Brent Harris Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder Eguana Technologies Inc. Brent Harris, P. Eng, is CTO of Sustainable Energy Technologies, and a co-founder of the company. He led the development and commercialisation of the company's technologies, from early demonstrations to the launch of its latest Sunergy inverters. Brent has a passion for decentralised energy in general and for solar power in particular. He is an active proponent of changes to the management and regulation of our electric system that will enable greater adoption of decentralised and renewable energy technologies. Brent is a Member of the Board and Treasurer of WADE Canada, and was a Member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Solar Industries Association from 2005-2008. Prior to founding Sustainable Energy, Brent was an instrumentation engineer in the oil & gas industry. Brent is a graduate of Queen's University in Applied Science, Electrical Engineering, and was selected as one of Calgary s Top 40 Under 40 by Avenue Magazine in 2009. "Decentralised Energy must play a key role in our electricity supply system if we are to have any chance of succeeding in meeting our future electricity needs. Rising populations, rising expectations on quality of life, and the advent of the electric car are all going to put enormous pressure on our electricity infrastructure. Spiraling costs, dwindling conventional energy supplies, emissions concerns, and the sheer time involved between planning and commissioning conventional power plants make them less and less attractive as time goes on. It won t happen overnight, but these infrastructure assets have a long service life, and there is lots of work to do before DE can deliver a significant portion of our energy, so if we are going to meet the challenge we need to change the decisions and investments we are making today".
Raymond McKay Vice President, Energy Solutions ENMAX Energy Corporation Mr. McKay has 29 years of experience in the power industry, including the operations and construction of thermal generation and the development of district energy, thermal, and renewable energy facilities. Mr. McKay has led nearly $3 billion of successful acquisitions and greenfield development projects, including the addition of 1200 MW of thermal and renewable generation to ENMAX's portfolio. Mr. McKay joined ENMAX in 2004 where he led ENMAX's Business Development group in the development and acquisition of over 2000 MW for ENMAX's generating portfolio. Most recently, Mr. McKay led the successful permitting of the 800 MW Shepard Energy Centre, Alberta s largest natural gas fired combined cycle generating station. Before joining ENMAX, Mr. McKay spent five years in EPCOR's independent power group. After joining EPCOR in 1999, Mr. McKay helped establish the company in British Columbia's hydropower industry. In 2001, Mr. McKay opened EPCOR's first US office where he successfully permitted both the Frederickson II Combined Cycle plant and the expansion of the Frederickson I facility. Mr. McKay was also a member of the transaction team that acquired Duke Energy North America's interest in Frederickson I and that sold a portion of that interest to Puget Sound Energy. The first eleven years of his career was dedicated to the operation of thermal generating facilities with Emera Inc., including a role as maintenance manager for the 350 MW Tuft's Cove Generating Station. Mr. McKay holds a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of Nova Scotia and an MBA from Queen's University.
Dominik Roser Research Leader FPInnovations Dominik Roser, Ph.D. is the Research Leader for the Forest Feedstocks research program at FPInnovations. FPInnovations is among the world s largest private, not-for-profit forest research centers covering the entire value chain from the forest to end products and Dr. Roser s research group is focused on improving the competitiveness of Canada s emerging bioeconomy. Before moving to Canada in October 2012 he worked for the Finnish Forest Research Institute in Joensuu, Finland, where the focus of his work has been on the technology and know-how transfer of Nordic forest biomass harvesting systems. His work brought Dominik to many remote communities across Europe in order to help them establish viable and sustainable biomass heating systems. He was also chairing an international network consisting of 27 European and 9 non-european countries to improve research related to the use of forest biomass for energy and acted as Finnish team leader for the International Energy Agency s Bioenergy Tasks 31 & 43. Dr. Roser also published a book entitled Sustainable use of forest biomass for energy. Dr. Roser holds a bachelor s degree in Natural Resource Management from the University of Minnesota, a M.Sc. degree in European Forestry and a Ph.D. in Forest Engineering from the University of Eastern Finland.
Randy Stewart Thompson Founder and CEO VA Angels Randy Thompson is a builder of companies, an angel investor and a leader of Canada s most active angel group. He is currently invested in fifteen companies and has been working in the startup venture space for 20+ years. Randy is the Founder and CEO of VA Angels, which has led him to be a finalist for TechVibes Angel of the Year in Canada for the last two years. Since the group s inception, VA Angels has funded 85 companies for over $33M, including a few deals in the US. As an entrepreneur he has been the founder or founding partner in four entities, and is currently building GenerUS Marketing Solutions, a platform for not-for-profits and merchants to develop relationships through couponing. Early in his career he founded Alberta SuperNet and worked as a venture capital advisor to the Province of Alberta. Randy currently works internationally with companies in Puerto Rico and the UK. In addition to this work, Randy is a member of the A100. Jan M. Buijk Chief Executive Officer EPS AB Energy Canada Ltd. (EPS) Jan Buijk is the CEO of EPS AB Energy Canada Ltd. (EPS), a Canadian company that is specialised in providing energy solutions with best in class gas engine technology for clean energy projects such as CHP, biogas and other gaseous fuelled power generation applications.
Over the past 25 years Jan has had engineering, project management and direct sales and marketing responsibilities for many of the CHP, district energy, and other distributed generation projects currently in operation across Canada. Jan received a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Utrecht in The Netherlands, where he also wrote a thesis on the use of landfill gas for power generation applications. Jan is a former director of OSEA APPrO and the CDEA, holds a director position with Decentralised Energy Canada and is former Chair of WADE Canada. Garth Frizzell Councillor City of Prince George In 2014, I was privileged to be elected to my third term as Councillor in Prince George. I first came to Prince George in 1996, planning to stay for two years to get my Masters degree at UNBC. After getting the degree in International Studies, I didn t want to leave. I met my wife Sue, we started our family, bought a house, and spent 10 years building an award-winning technology company. Recently, I accepted a new position building links between the University of Northern BC and the business community. By then, my volunteer time in the business community had led to five years on the PG Chamber of Commerce, including spending time serving as president. I also served six years appointed to the Province of BC's Small Business Roundtable. Council Involvement: Chair of the Finance and Audit Committee for the City of Prince George Elected Director, Federation of Canadian Municipalities: 6 years Founder and member of International Students Welcoming Committee: 5 years
Regional District Alternate Director Other Volunteer Work: Board Member, Decentralised Energy Canada Board Member, Northern Interior Mining Group 2015 Canada Winter Games volunteer: Information Technology and Official Languages Past Board Member, Province of BC Small Business Roundtable (6 years) Past Chair, Prince George Society for the Employment of Persons with Disabilities. Past Board Member, Immigrant and Multicultural Services Society Past Board Member, Innovation Resource Centre