Welcome to the Community Power Fund
The Community Power Fund (CP Fund) was established in 2007 to support project development activities of Ontario-based community organizations pursuing local renewable energy projects, through the provision of a number of financing instruments to support community power, including grants, loans and investment equity.

Corporate Structure
The Fund is incorporated as a non-profit, co-operative corporation. The Community Power Fund is governed by a 10 member Board of Directors. The Board is responsible for hiring and managing the CPF Executive Director, selecting the Technical Evaluation Committee members, and making the final approval decisions on the applications received.

The Executive Director manages the daily operations of the CPF and works to promote the CPF. She is assisted by staff members who are responsible for daily office administration and for helping fund and grant applicants.

Community Power Fund Directors
Jed Goldberg, Board Vice Chair, is the President of Earth Day Canada, a national environmental communications organization mandated to improve the state of the environment by empowering Canadians to achieve local solutions. He has significant expertise in solar energy through his involvement with WISE (the West end Initiative for Solar Energy) and the Toronto District School Board solar initiative.

Jens Lohmueller, the CPF Treasurer, is a founding partner in Community Partners Group and CU Consulting Group. His expansive 20 year background in finance covers the German and Canadian Credit Union system, as well as years with Deutsche Bank in Canada. With Community Partners and CU Consulting it is his goal to partner community financial capacity building with an enhanced market reach for community owned financial institutions. He has studied Economics at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, the University of Western Ontario and concluded his studies with a Masters degree in Environmental and Resource Economics at the University of Guelph.

Brian Iler, our Secretary, is a lawyer and partner in the six-lawyer law firm Iler Campbell LLP in Toronto. As a commercial lawyer, he has advised and encouraged many of Ontario’s co-operatives over the past 32 years, and acted as counsel to OnCo-op and its predecessor since 1985. In that capacity, Brian has been centrally involved in negotiating the steady stream of improvements to the Co-operative Corporations Act and the offering statement regime. He also has extensive experience through his work on other boards, including the Toronto Renewable Energy Co-operative, Ontario Sustainable Energy Association and Greenpeace boards.

Denyse Guy is the Executive Director of the Ontario Co-operative Association. She holds a degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of Waterloo (B.E.S.) and a diploma in Business Management from Humber College. For close to 30 years, she has worked in the fields of community development and private consulting with co-operatives, mutual insurance companies, and non-profit organizations across Canada and overseas in Africa and India.

Ed Hale has been a leader in the establishment of renewable energy co-operatives in Ontario. In 1999 as the Executive Director of TREC, he directed the difficult process of planning, permitting and constructing a wind turbine in downtown Toronto. Ed has served as a Director on the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association Board and has worked to promote the establishment of community owned energy initiatives across Ontario. Ed is also the President of Lakewind Power, which is developing a 10 MW wind venture on the Lake Huron shore near Kincardine, Ontario.

Jaret Henhoeffer was recruited in 2002 to be the founding Manager of the Perth Community Futures Development Corporation. Jaret has played a key role in the creation of Countryside Energy Co-operative and has written and/or spoken on many topics including Renewable Energy Policy, Access to Capital, Community Owned Wind Energy, and Anaerobic Digestion. Jaret has an Honours Bachelor of Business Administration and a Masters in Business Administration from Wilfrid Laurier University.

Eugene Ellmen has served as Executive Director of the Social Investment Organization, Canada’s national association for socially responsible investment (SRI), since 1999. He is one of Canada's leading experts on SRI. Author of the critically acclaimed Canadian Ethical Money Guide, he has an extensive background in journalism, and in communications and public affairs with the financial industry, government and in private consulting.

Richard Corley is a Partner at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP in Toronto. His practice is focused on the intersection of law and technology, with a specific focus on the clean technology (CleanTech) and information technology industries. Richard has more than 25 years of experience in structuring and negotiating creative solutions to complex commercial arrangements and assisting entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. He has acted as lead counsel in advising corporations on complex outsourcing transactions, joint ventures, CleanTech and other technology acquisitions, technology-related competition law matters, and other commercial and corporate law matters. He is a partner in the Firm's CleanTech, Information Technology, Business and Competition Groups and co-head of the Information Technology Group.

Special Advisor to the Board
Edward Waitzer is a Partner at Stikeman Elliott LLP in Toronto, where he served as chair from 1999 to 2006. His practice focuses on complex business transactions, acquisitions and restructurings, as well as advising in respect of various public policy and governance matters. He has also been very active on accounting and corporate governance issues and leads our Corporate Governance Group. He has served as a member of the firm's Executive Committee and Partnership Board. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Waitzer was vice-president of the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Community Power Fund Past Directors
Brent Kopperson is the founder and Executive Director of the Windfall Ecology Centre, a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to building sustainable communities. Brent is also a founding director of the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association (OSEA) and the Community Power Fund. He has a significant record of accomplishment in business, organization development, and community service and graduated from York University with an Honours Degree in Business Administration in 1978.

Michael Lewkowitz is an accomplished venture builder with over a decade of experience as founder, manager, professional investor, and advisor to emerging entities with a vision. He has served as a venture partner at an energy and efficiency finance company and has founded a non-profit organization and serveral private sector ventures. He is currently focused on co-creating entities and initiatives in service of restoring balance among people and the planet and sits on the board of directors of Communicopia, Windfall Ecology Centre and the Ontario Community Power Fund.

Community Power Fund Staff
Deborah Doncaster is the CPF Executive Director. She was the founding Executive Director of the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association formed in 2001. Under Deborah's leadership, OSEA accomplished the delivery of a Standard Offer Contract Program for Ontario. She was also one of three Project Developers with the Toronto Renewable Energy Co-operative and worked on their Exhibition Place turbine project on Toronto's waterfront. Deborah holds degrees in Philosophy, Law and Environmental Planning.

Sean Holt is the founding Managing Director of Community Power Capital, the latest initiative to be incubated by CP Fund. Sean is a serial entrepreneur and social capitalist whose dream is to transform finance through community energy independence and ecological restoration. Prior to joining CP Fund, Sean spent six years working on a diverse array of successful policy and financial initiatives in climate, food/water security, social finance and fair trade through his consulting firm, Om Ventures. Sean began his career as an investment banker with Goldman Sachs NY after graduating with distinction in economics from Cornell University. He went on to help develop the first pan-African investment fund, which later became Emerging Capital Partners, the first private equity group to raise more than $1 billion for African investment. Sean then launched several forerunning social and environmental technology companies and an arts & educational foundation before founding Om Ventures in 2004.

Laurie Arron is Program Director at Community Power Fund for the Community Energy Partnerships Program. Laurie previously served as Executive Director of the Green Party of Canada, the National Coordinator of Canadians for Equal Marriage and the Director of Advocacy for Egale Canada. Before that, he was a lawyer at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt and managed real estate development projects for CN Real Estate. Laurie has an MBA from UBC and a law degree from the University of Toronto.

Rebecca Black, Director of Communications at the CP Fund, runs Black Current Marketing. For the past five years, Rebecca has directed event and project management, marketing, communications and fundraising for the renewable energy and built environment sectors. Rebecca has worked at several renewable power developers including SkyPower, WindShare and the Toronto Renewable Energy Cooperative. Previously she held senior management positions within the music industry in Canada, New York and Australia. She has a Masters Degree in Environmental Studies and a Diploma in Business & Environment, where her thesis focused on Marketing for Community-Based Renewable Power Projects.

Meghan MacLennan is Program Manager at CP Fund and for the Community Energy Partnerships Program. She graduated from Ryerson University with a Masters degree in Public Policy and Administration in 2006 and has an undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Waterloo. She has done significant research on wind power and public policy in the province of Ontario, and worked as an intern for the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association before joining the CPF in August 2007.

Evan Ferrari is Program Manager at CP Fund for the Community Energy Partnerships Program. He has been the manager of a Green Community Initiative and held managerial and leadership positions in the fields of waste management, water conservation and energy conservation, including (Past) President of the WindShare Cooperative - owners of the first North American urban windmill at Exhibition Place in Toronto. As the Director, Parks & Protected Areas for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society - Wildlands League he took the lead for the environmental non-governmental-organization sector in creating a new Ontario Parks Act in 2007. Evan received the Governor General Canada 125 Award for his work on environmental initiatives.

Laura Tozer is Program Coordinator at CP Fund for the Community Energy Partnerships Program. She has a BSc in Environmental Sciences from the University of Guelph and is currently pursuing a Masters in Geography and Environmental Studies focused on community based renewable energy from the University of Toronto. She has significant experience researching renewable energy, social friction in wind power development, and community power.  Before joining the CEPP, Laura worked as a researcher for a leading climate change adaptation and vulnerability research group at the University of Guelph. Laura has been a speaker on climate change science and politics and an organizer of national conferences for youth on climate change and environmental career development.

Kelly McLean is the Office Manager at the Community Power Fund. Kelly graduated from the University of Waterloo with an Honours Bachelor Degree in Environmental Studies in 1999 and has obtained a diploma in Condominium Management and Administration from Humber College in 2010. Over the past decade, Kelly has mastered her administrative skills as a property manager handling a diverse real estate portfolio in the Greater Toronto Area and has acted as a project manager on numerous energy efficiency improvement projects.  She is looking forward to utilizing her strong administrative and project management skills to help communities obtain funding in order to develop renewable energy projects in Ontario.

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