Article content
Diego Soto and his family moved from Chile — where he was a wine distributor — to Canada in 1976 and worked for a bottle manufacturer in Toronto. He was transferred to Calgary in 1982 but the recession put him out of a job, and he transitioned to the cleaning business.
Advertisement 2
Article content
Today he is president and CEO of Delta Facilities Maintenance, which has become a leader in airline appearance services with 500 employees grooming planes at airports in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and Montreal.
The need to support his family initially led him to a summer job with the City of Calgary Parks Department, maintaining trees along 8th Avenue. But after helping a friend with his English in an interview for a cleaning job, he was also offered a position to work weekends at the Hillhurst Sunnyside community centre.
Article content
It meant cleaning and setting up tables for the Sunday flea market, then taking them down and cleaning again to be ready for the bingo sessions.
Soto took the contract under his own firm name, AM Cleaning Supplies, and also began selling cleaning equipment. By 2002 the company had morphed into Delta Facilities Maintenance and had earned contracts with large clients, including Home Depot, that relied on it for cleaning, painting and maintenance of stores across the province.
Advertisement 3
Article content
The relationship with airlines began in 2005 when Soto was awarded the contract for turnaround cleaning…