Board of Directors

At our 2011 AGM we announced our new Board Members, and the Executive Officers for the next two year term were appointed:

 

Gary Hamer, President

BC Hydro, Burnaby, BC

Gary Hamer is a Technology & Innovation Manager at BC Hydro where he is helping advance world-leading energy-efficient policies, practices and technologies for BC’s residential sector. He joined BC Hydro in 2001 to provide technical support to customers and the residential marketing group.

Prior to joining BC Hydro, Gary held several engineering roles at a natural gas utility in British Columbia and an oil & gas company in Alberta.

Gary currently serves as technical committee chair with the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) to advance energy performance standards for residential equipment; on the Board of Directors for the Net-Zero Energy Home Coalition; and on the Oversight Committee for SolarBC.

He is a professional engineer in BC, a Fellow of Engineers Canada and a certified energy manager. Gary received his BSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alberta.

 

Simon Knight, Past President

Climate Change Central, Calgary, AB

As one of the original designers of Climate Change Central (C3), Simon Knight has played an important role in the organization's development and success, particularly in the area of energy efficiency. He helped design the organization's successful consumer programs which evolved to the current $36 million consumer energy efficiency rebate programs C3 delivers for the Government of Alberta.

Mr. Knight's interest in sustainable building design has kept him active in the residential and commercial building sector for many years, having served as president of the Alberta Chapter of the Canada Green Building Council and on the board of the Canadian Energy Efficiency Alliance and as the current President of the Net-Zero Energy Home Coalition.

Prior to joining C3, Mr. Knight worked in the environmental field within the Alberta government for 20 years. At Alberta Environment, he worked on issues such as biodiversity, in-stream flow needs, information management and Environmental Impact Assessments. He has a Bachelor of Biological Sciences from the University of Guelph.

 

Gordon Shields, Vice President

Individual Contributor, Nepean, ON

Gordon Shields is one of the founders and is the past Executive Director of the Net-Zero Energy Home Coalition. As Executive Director, Mr. Shields’ role was to help expand the Coalition’s network of industry knowledge and participation and identify areas where government and private sector stakeholders can help accelerate community scale NZEH deployment. Through the Coalition, Mr. Shields has led the private sector proposal for supporting a 1500 net-zero energy home demonstration initiative that was endorsed by the federal government (Canada Mortgage and Housing) in 2005. Through the organization of workshops and industry outreach, the Coalition remains active in developing homebuilder and cross-sectoral support for advancing knowledge and investment in net-zero energy housing design and construction.

Previously, Gordon has worked as a senior consultant to a national government relations consulting firm and led his own private practice for ten years serving clients in the areas of environment and energy, dealing largely with climate change and energy policy, deployment programs for renewable energy technologies and, regulatory matters. He has also served as an advisor to three Federal Members of Parliament.

 

Cory Krygier, Acting Vice-President

Jigsaw Homes, Calgary, AB

 

Cory Krygier is co-founder of Jigsaw Homes Inc., a Calgary based home-builder focused on building single family and small multi-family projects with specific attention to architectural design, exceptional finishing and sustainability. Jigsaw Homes has grown to become one of Calgary’s largest inner city builders over the past 8 years.

Cory graduated with a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Calgary in 1999 and upon graduation worked at one of Calgary’s large Architectural firms where he was involved in projects varying in scale from single family homes to large commercial projects.

Cory, along with his business partner, has undertaken an aggressive reposition of Jigsaw Homes over the past three years to establish Jigsaw as one of the foremost sustainable builders in Canada. Setting high benchmarks for quality and sustainability Jigsaw has been able to achieve excellent results to date and continues to push the limits of both performance and affordability.

Cory also sits as a director of the Net-Zero Energy Homes Coalition and is an active member on the steering committee of a new social innovation initiative in Calgary.

 

Frank Baker, Treasurer/Secretary

Individual Contributor, Blissfield, MI

Frank has over 16 years of experience at General Motors Corporation as an Engineer in Mechanical/Electrical, Packaging, Architectural/Mechanical and as a the Industrial Engineering Department Supervisor.

In 1979 Frank founded Riverbend Timber Framing Inc, now the largest custom timber frame/insulated panel building system fabricator in the US. He was the CEO/Owner until 2007. In 1990 he founded Midwest Panel Systems dba: Great Lakes Insulspan, a Midwest Structural Insulated Panel manufacturer and was the CEO/Owner until 2007. In 1994 he co-founded and was the CEO/Owner of Insulspan Inc., a licensor of Insulspan SIP panel manufacturers. Since 2004 he has been a member of PFB Corporation’s Board of Directors.

 

His affiliations are numerous and include SIPA, Timber Frame Business Council, Timber Frame Guild, Building Systems Council of NAHB, Toledo Home Builders’ Association Green Building Committee, USGBC Toledo Chapter, Southeast Michigan Builders’ Association, Washtenaw County Builders’ Association, Lenawee County Builders’ Association, and of course the Net-Zero Energy Home Coalition.


Frank has a Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Kettering University, formerly the General Motors Institute.

 

Robert Armstrong, Director

BASF Canada Inc., Mississauga, ON

Robert Armstrong is the Manager of Marketing and Business Development for BASF Canada’s polyurethanes group. He is responsible for the business group’s approach to building and construction markets within Canada and the marketing of BASF Canada’s polyurethane insulation/air barrier systems. For the past 7 years the main focus of his work has been promoting best practices for improving the energy efficiency of residential and non-residential construction through improvements to the building envelope.

Robert joined BASF in 2001 after completing an International MBA at Schulich School of Business. In addition to his work with energy efficient construction and Net Zero Energy Homes, he has been involved in a number of sustainable development initiatives including managing life cycle analysis projects within the Canadian market. He is also a LEED Accredited Professional and has served as the chair of the Canadian Plastics Industry Association’s Green Building Task Force.

 

Ann Edminster, Director

Design AVEnues LLC, Pacifica, CA

Ann Edminster’s preoccupation with net-zero energy homes has been foreshadowed by a number of her life events:
  • 1966 (age 10) first manifested inborn passion for minimizing waste in all forms by volunteering at her town’s new recycling center;
  • 1969 spent many hours cleaning birds stricken in the Santa Barbara oil spill, galvanizing lifelong dedication to environmental restoration;
  • 1974 began formally studying buildings at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo (B.S. Architecture, 1978);
  • 1977-78 lived in Florence, Italy, became ardent critic of North America’s resource-intensive and socially destructive development patterns;
  • 1983-85 lived in Phoenix and experienced the worst of American development firsthand;
  • 1987-93 founded and led small non-profit dedicated to ecological restoration;
  • 1991 resolved to shift professional practice 100% to the nascent field of green building, completed that transition 1995 with M.Arch. degree from UC Berkeley;
  • 1996-98 researched and wrote Efficient Wood Use in Residential Construction;
  • 1999-2004 instrumental in development of LEED for Homes (steering committee, chair, co-chair);
  • 2005-2008 participated in LEED for Homes pilot implementation, worked on several net-zero homes;
  • 2009 wrote and published Energy Free: Homes for a Small Planet;
  • 2010-2011 living, sleeping, breathing, teaching net-zero energy homes.

 

David Johnston, Director

What's Working Inc., Boulder, CO

For the last 30 years David has been working to transform the building industry to become greener and more sustainable.

For ten years David’s award winning company Lightworks Construction Inc. built passive solar homes and offices. His company What’s Working developed the first green building code in the US for the City of Boulder, CO. David also established the first private sector green building program in Denver through the local HBA. It was the largest program in the private sector and was the catalyst for NAHB to develop national green building guidelines. He was also a co-director of the original LEED for homes development process in 2000. David conducts training for hundreds of building industry professionals each year and is one of the founding trainers for the Green Advantage Certification for green builders.

David has written four books on the topic of Green Building/Remodelling, one of which is “Toward a Zero Energy Home”, winner of the 2010 Nautilus Award. Articles by David have been published in numerous magazines and journals and he has been featured in all the major building publications as well as newspapers. He holds several professional memberships and his work has won many awards. He has also been very active in his community service through volunteer work on many boards.

 

Paul Locke, Director

E. I. du Pont Canada Company, Mississauga, ON

Paul is a Certified Tyvek® Specialist and has been with DuPont for 18 years and 8 years with BASF prior to that. Paul has extensive experience in technical and business development, sales and account management within various businesses including automotive and his current role within DuPont Building Innovations.

Paul has been on the board of the NZEH Coalition for the past two years. He is an active member of the CHBA Manufacturing council and Renovator Committee and is a member of OBEC, OHBA, BILD, and GOHBA. Paul graduated from the University of Waterloo in 1984 with a degree in Honours Applied Chemistry.