Alistair Chapman
Marketing Director, Marinvent
Alistair Chapman is the Director of Marketing for Marinvent & Certification Center Canada. He joined Marinvent in 2018 to significantly grow the software tools and services business. Although primarily responsible for all things marketing, he is also involved with sales, business development and contracts. Prior to Marinvent, Alistair has been a senior marketing professional for 25 years including time at Bombardier where he worked on the customer experience and leadership & organizational transformation.
Saleem Sattar
Director General of Environment & Sustainable Management, Department of National Defence
Saleem Sattar was born and raised in Ottawa. He has undergraduate degrees in Biochemistry and Chemical Engineering from the University of Ottawa and has been in the public service since 1997.
Saleem spent the early part of his career at Transport Canada where he occupied positions of increasing responsibility primarily in the field of environmental management where he worked with airport and port operators to minimize the environmental impacts of their operations. He worked on various environmental initiatives including, waste reduction, energy and water conservation, air and water quality improvement, contaminated site remediation and phase outs of regulated products and substances.
Saleem moved to the Department of National Defence in 2010 where he continued to work in the field of environmental management. He managed various portfolios including hazardous materials, pollution prevention, contaminated sites and environmental compliance.
Since 2016, Saleem has been the Director General of Environment and Sustainable Management leading the DND contribution to the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy and to support the Government’s objectives on Climate Change.
Thomas Elwell
CEO & Director, KATE Energy
A true advocate for sustainability, Tom founded KATE Energy in 2016 to address the critical need to supply Canada’s remote communities and industrial operations with power and heat solutions that are cleaner, more reliable and affordable.
With more than 25 years’ experience in successful business startups, Tom has developed companies in the extractive industry as well as other private sector companies across North America. He has applied his expertise and ability to develop sustainable and efficiently operating companies to a variety of industries, including online retail, oil and natural gas, and mining, as well as to sustainable energy efficiency development projects.
Tom’s experience includes strategic development and partnerships, financing, joint ventures and acquisitions, business planning and execution, and stakeholder engagement, including both government and Indigenous relations.
James Sykes
VP Exploration & Development
Mr. Sykes brings 12 years of Athabasca Basin uranium exploration experience to the Appia Energy team, most notably leading the discovery team for NexGen’s 350 M lbs. U3O8 Arrow deposit and having provided invaluable work on Hathor Exploration’s Roughrider deposits. He was also a member of the Denison Mines exploration team that prioritized the targets that eventually became the Phoenix and Gryphon deposits. Over the past decade, he has been directly and indirectly involved with the discovery of over 450 M lbs. of U3O8 in the Athabasca Basin.
Mr. Sykes is currently spear-heading Appia’s exploration on the Alces Lake property which boasts world-class rare earth element grades. The Alces Lake property is endowed with critical rare earth elements required for permanent magnets, such as neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr) and dysprosium (Dy). With the dawn of the “Electric Vehicle” and “Wind Renewable Energy” Ages, Appia firmly believes they are in a favourable position to contribute to a North American REE production market. Appia maintains focused exploring and developing the elements required for clean energy use; uranium and REEs.
Alex Munro
Director of Capital Services, MaRS Discovery District
Before his leading Capital Advisory Services team for MaRS Discovery District’s 1,300 client companies across fintech, healthcare, cleantech, and software sectors, Alex founded, managed or invested several venture capital funds, including Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, Fronterra Ventures, Cenovus Energy Ventures, Ethanol Investments and BOC-New Ventures (now Linde Gases). Prior to venture capital, he designed energy and power hedging products for Fortis Bank and BNP Paribas. He presently advises companies seeking corporate venture capital and innovation programmes while connecting MaRS’ clients to an international network of venture capital funds and technology banks.
Zac Trolley
Manager of Operations & Project Execution, DRAKKEN
Zac Trolley is an experienced project engineer with a diverse background. He is an intrepid adventurer, dabbling futurist, and talented communicator. He has worked as a technician, designed oil field electrical systems, developed NATO communication networks, managed construction progress, and coordinated multi discipline engineering efforts. He prides himself on breaking down barriers between industries and opens lines of communication by establishing common goals.
Driven by a passion to see humanity expand beyond Earth’s gravity, Zac has invested a lot of time analyzing how humans could live on Mars. He is continually looking for ways where people can collaborate and build off of each others’ ideas. Exploration encourages innovation and he believes that, by bringing people together to work on an impossible task, we can accomplish the impossible.