Expert Guests

Colin's Bio

Colin Angus is a leading adventurer, filmmaker and bestselling author of Amazon Extreme, Lost in Mongolia, Beyond the Horizon and Rowed Trip.

He was awarded National Geographic’s Adventurer of the Year award for being the first to circle the world exclusively by human power, was listed by Outside Magazine as one of the world’s top 25 bold visionaries and is a Canadian Geographic Fellow.

Colin’s human-powered circumnavigation of the world included travelling 43,000 km in 720 days, rowing across the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, trekking and cycling through 16 countries, enduring winter in Siberia and searing heat in the tropics. He is also the first to raft the world’s fifth longest river, the Yenisey, and is one of a handful of teams to successfully raft the Amazon river from source to sea.  Colin’s spent years offshore sailing and has rowed thousands of kilometers in waterways around the world.

Colin is also an award-winning filmmaker whose films have aired around the world on National Geographic television and in film festivals. Some of his awards include Best Adventure Film at Taos Mountain Film Festival for Beyond the Horizon and Best Adventure Film at the Telluride Mountain Film festival for The Yenisey River Expedition.

Angus Adventures

Jessica's Bio

Jess is passionate about creating connections between people and forests. A graduate from University of Toronto’s Master of Forest Conservation program, Jessica (Jess) Kaknevicius has spent over 15 years in the non-profit sector including nearly nine years with Forests Ontario in a range of management and director roles between 2009 and 2018, focusing on growing education and awareness programming, fundraising, and supporting strategic development for the organization.

She also acted as the Vice-President of Education for the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), where she played a critical senior leadership role overseeing philanthropic efforts and government agreements, governance, and supporting strategic planning and communications. She is a well-known advocate for the forest sector and co-founded Women in Wood, a networking group for women in the forest and wood-related sectors to share advice, information, and encouragement.

Forests Ontario

Women in Wood

Jason's Bio

Jason Krips has been the President and CEO of the Alberta Forest Products Association (AFPA) since April 2020. In his role, Jason works with the Alberta forest industry and policy makers to grow this vitally important renewable and sustainable sector, which currently creates jobs for over 30,000 Albertans.

Prior to joining AFPA, Jason spent nearly 20 years with the Government of Alberta in numerous roles, with his last 6.5 years as Deputy Minister of two different ministries – Economic Development, Trade and Tourism and Agriculture and Forestry. A lawyer by training, Jason has a strong and diverse background in the areas of industry policy, issues management, team building and stakeholder engagement.

Alberta Forest Products Association

Micheal's Bio

Michael Wagner is a Registered Professional Forester and Forest Hydrologist with the Government of Alberta - Ministry of Forestry and Parks. He has over 20 years of experience in research hydrology, forestry, and land and watershed management issues. The position he has with the Forestry Division is focused on developing policy and decision support tools related to sustainable forest management and cumulative effects for addressing water and watershed management issues across Alberta’s forested regions.

Alberta Ministry of Forestry, Parks & Tourism

Alix's Bio

Alix is focused on supporting the development of the new SFI Urban and Community Forestry Sustainability Standard. As part of SFI’s urban and community forestry team, Alix works to increase the resiliency and sustainability of communities, both large and small. She is passionate about urban forestry and creating sustainable standards for the forest sector.

Before joining SFI, she worked as a tree specialist at a nursery, a landscape technician for the City of Edmonton, and was part of the environmental team at the District of North Vancouver. Alix holds a Bachelor of Urban Forestry from the University of British Columbia and is pursuing an Environmental Management Certificate from the University of Calgary.