TECHNICAL ADVISORY BOARD
Dr Emilio Bunel
PhD. Chem.
Professor at Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
Stephen Elgueta
Head of Department Inorganics at HELM AG
Emilio Bunel received his M.S. in Chemical Engineering in 1980 from the University of Chile and his Ph.D. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1988. He began his professional career at DuPont Central Research as a member of the Catalysis Group working on new catalytic processes to produce nylon intermediates. In 2001 Bunel was hired by Eli Lilly to establish the Catalysis Group within the Discovery Research Organization. In 2003 he was appointed Associate Director at Amgen, Inc., and subsequently in January 2008, Research Fellow at Pfizer, Inc.
After spending twenty years in industry, in October 2008 Emilio Bunel was named director of the Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division at U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, position that he held until June 2017. From June 2017 to October 2017 he was a Senior Advisor for the Physical Sciences and Engineering Directorate at Argonne.
On November 1, 2017, he was named VP for Innovation at SQM in Santiago, Chile. SQM is one the world largest producer of lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide for battery manufacturing. Stephen Elgueta was referred to us by the CEO of Wealth Minerals Chile, Marcelo Award. Stephen worked several years as CEO at Albemarle Chile. He is an experienced Managing Director with a demonstrated history of working in the Mining and Chemical industry. Skilled in Negotiation with Government and Unions, Business Planning, International Business, Strategic Planning, and Six Sigma. Strong Operation and Marketing professional with an MBA focused in Business Strategy from Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez. And is an expert in Lithium Operations and Markets.
Heather Herring
BASc Chem Eng, MBA
Platform Calgary
Heather Herring is a strategic Advisor at Platform Calgary, which focuses on supporting Calgary's innovation-driven companies by providing access to space, programming, and advocacy. Heather is a professional engineer and a proud alumna of the Haskayne School. She pinpoints the essential elements of the idea, the business, the challenge or the person and then uses her leadership, innovation, and management abilities to identify opportunities for excellence. She coaches client companies in business, communications and customer development. She is always the one to step up and apply her project management skills to ensure that the project is a success but her leadership shines brightest she concentrates on the intersection and cooperation, collaboration and competition to drive success for all parties.
Until recently she was Executive in Residence with Zone Startups Calgary. Previously, she worked in academia, private and public sector companies primarily with a focus on energy and sustainability. This spanned: securing research grants and VR and 3D printing research facilities for professors at the University of Calgary; focusing the R&D program, overseeing field pilots for new oil sands technologies, formulating the creation of COSIA at Total E&P Canada; and, exploring the emergence of the digital oil field while with Laricina. She is vice chair of Platform Calgary and past chair of Tecterra.
Jeff More
President and CEO MineSense
As President & Chief Executive Officer, Jeff is responsible for the strategic and overall leadership of MineSense. A seasoned CEO with a proven track record of delivering results in both large companies and entrepreneurial environments, he brings broad functional expertise in business development, marketing strategy, operational efficiency and new process creation to Minesense, coupled with extensive expertise in global markets, specifically South America, Asia and Africa.
Jeff’s expertise spans a diverse set of industries, including electronics recycling, telecommunications, robotics and engineered materials. Before joining MineSense in 2015, he was the Senior Vice President, Environmental with Maxxam Analytics, where he was accountable for the strategy, growth and operations of the company’s largest division. Prior to his tenure with Maxxam, Jeff held CEO positions at eCycle Solutions and Trylon.
Jeff is an active member of the BC Cleantech CEO Alliance and a mentor to technology entrepreneurs in the UBC Entrepreneurship Mentoring Program. He has a B.Eng and an MBA from McMaster University.
“Minesense plays at the intersection of the industrial internet, data analytics and machine learning to create and apply data that the mining industry has never had access to. We can enhance our customers’ productivity, financials and sustainability that is unmatched.”
Dr. Roland Roesler
MASC, FRCSC, FACS, MBA
Inorganic Chemistry, University of Calgary
Dedicated primarily to the investigation of compounds containing main group element frameworks. Mr. Roesler's research interests focus on ligand design with emphasis on N-heterocyclic carbenes. Using these ligands, we investigate the inorganic and organometallic chemistry of first-row transition metals, especially nickel and cobalt, and their compounds with main group elements. We target fundamental advances in inorganic chemistry, as well as applications in catalysis with focus on energy storage and conversion.