General Organization

IPAC-CO2 is organized to allow for geographic and thematic program development.

The Board of Directors provides governance and clear direction to IPAC-CO2 stakeholders on research priorities, independence, transparency and sustainability.

Strategic Advisory Committee

Supporting and advancing the operational efforts and decision making processes of IPAC-CO2 will be the Strategic Advisory Committee. This advisory group will be comprised of both policy–based advisors and technical advisors.

The inaugural meeting of the advisory committee occurred during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December 2009 in Copenhagen.

Secretariat Staff

Carmen Dybwad, Ph.D.

Carmen Dybwad is the Chief Executive Officer of IPAC-CO2. Prior to joining IPAC-CO2 she was Vice-President of the Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI) in Calgary. She was President of the Energy Council of Canada for two years and served a seven-year term on the National Energy Board. She held increasingly senior positions during a 20-year career with the Government of Saskatchewan. Dybwad earned her BA and Masters in Economics from the University of Regina and obtained her PhD in Resource Development Planning from the University of Waterloo in 2000.

George (Jerry) Sherk, Ph.D.

George (Jerry) Sherk is the Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining IPAC-CO2 he was the Managing Director of the Colorado Energy Research Institute (CERI) at the Colorado School of Mines where he had been an associate research professor for the past five years. Jerry was an adjunct professor at the University of Denver’s College of Law since 2003. He also has been an honorary associate at the UNESCO Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science at the University of Dundee in Scotland since 1998. His background includes six years of experience as a trial attorney in the General Litigation Section, Land and Natural Resources Division in the U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.

Rhonda Shepek, CMA

Rhonda Shepek is the Chief Financial Officer for IPAC-CO2. She has more than 20 years experience in corporate finance and management accounting. Prior to joining IPAC-CO2, Ms. Shepek was Manager of Corporate Budget for the City of Regina. She obtained her Certified Management Accountant professional designation in 1999.

Peter Wyant, B.Sc., MBA

Peter Wyant is the Chief Development Officer. Prior to joining IPAC-CO2, he was with Crown Investments Corporation of Saskatchewan for 26 years, most recently as Director, Crown Sector Initiatives, with responsibility for advancing medium and large-scale economic development opportunities in Saskatchewan in the energy and energy-related sectors. In that capacity he was intimately involved with the initiation and operation of two world-scale heavy oil upgraders, while each was partially owned by the Province of Saskatchewan, and has been involved in the development of several other resource-based ventures as well. Prior to joining CIC, Peter was involved in a number of natural resource opportunities in Alberta and was with Alberta Energy Corporation (now Cenovus Energy) for five years.

Ingrid Uhryn, CHRP

Ingrid is the Director, Organizational Effectiveness, Stakeholder Relations and Corporate Secretary. She has held senior management positions for numerous Best 50 organizations in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. In Ingrid's previous role as Manager Corporate Services for the Petroleum Technology Research Centre (PTRC), she was responsible for all corporate services including operations, HR, governance, planning, and technology. Ingrid holds the respected Certified Human Resources Professional designation. In addition, she has completed various HR professional development programs including the Graduate Certificate in Strategic Human Resources Management from Royal Roads University and the Certificate in Organizational Development from the Queen's Industrial Relations Centre. Ingrid also studied at the University of Regina.

Joe Ralko, ABC

Joe Ralko is the Director of Communications for IPAC-CO2. He has more than 30 years experience in the media and corporate communications including community engagement during construction and start up of the world’s largest nitrogen fertilizer plant. He obtained his Accredited Business Communicator professional designation in 1993.

Patrick Mann, D. Phil

Patrick Mann is the Director, Information Technologies for both IPAC-CO2, and for Carbon Management Canada (CMC-NCE). ·Patrick was previously CTO of Cybera Inc., the Optical Regional Advanced Network for Alberta, and was involved with various CANARIE-funded Network Enabled Platforms, including the Canadian Space Sciences Data portal, and the GeoCENS sensor network. Previous to that Patrick was the Director, Computer and Telecommunications Services at the University of Northern British Columbia where he also holds a position as Adjunct Professor of physics. Patrick brings 30 years of experience with computational science, networking, eCollaboration and systems architecture to the collaborative research and development environments that IPAC-CO2 and CMC are building.

Majid Nasehi, M.Sc.

Majid Nasehi is the Director of Research and Project Management for IPAC-CO2. His work experience is in supply management for the oil and gas industry, design and product development, quality control and project management. Prior to joining IPAC-CO2, Majid was conducting research into the utilization of CO2 for Enhanced Oil Recovery at the University of Regina and Petroleum Technology Research Centre (PTRC). He obtained his B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Massachusetts and his M.Sc. from the University of Regina.

Ken Alecxe, M.A.

Ken Alecxe is the Senior Development Officer at IPAC-CO2. Ken has 35 years of experience in university, federal government and provincial government environments. Twenty of those years were at senior executive positions in such diverse sectors as post-secondary education, economic development, and public education broadcasting. At Western Economic Diversification Canada, Ken was directly involved in procurement and development for such projects as the Canadian Light Source and the Alberta Synchrotron Institute. He was also the Climate Change Coordinator for the Province of Saskatchewan for two years.

Ken has been the head of his own successful consulting practice for the past three years. He has also published two books on the impact of advancing technology on the prairie labour market through the Canadian Plains Research Center.

Mohammad Derakhshanfar, M.Sc.

Mohammad Derakhshanfar is the Research Engineer for IPAC-CO2. His research experience is in CO2 enhanced oil recovery as well as numerical simulation and physical modeling of solvent-based heavy oil techniques. Mohammad is a Ph.D. graduate student in Petroleum Systems Engineering at the University of Regina. He obtained his B.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering from the Petroleum University of Technology (PUT) in Iran and his M.Sc. in Reservoir Geoscience and Engineering from Institut français du petrole (IFP) in France.

Zhuldyzay Baimyrza

Zhuldyzay Baimyrza is entering the fourth year of Petroleum Systems Engineering at the University of Regina. She is a recipient of International Kazakhstan Presidential Scholarship “Bolashak”.

Christian Hardy, B. A. (High Honours)

Christian Hardy is entering into his first year of graduate studies in English at the University of Regina. As an undergraduate student he received several prestigious scholarships including the Dorothy and Leon Goldman Award in English, which is awarded to the student with the highest cumulative grade-point average (GPA) of all Honours students.

Fakhteh Ahmadi, B. Sc.

Fakhteh Ahmadi received her B. Sc. in Chemical Engineering at the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran. She is almost finished with her M. Sc. program, specializing in Process Systems Engineering at the University of Regina. Her research experience is primarily i n CO₂ capture techniques, and the simulating and modeling of CO₂capture plants using PROMAX and ASPEN.

Ahamdreza (Saeed) Nezamloo, B. Sc.

Saeed is a graduate student in Industrial Systems Engineering at the University of Regina. He obtained his associate degree in Mechanics-Welding from Shiraz University, Iran, and his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Silliman University, Philippines.

Saeed's experience is in detailed design engineering for the oil and gas industry, preparation of standards and specifications in compliance with oil and gas industry standards, best practices and quality control.

He has also conducted research in renewable energy.

Alberto Ortiz

Alberto is a third year student of political science at the University of Regina; he was born in Mexico and moved to Canada in 2008. He is a published author of a fantasy novel in Spanish. Alberto’s career goals include working for NGO’s dedicated to stop human catastrophes from happening.

He is the first Co-op student employed by IPAC-CO2, and he will be assisting the team in communications and marketing matters.

Board of Directors

The 2011 members of the IPAC-CO2 ·Board of Directors are:

- Rod Kelln, University of Regina (Chair)
- Dick Carter, Crown Investments Corporation of Saskatchewan
- Iain Harry, Crown Investments Corporation of Saskatchewan
- Laurier Schramm, Saskatchewan Research Council
- Dennis Fitzpatrick, University of Regina
- Annette Revet, University of Regina
- Bill Spence, Shell

Rod Kelln, Ph. D.

Dr. Rod Kelln is the chair of the IPAC-CO2 board of directors.

He was appointed acting vice-president research at the University of Regina on July 1, 2010. The appointment is in parallel with his current appointment as Dean, Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, an appointment that began in 1999. Prior to that appointment, Rod had served as the Assistant Dean Research, Faculty of Science from 1993 forward.

Rod was born and raised in Vancouver and attended the University of British Columbia for both postsecondary degrees, B.Sc. (Hons) in 1969 and a Ph.D. in 1973, both in microbiology.

He was awarded a Medical Research Council of Canada postdoctoral fellowship and completed two years of postdoctoral studies (1973-1975) at Texas A & M University. He currently is a full professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Regina.

Dick Carter, FCA

Dick Carter is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Crown Investments Corp. of Saskatchewan.

Dick Carter, FCA, is a retired senior partner of KPMG, Chartered Accountants, where he worked for more 30 years in cities across the west – Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg and Edmonton.

He was Chief of Staff to the Saskatchewan Minister of Finance from 2007 until his appointment to CIC in 2010

Iain Harry

Iain Harry joined CIC in 2008 and is currently the Vice President of Crown Sector Initiatives.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Studies and has almost 20 years of experience in public policy and communications at the municipal, provincial and federal government levels.

His previous positions include Senior Policy Advisor to the federal minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities; Director of the Conservative Resource Group in Ottawa and Special Advisor to the Premier of Saskatchewan.

Laurier Schramm, Ph.D.

Since becoming President of the Saskatchewan Research Council in 2001, Dr. Schramm’s leadership has resulted in a doubling of staff and a tripling of revenues. The SRC now is among the Top 75 companies in the province with more than 400 employees and annual revenues exceeding $60 million.

He has over 30 years of R&D experience in colloid, interface, and petroleum science, has received major national awards for his research, and is best known for his basic and applied research involving petroleum industry applications of suspensions, emulsions, foams, and surfactants.

He holds 17 patents, has published 9 books, over 350 other scientific publications and proprietary reports, and has given over 150 national and international, plenary, invited, and other scientific/technical presentations.

He obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Dalhousie University and his BSc. in Chemistry from Carlton University.

Annette Revet, MBA

Annette Revet joined the University of Regina in 2006 in the newly-created executive role of Director, Enterprise Risk Management and was appointed Executive Director, University Governance holding the office of University Secretary, effective January 1, 2007.

Fluent in English and French, Ms. Revet is a graduate of the University of Regina with a Master's degree in Business Administration (MBA) and a Bachelor of Science Honours degree in Chemistry.

In 2010, she received the designation of Chartered Director through the Directors College, a joint venture of McMaster University and The Conference Board of Canada.

For almost two decades prior to beginning her academic career, she held increasingly progressive leadership roles within the potash and farm lending industries.

Dennis Fitzpatrick, Ph.D.

Dennis Fitzpatrick is Vice-President Research at the University of Regina.

Prior to joining the University of Regina he was the Vice-President Research at the University of Lethbridge. During his tenure, Dr. Fitzpatrick made a significant contribution to expanding that university’s research including strategic planning, team building, project development and the funding of numerous large institutional research initiatives.

Dr. Fitzpatrick began his academic career at the University of Manitoba in 1982 after graduating with his PhD in Nutritional Biochemistry from Rutgers University. He holds a MSc in Nutritional Sciences and a BSc in Biological Sciences from the University of Guelph, as well as a BA in Liberal Arts from Queen's University.

Bill Spence, B. Sc. Eng.

Bill Spence is the Manager of Strategic Issues for Shell's Upstream International Business.

In the five years preceding this position Bill was the Vice-President CO2 in Shell's corporate head office.

Bill graduated from Queen's University (Canada) in 1984 with an Engineering Physics degree. He subsequently joined Shell Canada as a Petroleum Engineer.

In 1989, he joined Shell International where he has lived and worked in numerous countries.