Board of Directors
Please direct all media inquiries about SWITCH to the staff (info@switchontario.ca or phone 613-417-0339).
Chairperson: Stephen W. Sottile
Phone: (613) 546-1181, ext. 2477
Email: ssottile@utilitieskingston.com
Stephen currently works as Conservation Officer for Utilities Kingston & Kingston Hydro and serves as a Fellow at the Queen’s University Institute for Energy & Environmental Policy. He has over a decade of experience in renewable energy development, having worked on successful wind power, solar domestic water heating, energy conservation, and strategy consulting projects before joining Utilities Kingston in 2006. Since that time he has worked in regulatory affairs, helped develop Canada’s first utility-run solar water heater rental program, helped plan the deployment of solar PV systems on City of Kingston-owned rooftops, and developed award-winning distributed energy grid connection policies for Kingston Hydro. In the past two years, his team has taken the equivalent of nearly 800 average Kingston Hydro customers and over 300 Utilities Kingston residential water customers “off grid” by funding and facilitating investment in energy and water conservation. Stephen has been involved with SWITCH for a decade as a member, past Executive Director, and board member.
Vice-President: John Williamson
Email: willj@kos.net
John and his wife farm in Inverary on his grandparents farm. After graduating from the University of Guelph with a B.SC (Fish and Wildlife Major), he worked for nearly 30 years in various positions across the province as a biologist and director with both the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and the Canadian Wildlife Service. John has a consulting business, Katarokwi Consulting, in operation for over 10 years, dealing with Natural Resource issues and Aboriginal groups. John is Chair of the Cataraqui Source Water Protection Committee (Minister of the Environment appointee), to develop a Source Protection Plan for municipal drinking water systems within the Kingston-Brockville-Sydenham area. He has served on several boards as a director: the Frontenac Cattlemen, the Canadian Gelbvieh Association, the South Frontenac Police Services Board, and the Frontenac Federation of Agriculture, acting as Chair of the latter two.
John has been endorsed by the 400 member Frontenac Federation of Agriculture to bring agriculture concerns to the SWITCH Board table as that link is essential to deliver alternate energy sources on agricultural land and buildings. John has a contract for a 10 kW microFIT project on his farm.
Board Member: Harriet Waterman
Phone: (613) 542-3995
Email: Harriet.Waterman@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
Harriet Waterman is an Industrial Technology Advisor with the National Research Council IRAP Program in Kingston. She has had a diverse career in industrial engineering, corporate and commercial banking, entrepreneurial ventures, consulting and currently, government. Organizations she has worked for include Imperial Oil, the Toronto-Dominion Bank, and two small global technology companies as owner/operator.
Harriet holds a B.A. Sc. in Industrial Engineering and an M.B.A. She is a Professional Engineer and Board Member of SWITCH.
Please note that Harriet is unable to respond to any media inquiries
Board Member: Christa Wallbridge
Christa Wallbridge is the Business Development Project Manager at the Kingston Economic Development Corporation. Christa joined KEDCO in 2007 after relocating home to Kingston from the west coast. She represents KEDCO at Ontario East Economic Development Commission and is a member of the Economic Developers Council of Ontario and Economic Developers Association of Canada. Prior to KEDCO, Christa lived in Victoria, BC, working for the Vancouver Island Health Authority as the Executive Assistant for the VP of Operations and Support Services where she worked in data analysis and corporate administration. Christa also spent a number of years in Toronto running her own businesses as a photographer, Reiki Master, and child care provider. Christa completed a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Toronto. She recently completed a Professional Certificate in Business Administration, as well as the Competitive Intelligence and Market Analysis program, both through the Schulich School of Business.
Board Member: Tom Carpenter
Tom Carpenter is Senior Manager and Research Associate with the Queen's Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy, and a Director with the Secretariat of the International Polar Year 2012 Wrap-up Conference. He is a former Associate Editor with Canadian Geographic Magazine and with Harrowsmith Magazine among others, and a former columnist with the National Post. He has worked with the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the Canadian Forum of Federations and the Centre for the Study of Democracy. He is Co-Chair of the Kingston Environmental Advisory Forum, a committee of Kingston City Council.
Board Member: Lisa Asbreuk
Lisa Asbreuk is a business law lawyer at Cunningham Swan LLP with a specialization in energy law. She is called to the bar in Ontario and Alberta and advises private and public sector clients on electricity sector law and policy, corporate structuring, commercial transactions, and contract negotiation and performance obligations.
Prior to returning to Kingston in 2010, Lisa practiced law at a major national law firm in the Toronto and Calgary offices and in-house with municipally owned power company ENMAX Corporation in Calgary. She has been recognized within these organizations and in her profession as a thought leader and connector. Her experience includes power purchase agreements, EPC matters, solar and wind project development, leases and options, due diligence, project finance, interconnection and transmission issues, FIT and micro-FIT regulatory requirements, conservation and DSM, distributed generation, and carbon market instruments. Lisa has written articles on energy law matters and regularly presents to clients, boards, and the public on business law topics.
Board Member: Rob Cumming
Rob Cumming is currently the Environment and Public Affairs Manager for the Ontario Cement Division facilities of Lafarge. He has been with Lafarge for eight years and has over 25 years of industrial experience in environmental management, public outreach and regulatory affairs. Prior to coming to Lafarge he was a plant manager in an environmental services company based in Sarnia, Ontario.
He has a Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering with a focus in environmental engineering and issues in the combustion of non-traditional fuels and has been a Licensed Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario for 21 years.
For the past 6 years he has led Lafarge's local efforts to find renewable, biomass based fuels for its Bath Cement plant, including work with Queen's University in a Life Cycle Assessment project and with multiple partners in a biomass fuel demonstration programme. This work has led to a multi-partner sustainable Low Carbon Fuels project, Cement 2020.
Staff
Executive Director: Tyson Champagne
Phone: (613) 417-0339
Email: tchampagne@switchkingston.ca
Tyson Champagne was born and raised in Kingston and is a graduate of Queen's University. Tyson has been interested in solar power for many years and has obtained a certificate in photovoltaic design and installation. He is also the founder of the web site Solar Power Beginner which helps 'solar power rookies' get a better understanding of solar energy. Tyson has worked previously as the 1000 Solar Rooftops Challenge Coordinator and Green Energy Business Consultant for SWITCH.
