BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Helmut Schneider, PRESIDENT
Helmut lives with his family on a hobby farm near Oxford Centre and he worked as a Quality Assurance Manager at CAMI Automotive in Ingersoll until his retirement in June 2016. He earned an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business with a focus on strategy, operations, and corporate governance. He has work experience in quality assurance, project management, and staff leadership. Helmut is one of the incorporating directors of the Oxford Community Energy Co-op and led the board of directors as their president until March 2016 when he became the CEO of OCEC until the completion of the Co-op’s first renewable energy project the Gunn’s Hill wind farm. In July of 2016 Helmut accepted a position as President of Prowind Canada, with the goal to build a team of professional developers based in Hamilton, ON and a pipeline of Renewable Energy projects. In November 2017, Helmut accepted a request from the board of directors to return as President to the Oxford Community Energy Co-op. His skill and experience bring the necessary knowledge to the board of directors. It is Helmut's goal to develop new investment opportunities for OCEC's members and investors that are carefully reviewed and selected for the value they create for the investors.
Graham Dyer, VICE-PRESIDENT
Graham is the President and CEO of Farms.com a Guelph based group of companies in the agrifood information and technology space. The Farms.com group also includes a 2,000 acre cash crop farming operation in Port Dover, Ontario that hosts 14 wind turbines and operates 8 microfit ground solar, one 100 kW FIT ground solar and four 500 kW rooftop solar projects. Graham has led the development of these energy projects, including arranging financing, creating various partnerships, lease and construction contracts. Graham has a B. Sc. (Agricultural Business) from the University of Guelph, an MBA from Western University, and he has also received a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Business Valuation destination.
Dan Andres, SECRETARY
Dan holds an MSc in Electrical Engineering and has many years of experience in Systems Engineering, Product Development and Team Leadership. He has also been a director of a Not for Profit Ontario Corporation. Daniel is a recently retired Professional Engineer seeking to spend some of his newfound free time on worthy endeavours. His work experience was in construction, consulting engineering, and design and development of urban rail equipment and military vehicles. He has a strong belief in the merits of renewable energy and conservation of carbon fuels. It is important to him that his grandchildren and theirs can enjoy the same standard of living that we do. He wants Canada to maintain a strong economy and to strive for energy self sufficiency through sustainable environmental practices, the wisest use of energy resources and conservation
Don Hedges, TREASURER
Don holds an Accounting Diploma and a Honours Bachelor of Commerce degree (Deans List). He is a seasoned professional CPA CGA (1992) with 25 years of accounting and management experience. During these 25 years, he has arranged and managed credit lines, corporate structure and restructures, foreign currency, asset protection, risk management, human resources, negotiated private label agreement with a large multi-national company and the sale of a business to another multi-national company. He has owned and managed several businesses over the years.
Rob Thompson, DIRECTOR
Rob graduated at Fanshawe College and holds an Interprovincial Electrical License. Rob and his wife Marilyn operated a swine-breeding farm with a group called Oxford Highbred Swine Co. Owned and Operated a electrical contracting firm. In 1990 he started Change' Air Products & Services Ltd. where he engineered and sold heating & ventilation equipment that used energy conservation as the base for design. Change' Air products were recognized and sold to school boards in Canada & U.S. and was sold in 2012 to a Swedish Co. Rob was born and raised in Oxford County and currently lives in South-West Oxford.
Doug Duimering, DIRECTOR
Doug has been in the renewable energy business for 15 years. He has spent 10 years on the development side of the business with Exelon / John Deere Renewables focused on acquisition and development of wind energy projects. Prior to moving to the project development side of the business Doug was the director of sales at Vestas – Canadian Wind Technology where he spent 5 years selling wind turbines and maintenance and construction services. Doug also developed an 8 MW RESOP wind project near Tiverton, with two partners, and a 95 kW solar FIT project on his farm. Before joining the wind industry Doug was Management Consultant with Bain & Company for 2 years and spent 7 years with GE Large Motors in a variety of roles primarily focused on new product development. Doug has a BASc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Waterloo, a MEng from the University of Toronto and an MBA from the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.
Alexander Innes, DIRECTOR
Alex is a University of Guelph graduate who has worked in positions in government, marketing, resource development as well as solar projects, Alexander brings an array of skills to the table as well as a passion for the future development of Oxford County. He also brings with him an interest in technology and is an active member of the community, taking part in charitable and community events as well as serving as a Director on the Oxford County trails council. Alexander currently manages a poultry and cash-crop operation on his farm outside of Woodstock.
Rochelle Rumney, DIRECTOR
Rochelle has served on the board from its inception in 2013 to early 2019. She acted as Treasurer of the OCEC for 5 years during that time. Rochelle currently works for the City of Brantford as a Climate Change Officer developing on a Climate Change Action Plan for the community. She previously worked for Prowind as Director of Project Planning and was involved heavily in the development and operation of both the Gunn’s Hill Wind Farm and the Solar One LP projects. She has over ten years of experience in the renewable energy industry. Her educational background is in Environmental Studies and Planning from the University of Waterloo.