According to John Ruffolo, fostering a successful clean energy technology sector in Canada means more than just providing capital to startups — it means creating an ecosystem that supports their success.
John should know. He’s the chief executive officer of OMERS Ventures, the venture arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System. OMERS Ventures finds and funds entrepreneurs working on a variety of products in technology, media and telecommunications, so John has a keen interest in clean technology.
John sees tremendous opportunities in this emerging sector, both for his fund and for Canada.
“On one hand, I have an environmental objective,” he says. “I have very young children, and I don’t want to ruin our environment for them. But I also don’t believe that it makes economic sense to take resources out of the ground, destroy the environment, sell them overseas and then buy them back at twice the value.”
John became aware of the clean technology industry about 10 years ago as a partner at Deloitte. “I saw a trend starting,” he says. “When Greg Kiessling came to me with the idea for Bullfrog Power — which we’re all familiar with now — I couldn’t understand it at the time. But it was a seedling of things to come.”
In 2005 John formed the Deloitte Cleantech practice, and he has since become a leading adviser for clean technology companies in Canada and around the world.
"I don’t believe that it makes economic sense to take resources out of the ground, destroy the environment, sell them overseas and then buy them back at twice the value.”
Pembina recently interviewed John and other economic leaders for Competing in Clean Energy, a report on how Canada can better position itself in the global clean energy economy. He saw two of the report’s recommendations — setting a price on carbon and creating a national energy strategy — as critical to spur investment.
According to John, the Pembina Institute is playing a key role in articulating this vision. “One of the things I liked about Pembina’s report was that a number of people with really diverse backgrounds almost violently agreed on the key areas we need to focus in on,” he says.
“As an investor, I view my job as finding entrepreneurs and giving them capital. While the private sector can drive that, we need allies like Pembina that can marshal thinkers on what the future should look like. Basically, we’re building an ecosystem for clean energy and clean technology entrepreneurs.”
