RCA 2023 Conference – Speaker Session Announcement – One Cannot Just Say They Are Circular

Sébastien Harvey is Entropic’s Chief Executive Officer. He has worked for 18 years in organizational development, financial management, human resources management, public and private funding, communications and political representation. He has also worked as a financial security advisor and process improvement consultant. In collaboration with Mario Perron, he designed and developed digital traceability and medical diagnostic systems and wrote patents in the field of life sciences.

Mario Perron is Entropic’s Chief Technology Officer. He has been a digital “serial entrepreneur” since 2005. To date, he has co-founded, funded and runs: Manyeta Informatics, Semiosis Interactive, KrowdX, Tarantelo Health Services and Virtuose Technologies. He has over 30 years of experience in information technology. His career includes senior leadership and project management, process and system architecture, international research and development, and marketing.

Dr. Catherine Tays is a Project Manager in Environment and Climate Change at CSA Group (Canadian Standards Association). She has a PhD in Microbiology and Biotechnology from the University of Alberta, during which she worked on the bacteria-mediated biotransformation of greenhouse gas into biodegradable bioplastics. In her current role, Catherine supports standards development in a number of circular economy initiatives, including plastics recycling, circular agriculture, and repairability. Catherine has also previously worked in the energy transition space through research program management, and is experienced in navigating the complexities of science communications and engagement.

As Alberta Beverage Container Management Corporation’s (ABCRC’s) Director of Sustainability & Communications, Lori Koebel works closely with key internal and external stakeholders in planning and implementing sustainable improvement strategies for ABCRC, and for beverage container stewardship in Alberta. Lori and her team continually seek to find new ways to foster engagement in recycling to help the industry increase its collection rate and ABCRC to improve its efforts in focusing on sustainability.

Lori has brought her expertise into other stewardship focused organizations including serving as Vice President of the Recycling Council of Alberta (RCA) in 2019/2020 and currently serves as Chair of the Canada Plastic Pact plastics narratives working group, working to define and activate a public narrative that drives and illustrates circular solutions for plastics packaging in Canada.

Lori holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) from McMaster University in English and a Master’s degree in Sustainability Leadership (MSL) from Arizona State University (ASU).

In her free time, Lori enjoys spending time with her family in the beautiful Alberta Rockies, participating in a variety of summer and winter outdoor sports.

Melissa Gorrie is a fourth-generation settler of European descent trained in the settler common legal system. She began her career with Ecojustice – a national non-profit environmental law organization – in 2010. Her legal work has included seeking protections for woodland caribou from oil sands development and successfully advocating for the federal government to secure emergency protection for endangered sage-grouse populations. She currently oversees Ecojustice’s law reform efforts to advocate for transformative shifts in law to support a just, sustainable, and decolonized future. Her efforts have included advocating for federal climate accountability and just transition/sustainable jobs legislation. Most recently she is advocating for a federal circular economy legislative framework.

Melissa has volunteered with numerous environmental and social justice organizations over the years, including co-founding Waste Free Edmonton, which successfully advocated for a single-use bylaw that came into effect earlier this year.

She also recently completed her Master of Laws degree. Her research focused on exploring the ways the settler environmental law community can be accountable to address settler colonialism while also supporting Indigenous sovereignty and the revitalization of Indigenous laws on Indigenous lands.

Vicente Frias has over 15 years of experience working in the industry, managing recycling operations, and coordinating community initiatives. His experience includes serving as a former manager for the Banff Bottle Depot and currently working with Resource Recovery at the Town of Banff.

He has also contributed to various projects, such as the “Municipal Recycling Pilot Program” on Margarita Island, Venezuela, where an environmental plan was developed and implemented with an emphasis on reducing residents’ carbon footprint and promoting recycling. He coordinated the “Ecological Islands” initiative, which aimed to encourage and promote a culture of recycling in the community, striving to turn sustainable solutions into a reality.

As an environmentalist, data wizard, and advocate for waste reduction and circularity, he is passionate about driving positive change by harnessing the power of data-driven solutions. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, with a major in Statistics and a minor in Technology, Society, and Environmental Studies. He is currently pursuing a Data Science certificate and an Artificial Intelligence certificate from the University of Waterloo and the University of Toronto.