ACTia Staff

Jason Switzer

Executive Director

Jason Switzer joined ACTia as Executive Director in April 2016, after over 15 years in international development and corporate environmental management with positions including leading the Pembina Institute’s national sustainability consulting team, and championing environmental excellence and greenhouse gas leadership at Cenovus Energy Inc. and Shell Canada’s Oil Sands. Prior to this Jason provided consulting to a range of conservation and development agencies on natural resource-intensive business in conflict zones. Today, Jason is vice chair of the Clean Resources Innovation Network, a founding director at Biological Carbon Canada, and a member of the CSA Committee on Transition and Sustainable Finance. Jason holds master’s degrees in environmental engineering and in public policy from MIT and is a Harvard-trained environmental mediator, a Clean 50 recipient, an alumnus of Leadership Calgary, and a fellow at the World Commission on Dams.

Sydney Kjellander

Managing Director

Sydney Kjellander is dedicated to supporting the growth of Alberta’s Clean Tech Sector through her role as the Managing Director of ACTia. A keen strategist and collaborator, she leads the operations team at ACTia and is known for the development of their highly successful deal-flow events that have generated over $18 million in potential deal flow for Alberta’s cleantech ventures. She has worked globally across multiple sectors and has a hands-on and diverse background – from field research in the Arctic, to business management and contaminated sites consulting. She was the project leader of the popular Alberta Cleantech Ecosystem Map, which provides a clear path for investors to discover Alberta’s cleantech opportunities, and for startup companies to access funding and navigate industry resources. She is a Fellow of the Energy Futures Lab, where she supports the Hydrogen and Lithium initiatives.

Sydney has an MBA in Entrepreneurship and a BA in Geography, both from the University of British Columbia.

Amanda Lo

Lead – External

Amanda Lo is Lead, External, at ACTia where she works towards making Alberta a global leader in Clean Tech. She manages ACTia’s day-to-day operations, including member correspondences, monthly events, and marketing. Amanda has a BSc in Geophysics from UofC, providing a strong technical understanding of, and appreciation for, the Clean Tech startups she supports. Her marketing and operations skills were cultivated through her prior role as the VP of Events and Marketing for the Heart of the City – a non-profit piano program focused on providing music lessons to underprivileged youth. In early 2020, she was selected to participate in the 2020 Leading Change Forum in Vancouver – a program for young professionals with the common vision to achieve a more sustainable future.

Andrea Bravo

Analyst – Clean Tech

Andrea is a collaboration and communication-driven individual specializing in environmental and agricultural economics and policy. Andrea has worked in environmental sustainability since 2017 and has demonstrated experience in research, data analysis, event and project coordination and non-profit administration. Prior to joining ACTia in Calgary, Andrea worked at Ontario Agri-Food Technologies as Communication Coordinator. Andrea graduated from the University of Guelph with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and a major in environmental economics and policy.

ACTia Board Executive

Russel Matichuk

Chair

Rus is the CEO of Gerard Developments Ltd. which owns and manages ten hotels in Alberta and BC and has a number of other investments including Grove RV, Solaris Equestrian, plus other properties and business interests in the Edmonton area, Jasper, Canmore, and Valemount, BC.

Rus has played key roles in launching and growing a number of financially oriented or industry focused associations or initiatives in Alberta, including ACTia, Deal Generator, VenturePrize, Banff Venture Forum, and InfoTech Alberta. Rus continues to be active as a board member or volunteer with both private and public organizations and brings 30 years of management experience in different industries.

Rus holds a B.Ed. Business with Distinction from the University of Alberta.

Matt McCulloch

Vice Chair

Matt oversees the Greenhouse Gas Environmental Priority Area at COSIA, leading effective collaboration efforts to advance progress on all GHG mitigation and cost reduction technologies and best practices. Working closely with senior technology leads of all COSIA members, he helps to design and deliver on a collective strategy to dramatically reduce costs and GHG emissions in the oil sands.

Jason Switzer

Executive Director

Todd Scaletta

Treasurer

Prior to joining CPA Alberta, Todd was the President and CEO of CPA Manitoba. He has also worked for CPA Canada in the Research, Guidance, and Support department and represented CPA Canada on several international committees. Prior to these roles, Todd has 15 years of experience working in industry (construction, real estate development, insurance, and education). He also taught management accounting courses at the University of Manitoba in MBA and BComm programs, the University of Winnipeg, and MacEwan University.

Todd facilitates the Innovation and Technology Program.

John Goetz

Secretary

John Goetz is a principal at EnerNext Partners. John has extensive experience advising clients in the energy and cleantech sector. As a co-founder of EnerNext Partners, John brings his energy and cleantech experience and insights to these rapidly evolving and related areas of practice.

John works closely with energy and cleantech clients on their corporate commercial matters. He has significant experience with large oil sands construction and infrastructure projects, mergers and acquisitions and operational matters. John also advises energy and cleantech clients on renewable energy and cleantech projects and the integration of emissions trading and climate change strategy. John enjoys working with early stage cleantech and energy companies.

As a leading cleantech and climate change practitioner, John has advised on some of Canada’s first carbon capture and sequestration projects and is currently advising on what could be Canada’s largest CO2 sequestration and enhanced oil recovery projects, located in Alberta. John co-authored a report for Alberta Economic Development Authority on Enhanced Oil Recovery in Carbon Capture and Storage. He also co-authored “The Development of Emissions Trading In Canada” which was published in the Alberta Law Review.

ACTia Board Directors

Jeff Reading

Jeff is President of Actions Matter, an independent, social enterprise business intent on efforts that address energy innovation, energy efficiency, climate change mitigation and adaption, sustainability, energy and environmental literacy and business commercialization of clean tech solutions.

Jeff has more than 35 years’ experience in the environmental field. He has worked in education with the North York Board of Education, Calgary Board of Education and provincially through the Alberta Teacher’s Association; risk management around the world; provided leadership to government with the City of Calgary and the Government of Alberta; supported the build out of a number of energy and tech start-ups; and been active in the not-for profit sector with Climate Change Central (C3) and Carbon Management Canada (CMC).

In addition, Jeff teaches at the University of Calgary and is also the Chair for the Green Learning Canada Foundation (GLCF), co-founder and Board member of the Alberta Council for Environmental Education (ACEE), an advisor with Carbon Talks Canada and sits of the Alberta Ecotrust Foundation Grant Review Committee.

When Jeff is not working, he enjoys international travel and wilderness adventures with his family.

Simon Knight

Simon has been working in the field of protecting the environment since 1981. Today he is working as an environmental entrepreneur with PURE Reserve and is involved in the creation of several cleaner energy start-ups. Simon serves on the Advisory Board of FUSE, a rebranded student club at the University of Calgary formerly called ISEEESA. He was the first Chairman of the Alberta Chapter of the Canada Green Building Council and the first President of the Net Zero Energy Home Coalition.

His previous position was as the President and CEO of Climate Change Central (C3). He served in this position for 8 years prior to the wind down of the organization. Prior the CEO position he served as the Director of Energy Efficiency at C3. During his tenure he created or oversaw work in energy efficiency and conservation covering residential homes, commercial buildings, alternative energy, alternative transportation fuels, commercial taxis and trucking and many more programs. In addition he oversaw the operations of the Alberta portion of the offset registry.

Prior to C3 Simon spent 21 years working in various positions in the provincial government in Park and Recreation and Environment. His career shifted from Senior Policy Advisory when he was seconded to Climate Change Central in 2000.

Jana Hanova

Jana Hanova has over 12 years of CleanTech, Power and Oil & Gas experience across North America and the Middle East. Prior to joining Evok Innovations (a Canadian CleanTech Fund) as a Director, Jana worked with Creative Destruction Lab – Rockies as the CleanTech and Energy Stream Venture Lead, connecting tech start-ups with Smart Money & Mentorship.

In addition to her tech start-up ecosystem experience, she led and managed multiple large Private & Public company engagements as a management and strategy consultant with PwC – in both the Middle East (UAE, Qatar, Oman, Saudi) and Alberta (Canada). She also worked with the International Energy Agency and the CTO Office of BC Hydro on accelerating the deployment of emerging technologies, with particular focus on electrification, decentralized energy and alternative energy systems.

Jana holds a M.Sc. in Resource Management and Environmental Science from the University of British Columbia and a B.Sc. (First Class Hons) in Geology/Geophysics from the University of Calgary.

Candice Paton

Candice is the Executive Director – Clean Technology at Alberta Innovates. She and her team partner with industry, academia and entrepreneurs to accelerate the development, demonstration and adoption of innovative cleantech solutions that will benefit Alberta; particularly with respect to our energy transition to a low carbon emissions future.

Candice is passionate about energy technologies and the efforts required to move the needle on environmental performance. She holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and a M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering.

She is registered as a Professional Engineer with APEGA and is a Fellow with the Energy Futures Lab.

She has recently been recognized as an honorary leading female innovator as part of the Alberta Chapter of SHEinnovates.

Connie Raddatz

Connie joined the ACTia Board in April 2017. Most recently Connie has been working with Innovate Calgary leading a variety of Innovation Ecosystem project including the pilot program Green Tech Mentors. During this project, Connie and the team built a network of early stage clean tech companies. The team also proactively built national and international connections to global best-in-class clean tech incubators and accelerators along with investors and connections to corporates in the sector. She continues to work on projects involving the development of the clean tech sector and innovation in general across Western Canada.

Connie has assisted organisations of all sizes over her career and has deep knowledge in the development of strategy and finance. She was an investment banker at Deutsche Bank cumulatively working on over $100 billion of transactions. She also mentors smaller sized organisations on their corporate finance needs. Connie teaches Advanced Finance and Innovation at The University of British Columbia, Okanagan.

Stuart Lomas

Stuart Lomas founded his first Alberta technology company in 1983, and since has contributed to projects across Canada, the US, Europe, and the Far East. A veteran of several small Alberta startups, Stuart has also worked with global companies including General Electric and Hewlett Packard.

Stuart is a software developer by training, and has worked in oil and gas, new computer development, telecommunications, medical devices, banking, and industrial automation.

Stuart has a BSc in Computing Science and an MBA from the University of Alberta. He is currently President of Turreco Properties Inc. as well as the President of the Alberta Council of Technologies.

Nathan Ashcroft

Nathan is a professional engineer with approx. 20 years building projects, technology and business development centered in the energy sector: oil sands, upstream, gas plants, pipeline and terminal facilities, refinery, environmental and tailings projects. In Nathan’s roles as process engineer and engineering and project manager on small, medium and multibillion dollar projects he has traversed the globe through North America, Europe, Middle East and Asia. He is a champion of new concepts and technology commercialization from idea through to successful operation.

Nathan’s sweet spot is his ability to draw high performers together into world class teams. He is a registered professional engineer member, 2008, APEGGA (Alberta, Canada) and Chartered Engineer, Institute of Mechanical Engineers, UK (IMechE). He further holds a B.Eng. (Hons) Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering, University of Wales – 1998, and is a member of PMI.

Michael Cohen

A biologist by training, Michael Cohen has worked in research, education and government. As a researcher, he spent 20 years in the fields of agricultural biotechnology and pest management, holding positions at the University of Arizona, the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, and the University of Alberta.

More recently, Michael worked for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Alberta Advanced Education and Technology in regulatory affairs, science policy, and industry development, and as a instructor at NAIT. He is currently active as a consultant and angel investor.

Michael has an MSc in Biological Sciences from Simon Fraser University and a PhD in Entomology from the University of Illinois.