The Alberta team’s decision to break away from Navigator reflected a view they could bring in more clients and keep more of their fees as an independent firm, the sources said.
For Mr. Hatcher and his team, launching Signal Hill is a return to their roots as an Alberta-based company.
In 2004, Mr. Hatcher founded Spotlight Strategies after working for the premiers of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2012, Mr. Hatcher and his colleagues sold a minority stake in Spotlight to Navigator, and took the firm’s name.
The Calgary office ran as a separate business within Navigator, with its executives holding equity and sharing in its profits, the sources said. Mr. Watt owns all the equity in the Toronto operation.
Navigator, like most successful professional-services firms, occasionally sees top talent depart. Two years ago, a trio of Toronto-based Navigator executives left to start their own firm, Oyster Group.
Oyster founders Amanda Galbraith and Mike Van Soelen previously worked in politics, while James Sanders is a former lawyer who served as Navigator’s general counsel.
Around the same time, Navigator also lost the head of its Montreal office, Philippe Gervais, who left for McGill University.
Past Navigator clients included Jian Ghomeshi during a trial that saw the former CBC Radio host acquitted on charges of sexual assault, and former prime minister Brian Mulroney when he faced allegations of impropriety over payments from lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber.
In finance circles, Navigator advised Wall Street hedge-fund billionaire Bill Ackman on his successful activist campaign in 2012 at what is now Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd., one of North America’s largest railways. Navigator also worked with Rogers Communications Inc. executive chair Edward Rogers during his successful fight with his family for control of the telecom company.