Ron Zieber

Candice's Bio

Candice Paton | Executive Director, Regulatory Affairs & External Relations, Enhance Energy
Energy Futures Panel (Friday 10:30-11:30)

Candice is the Executive Director for Regulatory Affairs & External Relations at Enhance Energy, an Alberta-based carbon utilization and storage company with extensive experience in the planning and implementation of large-scale carbon capture and utilization projects (CCS) that permanently sequester CO2 emissions. She has over 15 years of experience in technology development and innovation in energy systems. 

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 an Ambassador with the Energy Futures Lab. She has been recognized as a leading female innovator as part of the Alberta Chapter of SHEInnovates and as an energy industry influencer in the Young Women in Energy 2020 awards.

Candice is passionate about energy technologies, environmental performance and impact in communities. Her family feels at home in Edmonton and Calgary and spends as much of their free time as possible exploring mountains by foot, by ski or by snowboard.

Enhance Energy

Neil's Bio

Neil Ethier | Eavor Geothermal, VP Business Development

Eavor

Jacob's Bio

Jacob Irving | President & Chief Executive Officer, Energy Council of Canada
Future of Energy Panel (Friday 10:30-11:30)

Following his longstanding participation on the Energy Council of Canada’s Board of Directors, Jacob Irving became the organization’s President in January of 2018. His nearly twenty-year career in the Canadian energy industry has been divided almost evenly between the petroleum and electricity sectors. He has spent more than half of this time, successfully leading prominent energy industry associations, including the Oil Sands Developers Group and the Canadian Hydropower Association.

Originally from the Huron and Franco-Ontarian community of Penetanguishene, Mr. Irving attended primary and secondary school entirely in French, which led him to pursue his post- secondary studies at the University of Ottawa. His education and work experience have taken him from South Africa, to Calgary, to Fort McMurray with a return to Ottawa.

Mr. Irving has significant knowledge of Canadian energy systems combined with a specialization in the areas of government policy, regulation, communications and stakeholder engagement. He is a passionate promoter of all forms of Canadian energy, particularly to international audiences, outside Canada. As the President of the Energy Council of Canada, he strongly believes that better energy conversations yield better energy decisions, especially in a sophisticated and ever-changing democracy like Canada.

Energy Council of Canada

Vanessa's Bio

Vanessa White | Director, Renewable and Alternative Energy, Alberta Innovates
Energy 101 (Friday morning)

Vanessa is the Director, Renewable and Alternative Energy in the Clean Resources Division at Alberta Innovates, where she contributes to the advancement of grid modernization in Alberta through ecosystem development and supporting technology initiatives in the areas of non-emitting electricity generation, energy storage and enabling technologies.

Prior to joining Alberta Innovates, Vanessa spent more than 20 years in the upstream petroleum industry, where she drove innovation and developed her diverse background in project management, technology development and pilot operation. Vanessa is passionate about energy literacy. In 2016, she founded a company informing elementary and junior high students about the value of diversity in the Canadian energy portfolio.

Vanessa is a Professional Engineer and past member of the Board of Directors for the Society of Petroleum Engineers Canadian Educational Foundation (SPECEF) where she was the founding chair of the organization’s Energy Literacy Committee. Vanessa’s current board positions include the Decentralized Energy Canada’s Board of Directors and Foresight Clean Tech Accelerator’s Alberta Advisory Board.

Alberta Innovates