Board of Directors
Please see below for the members of the Riverbank Power's Board of Directors
Chairman of the Board
Directors
John Douglas
Dr. Vince Lamarra
Brent Smith
Cyrille Vittecoq
Francois Boudreault
Dr. Robert Klein
Dr. John Boyd
Georges Dick
Donald Jessome
Keith Lord
Hon. David Peterson, P.C., Q.C., O. Ont., C. St. J., L. d’H.
Mr. Peterson was appointed Chairman of Riverbank’s Board on April 28, 2008. Mr. Peterson has a long standing history of public service and directorship of private, charitable, educational and environmental organizations. In 1975, Mr. Peterson was elected as a Member of the Ontario Legislature becoming the leader of the Ontario Liberal Party in 1982 and served as Premier of the Province of Ontario between 1985 and 1990. Mr. Peterson is currently a senior partner and Chairman of the Toronto law firm of Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP, where he practices corporate/commercial law. Within the energy sector, Mr. Peterson is Chairman of the Board of TDI. He is a director of a number of public and private companies including Rogers Communications Inc., Franco-Nevada Corporation and Shoppers Drug Mart and was the Founding Chairman of the Toronto Raptors Basketball Club Inc. and Chapters Inc. Mr. Peterson holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Western Ontario and a Bachelor of Law Degree from the University of Toronto and studied at the University of Caen, France. He was called to the Bar in Ontario in 1969 and appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 1980 and was summoned by Her Majesty to the Privy Council in 1992. He was awarded the Order of Ontario in 2009.
John Douglas, CA, CBV
Mr. Douglas is the founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Riverbank. Mr. Douglas has a strong history of value creation, successfully leading two energy companies from inception through to acquisition. Until recently, Mr. Douglas served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Ventus, a company which he co-founded in 2004 to develop wind farms in Canada. Ventus was sold to GDF-Suez S.A. in 2007 for approximately $200 million. Mr. Douglas also co-founded TDI in 2008, which is currently developing the Champlain-Hudson Power Express, an innovative underwater High Voltage direct current transmission cable between Montreal and New York City. In January 2010, TDI was sold to Blackstone after being in operation for 14 months. In 2002, Mr. Douglas was Co-Head of Investment Banking, Senior Vice President and Director at Canaccord Genuity Corp. (formerly Canaccord Capital Corporation) in Toronto. Prior to his time at Canaccord Genuity Corp., Mr. Douglas was a Senior Vice President and Director in the Investment Banking group at Sprott Securities Inc. (now Cormark Securities Inc.) (“Sprott”). Mr. Douglas joined Sprott in 1996 and participated in the employee buy-out of the majority ownership position from its founder Eric Sprott in 2000. While at Sprott, he served as a member of Sprott’s Steering and Risk Committees. Mr. Douglas earned his Bachelors Degree in Economics at the University of Waterloo in 1985. Mr. Douglas is a Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Business Valuator.
Dr. Vince Lamarra, PhD
Dr. Vince Lamarra is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Symbiotics. Dr. Lamarra has extensive experience in the development of hydroelectric projects and directing multi-disciplinary projects and was involved in the White River shale data management and aquatic investigations in the early 1980s. He has published extensively regarding his work in the Colorado River, associated with both oil shale development and water pollution. He has worked for over 20 years as Principal Investigator of the Bear Lake Preservation Project. His activities have included continued baseline monitoring, development of water quality management plans, implementation of stream and riparian reclamation projects, and watershed management. Recently, he directed the Total Maximum Daily Loads (“TMDL”) process in developing a Water Quality Management Plan for the Bear River in Utah, as well as serving as project manager for two mainstem TMDL studies on the Bear River. Dr. Lamarra received his Ph.D. in 1974 from the University of Minnesota, where he specialized in limnology and fisheries science. From 1975 to 1981, he taught Aquatic Ecology and Limnology at Utah State University.
Brent Smith
Mr. Smith is co-founder and Chief Operations Officer of Symbiotics. Mr. Smith has over 30 years of hydroelectric development, consulting and operational experience in the United States and Central America. His expertise includes project design, site evaluation, permitting, contract negotiations, construction and low impact certification. Prior to joining Symbiotics, Mr. Smith was a Project Manager at Bingham Engineering from 1988-1994. He was responsible for construction activities, subcontractor performance, environmental compliance and on site resource agency interface for all major hydroelectric projects.
Cyrille Vittecoq, CFA
Mr. Vittecoq has been a director of Riverbank since December 2010. He began his career as an analyst at the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec in 1993, following which he was promoted to manager, a position he occupied until 1997. From 1997 to 2000, he was Vice President, Finance of Boralex Inc., an independent publicly traded energy producer based in Québec. In 2000, Mr. Vittecoq returned to the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec as Director, Investments. In 2006 he was promoted to Vice President, Investments – Energy and a member of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec Private Equity Group Management’s Committee. Over the past few years, Mr. Vittecoq has been actively involved in and carried out a number of large transactions in the energy sector in North America, including the acquisition of Hydro-Québec’s interest in Noverco in 2004. He has also been involved in the debt and equity financing of a number of large power plant projects. Mr. Vittecoq was a director of Canadian Hydro Developers Inc. from 2002 to 2008. He has been a director of Innergex Renewable Energy Inc. since December 2007. He has a bachelor’s degree in management from the Université de Sherbrooke (1989) and has been a Chartered Financial Analyst since 1994.
Francois Boudreault
François Boudreault is an Investment Manager at Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. He is working with the private equity team and has 10 years of experience in direct investment activities in Energy, Natural Resources and Financial Services businesses. He began his career at GE Capital – Commercial Equipment Finance in 2000.
Mr. Boudreault holds a Master of Science in Administration (M.Sc.), Finance, from HEC Montréal as well as a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. Mr. Boudreault is a member of the Montreal Society of Financial Analysts.
Dr. Robert Klein, PhD
Dr. Klein has been a director of Riverbank since October 15, 2010. Dr. Klein joined Symbiotics in 2006 as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Commercial Officer where he has been primarily responsible for financial measurement and reporting, human resources, strategy and commercial management. Dr. Klein has an illustrious and extensive career in the energy industry. Having started his career in 1969 as a research engineer with Shell Oil Company (“Shell”) in the State of Texas, Dr. Klein was appointed a senior economist at Shell in 1976 where he held that position until 1983. Dr. Klein went on to assume several senior management positions in the energy industry: (i) from 1983 to 1989 Dr. Klein held the position of General Manager for Vista Chemicals Inc. (Texas), (ii) from 1990 to 1991 Dr. Klein was the chief operating officer of Continental Controls Inc. (Texas); (iii) from 1991-1992 Dr. Klein was the Vice President of Wright Killen & Associates, an energy consultant company; (iv) from 1992 to 1995 Dr. Klein was the President of Vector Associates (Texas), an energy consultant company; (v) from 1994 to 1997 Dr. Klein was the Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Primo Systems Inc. (Texas), a risk management systems company; (vi) from 1997 to 1998 Dr. Klein was the Vice President of Risk Control and Analysis of Coral Energy, LP (Texas); and (vii) from 1999-2000 Dr. Klein was the Vice President and Director of Corporate Risk of Equitable Resources Inc. (Pennsylvania). More recently, from 2000 to 2002 Dr. Klein was the Senior Vice President of Commecial and Trading of ScottishPower’s subsidiary PacifiCorp (Oregon). At PacifiCorp Dr. Klein oversaw the trading, origination, structuring, pricing as well as various other functions. From 2002 to 2006, Dr. Klein was appointed Group Energy Risk Director of ScottishPower (Glasgow) where he was responsible for risk measurement and risk management worldwide, Group credit risk management and the Group’s insurance functions. Dr. Klein holds a bachelors degree with highest honors in Chemical Engineering from Clarkson University (NY) and a masters degree and doctorate degree (summa cum laude) in economics from Rice University (Texas).
Dr. John Boyd, P.Eng, PhD
Dr. John Boyd has been a Director since August 25, 2008. Dr. Boyd is a past President of Golder Associates, a global ground engineering and environmental services company where his career spanned 33 years. While at Golder, Dr. Boyd was involved in the construction of the Drafensburg 1,000 MW Pumped Storage project in South Africa. Mr. Boyd has served as a director on several of the boards of companies in the Golder group, has also served as a Director (and later Chairman) of the Waterloo Centre for Groundwater Research, a Member of the Faculty Advisory Board of McGill University Engineering Faculty, a Director and Chairman of the Association of Consulting Engineers Canada, and a Director and subsequently President of Peel Red Cross. Dr. Boyd is also a past President of the International Federation of Consulting Engineers and was responsible for the FIDIC Sustainable Development Task Force that developed a system of sustainability indicators for engineering project use on behalf of FIDIC’s 79 member countries, which included as participants Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Kingdoms of the Netherlands and Denmark, South Africa, and Japan. Dr. Boyd is a graduate of the University of Toronto (B.A.Sc., Geological Engineering, 1966 and M.A.Sc., Structural Geology, 1967), the University of London (D.I.C., Structural Geology and Rock Mechanics, 1970) and the Imperial College (Ph.D., Engineering and Rock Mechanics, 1976).
Georges Dick, Eng
Mr. Georges Dick has been a Director since July 15, 2010. Since 1997, Mr. Dick has been the President and CEO of Groupe RSW, a firm of consulting engineers specialized in engineering and project management applied to the energy, industrial, urban infrastructure, building, environment, transportation, mining and telecommunications sectors. Under his leadership, Groupe RSW has grown to become an international business with offices in Canada, Algeria, Malta, India and Vietnam and projects in more than 50 countries. Prior to assuming the role of President and Chief Executive Officer of Groupe RSW, for 15 years, Mr. Dick was active in the design, cost control and scheduling as well as management of various industrial, mining and hydroelectric projects. For instance, Mr. Dick has been involved in the construction and rehabilitation of some of the largest hydroelectric facilities in Canada, including the La Grande Hydro Complex and the Beauhamois Power Plant.
Donald Jessome, MBA, P.Eng
Mr. Jessome held the position of Vice-President of Marketing and Trading at Riverbank from April 2008 to January 2010 and has been a Director since September 29, 2009. In June 2008, Mr. Jessome co-founded TDI where he is currently President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Jessome left Riverbank in a managerial position at this time to focus his efforts at TDI but remains a Director on Riverbank’s Board. Prior to his time at Riverbank and TDI, Mr. Jessome spent 22 years at Emera Inc., a publicly traded company in Canada with $5.3 billion in energy infrastructure assets centered on power and natural gas. Mr. Jessome has worked in a broad range of areas while at Emera Inc. including Transmission & Distribution Operations and Construction, Integrated System Planning, System Operations, Generation Operations and Fuel Procurement, Marketing and Sales, and most recently Director of Asset Optimization and Power Trading for Emera Energy Inc. a wholly-owned non-regulated trading and asset optimization company of Emera Inc. During this tenure, Mr. Jessome has sat on numerous advisory boards including his membership as one of the inaugural members of the NBSO Market Advisory Committee and a founding member of the CEA Power Marketing Committee. Mr. Jessome earned his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University of Nova Scotia (currently referred to as Dalhousie University) in 1987 and his Masters of Business Administration, with Distinction, from Saint Mary’s University in 1999.
Keith Lord, MBA
Keith Lord has been a Director since October 21, 2008. Mr. Lord has been involved with the North American power sector for almost 20 years. From 1997-2005 he was Co-Head of M&A for the Global Power Group at Lehman Brothers in New York, and prior to that he served in similar capacities for Wasserstein Perella and Salomon Brothers. During the course of his career, Mr. Lord has advised on many of the industry’s most significant transactions, including: Texas Utilities’ acquisition of The Energy Group, Dominion Resources’ acquisitions of Consolidated Natural Gas and East Midlands Electricity, AES Corp’s acquisitions of IPALCO and CILCORP, MidAmerican Energy’s sale to a group led by Berkshire Hathaway, and the Chapter 11 Reorganizations of Pacific Gas & Electric, Cajun Electric Power, and El Paso Electric Company. Mr. Lord is currently a Director of TDI and the Managing Director of the Global Power and Utilities Group at UBS. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Columbia University.