Our Speakers

Richard Butler B.Sc. (Hons.), MSc., LL.B., is a Partner at Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers LLP. Richard practices advocacy before all levels of court and tribunals, including civil litigation, administrative appeals and defence of environmental prosecutions.

Richard provides advice and support to clients on all aspects of environmental law including regulatory compliance and approvals, contaminated land investigations and remediation and spills response, wastewater discharges and waste management.

Richard is leading the firm’s cannabis practice, including regulation at the federal, provincial and municipal levels. The firm has experience in cannabis waste, waste water and greenhouse regulation, agricultural practices and exemptions. Richard’s experience also includes Environmental Risk Assessments for food producers, farming properties and greenhouses.

Richard’s degrees in Earth Sciences and experience with mining projects in Ontario, B.C., and North of 60⁰ complement his work in assisting clients to secure mining rights and approvals, develop mining infrastructure, and manage mine waste and waste water issues. Richard frequently works with clients in the municipal, food processing, land development, construction, mining and exploration, and insurance sectors. Richard is called to the Bar in Ontario.

Jens Schmarbeck joined Aurora Cannabis 12 months ago as their global Environmental and Sustainability Manager. Previously, he worked for 7 years in different multi-national consulting companies supporting ‘Environment’ and ‘Building Science’ divisions. Jens education includes an Environmental Science degree with minors in Business and Economy from Concordia University of Edmonton. He also is an ISO 14001 auditor and has audited numerous management system.

One of his many interests outside of work is skydiving. This might sound counterintuitive to his position, but he believes that work and play activities are based on risk evaluation and mitigation. As such we can engage in some risky activities if proper protections are in place.”

With over 25 years of facilities, project and event management, construction and food and beverage operations experience, Valerie Roux, brings a wealth of knowledge to her role at HEXO Corp as VP of Installation and Security. She has been a team member on several projects with responsibilities ranging from overall facilities needs to food & beverage installations throughout her career. She has lead teams through the opening of 3 facilities including the Shaw Centre in Ottawa, Ontario (Formally the Ottawa Convention Centre), The TDECU Stadium in Houston, Texas and The Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Martin Gauthier is RWDI’s Practice Area Lead for our Air Quality group. He leads our staff to ensure RWDI is top of the industry in all topics related to air quality, including odour. Martin has contributed to some of the most demanding environmental impact assessments undertaken in Canada over the past several years, from ports to pipelines to airports. Whether the project calls for detailed modelling of odour, wind-blown dust from a specific industrial site or a complex regional air quality analysis, our clients benefit from Martin’s extensive technical knowledge as well as his passion for helping organizations solve real-world problems. Martin’s dedication and enthusiasm for all aspects of his work also shows in his energetic mentorship of junior colleagues.

Sydney Omelon Ing. is a chemical engineer with an interest in crystallization and wastewater treatment processes. Her master's thesis project was the redesign of the wastewater treatment process for a Canadian zinc refinery that was constructed at commercial scale. One of her current research programs is the recovery of waste phosphorus for re-use. She is an Associate Professor in Mining and Materials Engineering at McGill University.

Contact information: Associate Professor, Ing., Mining and Materials Engineering, M.H. Wong Building, 3610 University Ave., Room 2220, Montreal, QC, H3A 0C5 (514) 398-2608 https://sites.google.com/site/omeloncrystallizationlab/

Brian Bobbie is the Chief Operating Officer of CHAR Technologies Ltd., a publicly traded cleantech technologies & environmental firm based in Toronto, Ontario, with senior responsibility for corporate operations and resources. He is also CHAR’s clients include major food & beverage, waste processing, steel, automotive, aerospace, and general manufacturing industrial firms across Canada and internationally (Symbol TSXV: YES). Brian serves as Chair of the Air & Waste Management Association's Ontario Section Board, and is the section's past Treasurer.

Brian is also President of Altech Environmental, CHAR’s environmental consulting engineering and technology subsidiary, comprised of 20 senior engineers, scientists and support staff.

Brian received his degree in chemistry and physics from the University of Waterloo in 1978 and has more than 35 years of technical and business experience in environmental science, engineering consulting and management. Brian is a registered Chartered Chemist and a current and previous director and officer on several environmental association boards.

Originally from the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region of Québec, Paul Larouche had built a significant career managing businesses from sectors as diverse as transport, food wholesale, distribution, manufacturing and consulting before first getting involved in composting in 2005.

Since then, Paul has been at the forefront of a variety of innovative composting applications, many considered to be the first of their kind:

• First grocery store composting system (Métro Lussier Waterloo) in 2009

• First academic institution (Concordia University) in 2008

• First mining application (Dominion Diamond) in 2015

• First sports stadium (Metlife Stadium)

• A variety of licenced cannabis producers, since 2015

An important member of the local business community, Paul has been on the Board of Directors for a variety of not-for-profit organisations throughout the years. In 2011, he was awarded a special distinction from the Brome-Missisquoi Chamber of Commerce for “Local and Environmental Involvement.”

In 2014, Brome Compost became a full-fledged manufacturer in its own right and developed a keen focus on providing personalised solutions for industrial composting to businesses of all sizes.

Driven by a passion for composting as an eco-responsible solution to waste management, Paul guides the ever growing Brome Compost team in their work to provide each individual client with a composting system that is customized to their specific needs.

Whether the purpose is to manage farm mortalities, municipal organic waste, plant residues from greenhouse operations and licences producers, or organic waste in remote locations with few other feasible options, the goal is always the same for Paul:

Provide each client with the most common sense and efficient way to manage their organic waste while minimizing their environmental footprint. …What makes sense for one client may be completely different than what works best for another… even within the same industry!

Charles McGinley, P.E. is the principal of McGinley Associates, P.A., a firm that specializes in odor management consulting. Charles is also the technical director of the sensory-testing laboratory St. Croix Sensory, Inc. Charles has a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota, Institute of Technology, and a Marketing-MBA from the University of St. Thomas.

He has over 40 years of experience related to air quality issues and he holds three patents related to odor testing. McGinley Associates and St. Croix Sensory have provided engineering services, testing, technical assistance and training to a broad range of municipal, government, and industrial concerns in North America and internationally.

Kevin Jameson is the President of PureAir Filtration. PureAir is a manufacturer of custom-designed, high performance gas adsorbent systems. These systems are used for sewage odor control, emergency gas removal, protecting electronics, and indoor air quality. PureAir Filtration provides its products to world-wide customers. Mr. Jameson spend much of his time traveling the world to support PureAir’s customers and sales representative. PureAir provides air purification to such clients as the US National Archives in Washington, DC where the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution are housed.

Mr. Jameson attended Georgia Tech where he earned a Bachelor’s in Engineering and then later earned his Master’s degree in Engineer from Tech part time while continuing his career. His career began with the Torrington Company as a manufacturing engineer. He later worked for other world-class manufactures such as Siemens Automotive. Mr. Jameson first entered the air purification industry as Vice President of Operations for Purafil, Inc. more than a decade ago. Here he was able to introduce his knowledge of world class manufacturing into this industry. Mr. Jameson later left to take the reigns at PureAir Filtration where he led this team to many industry firsts. PureAir is noted to be the company that engineers go to when they have an especially difficult application.

Mr. Jameson is a certified Quality Engineer and a Six Sigma Blackbelt. He is a member of AWWA, WEF, and ASHRAE. He has served on ASTM committees and published numerous papers on the subject of air purification. He has led numerous ISO9000 implementations.

Mr. Jameson is married to his high school sweetheart Margie. They live in Peachtree Corners, GA with there two high school aged children Ashley and Tim.