High River based Western Financial Group has a new President and CEO.

Patrick Bieleny says he comes from a farming background with some of his family still farming in the Killam area of Alberta.

"A lot of my career is based in Ag and a lot of the Ag communities in Alberta," Bieleny says. "My background is more finance, because I am by training a chartered accountant, I've had a lot of touch points with the insurance world but mostly corporate finance so most recently I was in the private equity business in Edmonton."

He says when he got the tap on the shoulder he jumped at the chance to be part of a well respected known and valued company.

Bieleny says growth is always a part of the plan.

"I think the exponential growth that Western's had historically over the 20 years has been slowing, let's say over the last 5 or 10 years, and we're doing a great job with our growth but probably not at the triple digits that it has over the years, we're hoping to get to double digits but growth is part of the plan for sure," he says.

He took over as of August 22 from Paul Taylor who retired July 4.