Ryan Arsenault
Founder & CEO
For the past two decades, Ryan Arsenault has provided project management expertise and innovative software solutions to resolve complex project management, information management and workflow challenges for global energy companies.
Ryan is the founder and CEO of Lukla, an intelligent content management system developed to manage complex enterprise information. Lukla’s cloud-based solution has been used for major oil and gas refineries, environmental compliance projects, field operations, offshore marine construction, and corporate compliance records in more than 20 countries across four continents. Since 2010, Ryan has been a director at Drakken, a leading provider of world-class project management, engineering, integration, automation and instrumentation services to energy companies globally.
In September 2020, Ryan founded CarbonAI, a Calgary-based company offering customized software solutions for the detection, measurement and reporting of methane emissions in oil and gas operations. CarbonAI’s solutions also support the quantification and monetization of large-scale international emission reductions projects.
Ryan has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, majoring in Project Management, and serves on several volunteer boards. His mission is to help people do great things.
Yvan Champagne
Chief Carbon Officer
Yvan has an extensive background in the financing, development and execution of large-scale emission reduction projects and most recently served as Founder and President of Bluesource Methane, responsible for executing an award-winning methane reduction program involving 40 oil & gas producers across Alberta, Canada.
Prior to the founding of Bluesource Methane, Yvan spent eight years overseeing project sourcing, carbon credit sales and brokerage, and advisory services for the Canadian market at Bluesource. Prior to Bluesource, his experience includes environmental strategy and program advisory, government and public affairs, and growing early-stage technology companies. Yvan holds a B.A. in Political Science from Yale University and earned an MBA through a joint international program of the Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern) and Schulich School of Business (York). Yvan is also a board member/advisor to Planetary Hydrogen and Noble Mineral Exploration and serves as a national co-chair for the Canadian working group for IETA, the International Emissions Trading Association.
Neil Marston
Vice President, Infrastructure and EPC
Neil has over 28 years of experience in the global oil & gas industry. He has successfully managed a wide range of assignments, from small EPF projects to large topsides for FPSOs and MOPUs worldwide, which culminated in his appointment as Engineering Manager for the entire FPSO at Teekay Petrojarl.
Neil was a founding Director of Influit and was appointed Managing Director of EMEA. He led the UK-based Influit engineering team to successfully execute world-class early oil and enhanced oil and gas engineering projects and was a member of the Group Executive Management Team. Neil has also previously worked for Kvaerner (now Aker Solutions), Expro North Sea, Teekay Petrojarl and Weatherford International in the Middle East and Africa.
Based in the United Kingdom, Neil has a degree in mechanical engineering and management at Middlesex University and is a chartered mechanical engineer.
Ben Watts
Director, Operations MENA
A well-versed Program and Project Management Professional, PMP certified with a Bachelor of Applied Science (BASc) focused in Electronics Engineering Technology, Ben Watts is the CEO of the highly-reputed Drakken; a company that prides itself on being a one-stop-shop for electrical, automation, and instrumentation services in both the energy and utilities sectors.
With over a decade and a half working within the oil & energy industry, Watts has a proven skill set in engineering management, expediting, fast tracking, project mobilization, and financial controls. Watts has worked his way to the top at Drakken over the past 10 years, and together they have amassed a substantial and proven track record in project management, automation, and control systems, product development, integrated services, project design, engineering, construction management, global procurement solutions, and electrical and instrumentation services for the oil, gas and utilities industries.
Yoeri Geerits
Head of Growth
Yoeri Geerits has more than 20 years’ experience in the international field of marketing, finance, business development and strategy. His career in investment banking, financial markets and marketing has taken him to Europe, Asia and North America. More recently, Yoeri spearheaded Nielsen’s Sports division drive to become a trusted partner to brands and rights holders in Canada. Yoeri is recognized for his creative and strategic thinking, combined with strong analytical skills. Yoeri holds a Masters in Finance from the University of Brussels, Belgium.
Chad Kapatch
Head of Development
Chad Kapatch is a seasoned technology professional with over 15 years of experience in designing, implementing, and maintaining mission-critical platforms. He serves as the Head of Development of Lukla ECM, a platform with a large global presence in 13 countries, 1+ million pieces of content, and a 99.9% uptime rate. He also heads up Lukla Tasks, a cutting-edge human automation and data ingestion platform utilized by 40+ companies for over 12,000 field inspections.
In addition, Chad is leading a team for CarbonAI solutions, supporting the quantification and verification of large-scale flare gas pilot projects and other aggregation projects for the Alberta Emission Offset System under the Technology and Innovation Emission Reduction Regulation (TIER). Chad actively participates in the open-source community, contributing to well-known repositories such as Box, Xero, Automapper, OAuth, and others utilized by millions of platforms around the world. He holds a Bachelor of Computer Science degree from the University of Calgary.
Chad holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Calgary as well as a number of technical certificates, including the ITIL certification.
Kelly Parker
Director of Projects
Kelly has more than 12 years of professional engineering experience in oil and gas and other heavy industries in Alberta and globally, managing a suite of energy, sustainability and emission reduction projects in the energy and extractive industries. This includes 10 years leading or supporting GHG accounting and/or GHG reduction projects. Most recently Kelly led the successful quantification and verification of the flare gas conservation project under CDM methodology AM0009 and is currently evaluating several other asset sites for their eligibility and potential reduction activities driven by the opportunity presented by carbon credits.
Kelly holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Queen’s University. She is a licensed professional engineer.
Stephen Entwisle
Director, Communications and Corporate Development
Stephen has master’s degrees in communications and environmental studies (climate change policy). In addition to over 15 years of communications experience in the digital technology, climate tech and clean tech sectors, he has over 14 years of experience in carbon markets, climate change policy renewable energy project development and the commercialization of clean technologies. Prior to joining CarbonAi, Stephen led an initiative focusing on digital solutions for ESG and carbon markets.
Dave Nighbor
Consultant, Graphic Design & Branding
Dave is a graphic designer and web developer who specializes in corporate brand design. He is the owner of 9 Lives Design, an award-winning agency achieving recognition from the Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD) and Graphic Designers of Canada. His company won Northern Ontario Company of the Year in 2018 for its achievements in business, design, and community involvement. Prior to transitioning into marketing, Dave cross-country skied for Team Canada in eight world championships. While building his business, he earned a Bachelor of Design from York University and Sheridan College in Toronto with formal training in fine arts, graphic design, and interactive media.