Don't miss out this Thursday
OSEA FIT Webinar Series:
Getting the green for "green" projects
Finding investors for your renewable energy project
Register free - space is limited
When: Thursday March 31, 2011, at 10:00 AM (EST)
Cost: Free to all OSEA members using the following discount code. $40 for non-members. OSEA friends pay $34.
Discount Code: osea-mem-033111b
Where: Register at http://oseawebinars.eventbrite.com/
Do you need debt or equity to get your project in the ground?
Investors are looking to invest in Ontario's renewable energy sector. Join us for a one-hour webinar where we will introduce you to investors and financial advisors looking for projects and who will share their advice and perspective on what makes a project bankable, viable and attractive.
Join us on March 31st to meet potential investors and to find out how to ensure you gain the financing you need and the return on your investment that you want.
Following the webinar, we invite all OSEA Champion, Enabler and Supporter members who are looking for investors to send us their project proposals so that we may pass them on to our presenters for their consideration.
Meet the Investors:
Peter Duffus, Managing Partner of Future Acceptance Corp. (www.futureacceptance.ca), is Canada’s green energy finance centre offering the most comprehensive lending programs for Ontario’s green energy industry. Future Acceptance has capital available specifically designed for solar FIT projects. They are the only company in Canada to offer both non-recourse debt and equity financing. Their 15 year debt financing is at a fixed rate of 7%.
Peter Duffus has been a successful entrepreneur and business consultant for over 30 years, primarily in the finance and automobile industries. He has been the President and the CEO of a number of leasing and finance companies and new car dealerships. Today he continues to be active in a family business steeped in history. The Duffus family has participated in the automobile business longer than any other family in Canada. Senator J.J. Duffus introduced the automobile to central Ontario in 1903. Peter Duffus is a three time nominee for TIME magazine's Quality Dealer Award.
He has also performed work for the CEO's of such public companies as Dominion Bridge, American Eco., Molly Maid International, McKay and Hughes (North America's largest distributor of potatoes), Maple Trust, and Lease Bank Corp. He currently consults for the Community Futures Development Corp. and the Business Development Bank of Canada.
Always active in his community, Peter Duffus has just finished serving on the Milton District Hospital Foundation CT scanner and Diagnostic Imaging Renewal campaign which raised $3.8 million. He has been a director of the Milton Chamber of Commerce. Recently, he was the Chamber's fundraising Chair for the celebration marking Mayor Gordon Krantz's 25 years in office. It was deemed the most successful fundraising dinner in the history of the town. Also in Milton, Peter Duffus is a two time nominee for Business Person of the year. He's been Chairman and Director of the Milton United Way,member of the Milton Optimist Club, Zone Leader of the Halton Salvation Army Appeal,Vice Chairman and charter member of the North Halton chapter of Duck's Unlimited, Charter member. Director and fundraising chair of the World Interfaith Educational Association and member of the Royal Canadian Legion. President and Director of the Halton Federal Liberal Association, Vice President and Director of the Halton Provincial Liberal Association, Currently he is President of the Federal Liberal Golden Horseshoe Region, and as such is director of the Liberal Party of Canada (Ontario). He is an avid skier and sailor.
Karim Saleh founded Skon Technologies in 2004 and serves as Principal - President. Skon is an Ontario based financial advisory boutique focused on the Renewable Energy Sector. The firm is active in the various renewable power segments including wind and solar energy. Skon provides M&A advisory and capital raising services as well as valuation analysis of assets and companies.
Prior to Skon, Mr. Saleh operated and worked for companies in diverse fields including information technology, manufacturing and forestry (pulp and paper) products. He has held various management positions within IBM Canada Ltd., where he had responsibility to assist industrial clients transform their business practices including hands-on turnaround assignments and opportunity to remodel A&P Canada's distribution network, securing contract to build a self-service ticketing kiosks at the Greater Toronto Airport Authority, re-engineering IBM's Global Content Channel Delivery Services and developing business plan for a document management system at Manulife Financial.
During this time, Mr. Saleh also actively worked to assist Ontario SuperBuild, a public-private infrastructure arm of the Ontario Ministry of Finance to refine their business strategy. Mr. Saleh also assisted General Motors of Canada to market their cars to specific market segments more effectively.
Mr. Saleh's transition from business consulting to renewable energy investment was based on his interest in wind and solar energy, particularly during the development, construction and operation phase. He viewed the sector as a prime opportunity for long-term growth. At Skon, Saleh spends the majority of his time delivering Skon's senior level commitments to client firms and their Boards. He balances his time setting strategic priorities, coordinating activities of Skon's various transaction teams and building Skon.
Mr. Saleh has served on the Board of several civil society organizations including, the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association, the Aga Khan Economic Planning Board and the Boston University Alumni Association of Canada.
Mr. Saleh received a BSc. in Electrical Engineering from Boston University and a MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.
Michel Labbé (Mike to many), is an Urban and Regional Planning Graduate from the University of Waterloo. He has been involved in the production of affordable housing for 25 years, the first 13 working on subsidized rental projects with Lantana Non-profit Housing Corporation.
A trip, to work in the Townships of Johannesburg, South Africa, and the disappearance of government grants contributed to a shift in focus to affordable ownership housing.
Since 1992, Michel as President of Options For Homes Non-profit Corporation (http://www.optionsforhomes.ca/) has been instrumental in developing a model that can provide mixed income housing to thousands of households without any permanent government subsidy. Options For Homes has become a leading organisation in the Social Enterprise movement and has provided homes to over 3700 households across Canada.
Over the past year, Options has been selected as a Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist, has been listed on the Tides Top Ten Social Enterprises for 2007, and has won the Canadian Urban Institute Local Hero Award.
Options is also licensing its concept across Canada and internationally.
With an Honours' BCom in hand, Karlis Vasarais of Rocksteady Renewables (http://www.rocksteadyrenewables.com) started his career as a management consultant at an international management consulting firm. His areas of focus included supply chain transformation and top-line growth, with client engagements across several industries including transportation, mining, food/beverages and telecommunications. In 2006, Karlis pursued his calling in renewable energy. He joined StormFisher Ltd, an early stage private equity-funded biogas development company. He led the company's merger and acquisition activities, identifying investment opportunities and conducting due diligence, and negotiated and managed several partnerships with third parties. He later became project manager for StormFisher's flagship biogas facility, responsible for managing critical path, owning and reporting project finances, and bridging communication siloes within the project. StormFisher was sold to a joint venture of GE and AES in February 2010. Karlis has held a board position with the Latvian Youth Association of America for several years, and is an advisor to two start-up companies, a trendy urban newspaper and a rural development project in Uganda.
Moderator:
Chris Chopik (http://www.chrischopik.com) is a trusted writer, speaker and leader. A career in sales and communications combined with a passion for technology and the environment contribute to Chris' unique framework for profitable thinking about sustainability. Chris' recent pioneering work in the green real estate marketplace have provided a strong understanding of the confluence of issues facing the economy and ecology that underpin our quality of life.
Chris offers dynamic perspectives of conventional business challenges in the hyper-evolutionary space of sustainability, energy-efficiency, and commercialization. Chris consults with many organizations to overcome obstacles, achieve commercialization milestones, and to tackle emerging markets.
Ontario Sustainable Energy Association
156 Front Street West, Suite 201
Toronto, ON M5J 2L6
T: 416-977-4441 | F: 416-977-4441
www.ontario-sea.org
