Cleantech is one of the fastest growing areas of technology and currently the attracting much of the new investment and media attention. British Columbia is recognized as one of the world leaders in developing new and potential game changing technologies.
This month we have assembled a panel of Cleantech CEO’s who have companies are winning the game. The have customers, revenues and are growing.
• How did they start?
• What have they learned?
• What is their perspective on the sector?
• What is their outlook and opportunities for the sector in BC?
Join us on March 23rd and hear the answers from:
Glenn Johnson – President and Chief Executive Officer, Endurance Wind Power
David Helliwell, CEO of Pulse Energy
James Dean, CEO of dPoint Technologies
Moderated By Kirk Washington, General Partner of Yaletown Venture Partners
Glenn Johnson – President and Chief Executive Officer, Endurance Wind Power
Glenn founded Endurance Wind Power in 2008 and is responsible for the company’s overall direction and growth. His passion for affordable clean energy for everyone drives his vision for Endurance to be a market leader in the distributed wind power industry.
Prior to Endurance, Glenn founded Comsource Broadband Technologies Corp. a North American based communications distribution Company. In six short years Glenn built Comsource into the number one communications distributor in Canada for both sales and profit amassing close to $70,000,000 in sales and $6,200,000 in earnings.
Glenn has always recognized opportunities and has also owned successful businesses in the real estate and development sector as well as the hospitality industry. In 2001, Glenn founded Glace Capital Corporation a merchant bank and private equity investment firm that specializes in the investment and restructuring of established companies with compelling opportunities for growth.
Glenn has received recognition as a finalist in the Ernst and Young’s “Entrepreneur of the Year” program, was named one of Business in Vancouver’s “Top 40 under 40″ as well as Profit Magazine’s “Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies”.
David Helliwell, CEO of Pulse Energy
Pulse Energy is led by its co-founder, David Helliwell, whose career has spanned 3 continents and has been focused on the energy sector since 1994. David has been an exploration geophysicist, a poorly-paid professional windsurfing racer, a Paris-based management consultant to large multinational organizations and has spent three years running the policy shop for a cabinet minister in the Canadian federal government. While with the Canadian government, David was responsible for reducing costs and improving environmental performance of 700 million square feet of office space across the country.
David is an Action Canada Fellow, a member of the BC Cleantech CEO Alliance, recognized as a “Top 40 Under 40” and is on the Imagine BC advisory board.
James Dean, CEO of dPoint Technologies
James was first bitten with the entrepreneurial bug during his exposure to the fuel cell industry in 1998 when he moved to Vancouver from Toronto to lead KPMG’s consulting practice and landed Ballard Power Systems as a client. This series of events led James to be involved in the success of three different companies in the years that followed. In April of 2001 he and business partner David Chapman, joined Greenlight Power Technologies, a fuel cell test equipment company. They refocused the organization, moved it to Vancouver, grew sales from $3.3-million to $27-million and then sold the company in January 2003 to its closest rival, Hydrogenics Corporation.
James took his passion for clean energy and began dPoint Technologies in 2004 after he saw an opportunity to provide the fuel cell market with a low cost humidification technology. James has led his team to evolve the design and membrane materials to meet a growing demand for high efficient Energy Recovery Ventilation Cores that improve the energy efficiency of building HVAC systems.
James is an active member in Social Venture Partners, where he and fellow entrepreneurs support Starworks Packaging and Assembly that provides manufacturing and assembly services and employs people with mental disabilities.
James has an MBA from the University of Western Ontario, a BaSc. in Civil Engineering from the University of Waterloo and was recognized as one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40.
Moderated By Kirk Washington, General Partner of Yaletown Venture Partners
Kirk Washington is a founder and General Partner of Yaletown Venture Partners in Vancouver, where he leads its Cleantech investment practice. Kirk currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Microstaq, CoolEdge Lighting, NxtGEN Emission Controls, Ilcima Corporation, and as a board observer of EnerG2.
Kirk joined Yaletown after 13 years with Ballard Power Systems where he directed numerous activities including research & development, operations, corporate administration, and special projects. Most recently, as Director of Corporate Development he managed strategic partnerships, acquisitions, direct investments, and technology licensing activities.
Kirk is a mechanical engineer with over 25 years of technical and managerial experience in information technology and energy technology industries.
