The Woodland Team
Woodland Biofuels has assembled a management team, Board of Directors and group of investors that bring a wealth of experience from the cleantech, biofuels, engineering, chemicals, forestry, and financial sectors.
Deepak Datta | Chief Operating Officer
Management Team
Greg Nuttall | President and CEO
Greg Nuttall is one of the founding CEO’s of the world’s waste-to-fuel industry. Prior to becoming CEO of Woodland, Greg was a partner at Rubicon Investment Group, a merchant bank focused on accelerating the growth of the companies it acquires and invests in. Before this Greg was co-founder and CEO of a leading change management consulting firm that helps large and mid-sized organizations in Canada and the United States. At the outset of his career Greg was an M&A and corporate finance lawyer. As a lawyer he practiced at Clifford Chance, one of the world's largest law firms, where he was based in London, and Torys, a leading corporate law firm with practices in Toronto and New York. Greg has also been a successful technology investor as a venture partner of New Economy Capital. Greg earned his Master of International Laws degree at Cambridge University and is a Pegasus Scholar.
Deepak Datta brings a wealth of experience in developing projects from concept to operations on four continents. Prior to joining Woodland Biofuels Deepak was President of Reliance Project Management Group, the engineering and construction arm of Reliance Industries. Deepak was responsible for simultaneous execution of large capital projects with overall capex in excess of US$15 billion. During this time he was also responsible for oversight of over 6,500 professionals and 150,000+ craft labor employees. Prior to joining Reliance, Deepak was part of the senior leadership team of Fluor and Bechtel/Bantrel, two of the largest global EPC companies. He is a graduate Chemical Engineer from University of Waterloo and a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors
Yvon Jeghers has a wide-ranging background in investing, financing, risk management, mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance. As Portfolio Manager, Yvon invested in Canadian renewable energy and social infrastructure projects and built a portfolio with AUMs over $1 Billion. Prior to this, he was Senior Vice President at Business Development Canada in a national role where he developed new lending capabilities, managed a team of roughly 40 professionals and build a portfolio of $3.8 billion within 5 years. Experienced project financier, Yvon was Managing Director, Investment Banking at Société Générale and ABN AMRO where he Arranged and Underwrote over $8 Billion in energy and public private partnership projects. In addition, he previously worked for Bank of America’s merger and acquisition group and lead lending teams in a wide range of sectors. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and holds degrees from Concordia University.
Andrew Heintzman | Observer
Board of Directors
Kristin Aamodt | Director
Kristin has deep experience in petrochemical operations, finance, and chemical engineering. Based in Oslo, Norway, she has managed operations on-site at two offshore oil platforms and developed offshore wind farms. On the finance side, Kristin was Managing Director of the venture capital arm of Equinor, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies. As head of Equinor Technology Ventures she managed a large team across Europe and North America and helped set strategy for over 20 portfolio companies. Currently Kristin is a partner in Europe at Arctern Ventures, one of Canada's most respected cleantech investors. Kristin has her MsC in biotechnology and chemical engineering.
Thomas Allen | Q.C., Director
Tom is considered to be one of Canada's top corporate counsels and corporate governance experts. He was formerly: counsel to Norton Rose Fulbright, Chairman of Westwind Capital Corporation, Chairman of the Task Force to Modernize Securities Legislation in Canada, Chairman of the Accounting Standards Oversight Council of Canada; member of the Advisory Board of the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions of Canada; Chairman of the Corporate Finance Committee of the Investment Dealers Association of Canada (IDA); a former public director of the IDA for many years; former Vice Chairman of Gordon Capital Partners and a past Director of Mount Sinai Hospital.
Andrew Heintzman is President and co-founder of Investeco Capital. Andrew was the Chair of the Premier's Climate Change Advisory Panel for the Province of Ontario from 2008 to 2012, and is currently a member of Ontario's Clean Energy Task Force. In addition, he is on the board of directors of the Tides Canada Foundation and the Steering Committee of Sustainable Prosperity. He is also an advisor to the Masters of Global Affairs program at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. Andrew is the author of The New Entrepreneurs: Building a Green Economy for the Future, and was co-editor of: Fueling the Future: How the Battle Over Energy is Changing Everything.
David Hennigar | Director
David Hennigar is Executive Chairman of Thornridge Holdings Limited and Vice-Chairman/Lead Director of Highliner Foods Inc. Previously David was Chairman of Extendicare Inc., Chairman of Assisted Living Concepts Inc., Vice Chairman of Crown Life Insurance Co., and lead director of Crombie REIT. David has also been involved in numerous corporate acquisitions, takeovers and mergers including: acquisition of Fraser Companies by Noranda, Halifax Shipyards by RSV, CN Marine and Hall Shipping and Refinancing of National Sea Products, reverse takeover of Crown Life Insurance by Extendicare Inc., Systems Dimensions by Coastal Enterprises and sale to Datacrown Inc.
Brian Mixer | Observer
Yvon Jeghers | Chief Financial Officer
JP Solmes | Chief Business Development Officer
JP Solmes, formerly Head of Business Development (M&A) at First Quantum Minerals has over 15 years of proven leadership in industrials. JP has executed and worked on over US$1.4Bn in royalty and streaming transactions as part of a broader US$15Bn in transactional experience across a variety or jurisdictions and counterparties. He is a CPA (Ontario), holds a Masters of Professional Accounting from Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto and a Bachelor (Honours) Degree in Economics from Queen's University.
Brian Mixer is an investment director at Middleland Capital. Brian works with technology companies in the food, agriculture and sustainability sectors. He led Middleland’s investments in and holds the board or observer seats in Aerofarms, Arable Labs, Agrivida, Aquaspy, Conservis, Groundwork BioAg, Rootility, Shenandoah Growers and Woodland Biofuels.
Greg Nuttall | Director
Greg Nuttall is one of the founding CEO’s of the world’s waste-to-fuel industry. Prior to becoming CEO of Woodland, Greg was a partner at Rubicon Investment Group, a merchant bank focused on accelerating the growth of the companies it acquires and invests in. Before this Greg was co-founder and CEO of a leading change management consulting firm that helps large and mid-sized organizations in Canada and the United States. At the outset of his career Greg was an M&A and corporate finance lawyer. As a lawyer he practiced at Clifford Chance, one of the world's largest law firms, where he was based in London, and Torys, a leading corporate law firm with practices in Toronto and New York. Greg earned his Master of International Laws degree at Cambridge University and is a Pegasus Scholar.
Tom Rand | Chairman
Tom Rand is Managing Partner of Arctern Ventures, one of Canada's most respected investors in the cleantech space and now a significant investor in Woodland. Tom is also a member of Ontario's Clean Energy Task Force and the author of Waking the Frog: Solutions for Our Climate Change Paralysis and Kick the Fossil Fuel Habit: 10 Clean Technologies to Save Our World. Tom started his career as an entrepreneur when he founded Voice Courier Inc. in 1991 to service the emerging Interactive Voice Response market. Tom led VCi's expansion to over 100 employees in three countries.
Investors
