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Senior Management

Business Unit Leaders

Northern and Offshore Development:
Nick Poushinsky, Ph.D.

Nick Poushinsky is the Lead Business Unit Leader for Northern and Offshore Development. Based at our Sidney, BC office, he has over 20 years of experience in the environmental field coupled with academic appointments at universities in the USA and Canada and government service to the Deputy Minister level. Previously, he was a Principal with a major international consulting firm. Dr. Poushinsky has led numerous Impact and Benefit Agreement negotiations between resource developers and First Nations in addition to managing the environmental and public involvement components of a number of mining projects in western and northern Canada. He has also managed environmental impact assessments and has led the socio-economic impact assessment component of numerous proposed developments.

An experienced and skilled facilitator, Dr. Poushinsky has substantial experience assisting the establishment of solid working relationships between First Nations and resource developers. In particular, he has facilitated numerous workshops and negotiation sessions involving these often opposing groups. Recently, he facilitated a workshop designed to enable various stakeholders to participate in a detailed assessment of a proposed route change that would see the Georgia Straight Crossing pipeline project routed through a marine reserve.

Roderick Bell-Irving, B.Sc.

Rod Bell-Irving is the BC Business Unit Leader in Sidney, BC. He has 32 years of regulatory and environmental assessment experience. Before joining AXYS in February 2005, he spent 23 years with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, first as a regulator and manager with the Habitat Management program and then as Director of both Native Affairs and Native and Economic Development program elements in B.C., the Yukon and Ottawa. Upon leaving DFO in 1996, Mr. Bell-Irving assumed responsibilities as President of a large independent environmental consulting company in British Columbia before starting and operating his own environmental consulting business.

Mr. Bell-Irving is particularly known for his involvement in the development and application of federal fish habitat management policy and guidelines. He also has extensive experience with First Nations, particularly in B.C., the Yukon, Ontario and the Maritime provinces, where he was responsible for developing and implementing cooperative management and capacity building programs. Recently, Mr. Bell-Irving has continued in the environmental field as a consultant to industry, government and First Nations clients, particularly in British Columbia. This includes extensive involvement with Canada’s resource industry sectors including: mining, forestry, and electrical generation. He has provided services related to the application and interpretation of federal and provincial environmental legislation, policy and practice, and coordinated, directed and managed large teams of consultants conducting complex environmental assessments.

Oil Sands:
Chris Campbell, M.Sc. (Agr.)

Chris Campbell is the Business Unit Leader for Oil Sands. She has over 23 years of experience working in the oil and gas and environment industries on a variety of large projects, including either environmental impact assessments or engineering regulatory applications. These projects include TrueNorth Energy's Fort Hills Project, ConocoPhillips Canada's Surmont SAGD Project and Imperial's Cold Lake EIA and SEIA. She has also worked on the majority of Canadian offshore projects, including Hibernia, Venture, Panuke-Cohasset and Hebron.

Ms. Campbell has extensive project management and supervisory experience and training. She was President of her own company for 14 years, and the Executive Director of the Bow River Basin Water Council, where she worked on water management planning. Prior to this Ms. Campbell worked as a technical writer for Esso Resources, a reclamation biologist with Hardy Associates Ltd., and an extension agrologist and agriculture marketing officer for Alberta Agriculture.

Pipeline and Oil and Gas:
James Power, B.Sc., Ph.D.

James Power, Business Unit Leader for Pipeline and Oil and Gas, is an environmental scientist specializing in environmental impact assessment and regulatory compliance. He gained a B.Sc. in Environmental Science from the University of Plymouth in England, and a doctorate from the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland.

His principal focus is currently on environmental assessment and conservation and reclamation planning for oil sands, seismic, drilling, pipeline and aggregate development projects. Mr. Power has managed the preparation of a large number of regulatory applications, in particular projects regulated under the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act (EPEA, Alberta) and by the Inuvialuit Environmental Screening Committee (EISC, NWT). His other specialty areas include mitigation planning for watercourse crossings, and Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM). He has provided environmental consulting support for a large number of projects in British Columbia, Alberta, the Northwest Territories, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Shannon Parsons

Shannon Parsons is the Business Unit Leader for for Pipeline and Oil and Gas in the Edmonton, Alberta office. Mr. Parsons has over 26 years of international experience in the management and coordination of environmental and health and safety (EH&S) projects associated with the petroleum industry sector. His diverse spectrum of experience has been primarily directed at the provision of environmental services to oil and gas clients at both the divisional and corporate levels. He also acts as a consultant and corporate representative to senior executives, attorneys and other professional accountable for EH&S performance.

Mr. Parsons possesses strong interpersonal, leadership and team building skills, with a proven record in mentoring and managing multinational and multidisciplinary client and contractor teams. His skills set includes project design and management, due diligence assessment, regulatory compliance and environmental monitoring. His international project experience includes projects in Canada, Russia CIS, Republic of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Bolivia. Mr. Parsons brings to the project team a strong technical background built on extensive field experience and leadership skills developed as an independent onsultant and client representative.

Division Managers

Agronomics:
Jim Hicks, B.Sc, P.Ag

Jim Hicks is a professional agrologist and manager of the AXYS Agronomics Division of AXYS Environmental Consulting Ltd. in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Mr. Hicks has over 25 years experience in the agricultural industry as an agronomist, consultant, technologist, and manager of an agricultural/ environmental laboratory. He has performed numerous in-house training sessions for clients such as Agrium, UGG and the former Manitoba Pool Elevators. This training expertise includes benchmark soil sampling training, using topography and soil survey maps for choosing defendable sites for making fertility decisions. Mr. Hicks has also helped clients develop environmental sampling programs that meet existing regulations both in the agricultural and environmental sectors.

Recently, he has developed baseline soil sampling protocols for the livestock industry, providing new operations with salinity and nutrient baseline analyses, leaching potential, denitrification potential, and manure spreading risk maps.

With AXYS, Mr. Hicks has served as project manager on a number of irrigation suitability projects in Manitoba and over 15 phase II and III remediation projects for Simplot and Cargill. He is skilled in developing fertility programs for farm producers that include fertilizer rates, placement and hazards. He has unique experience with municipal biosolids, having provided Environmental Act Proposals for several towns in Manitoba for land application of biosolids, as well as overseeing the application of the City of Portage biosolids to his farm. Mr. Hicks is currently providing manure management planning expertise for a major hog production corporation in Manitoba.

Documentation:
Frank Johns, M.Sc.

Frank Johns is a technical editor and the manager of the Documentation Division. He has extensive experience in documentation management of complex and large technical reports for municipal, provincial and federal governments, as well as the mining, waste disposal, and oil and gas industries. His responsibilities include liaison with clients and the project management group; supervising production of documentation; and managing timelines and resources.

His clients have included Fisheries and Oceans Canada; Department of Defence, Air Command; Department of Defence, Maritime Command; Saskatchewan Department of Renewable Resources; Municipality of Halifax; Inco Ltd.; Devon Canada Corporation; Shell Canada Limited; Albright-Americas Ltd.; and Millar Western Forest Industries.

Environmental Planning:
Neil Cory, B.Sc., M.E.Des.

Neil Cory is an environmental scientist and manager of the Environmental Planning Division. He has extensive experience conducting environmental impact assessments under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and specializes in projects occurring in national parks and in sensitive urban natural areas.

Mr. Cory has worked extensively in Banff, Jasper and Yoho national parks on a variety of infrastructure development projects, including water supply and treatment plants, wastewater treatment plants, pipeline installations and lease renewals. His experience also includes updating the Banff Model Class Screening Report as part of its Five-Year Review. He has given electrical providers advice on the use of their Model Class Screenings and implementation of environment mitigations when conducting work in national parks.

Finance and Administration:
Arlene Sagan

Arlene Sagan is the Controller/Manager of Finance and Administration for AXYS Environmental Consulting Ltd.

Geomatics:
Jack O'Neill, B.ES., GIS Dipl.

As the manager of the Geomatics Division, Jack O'Neill specializes in identifying analytical techniques and solutions for environmentally-based questions. He develops advanced tools such as information management systems and constraints mapping products that help clients identify environmental limitations for proposed projects, act strategically, and manage regulatory requirements. Mr. O'Neill liaises with AXYS discipline specialists to identify project requirements and the technologies required to provide the best data management solutions. He designs and implements in-house systems and educates staff in their applications.

Mr. O'Neill manages client expectations through delivery of superior communication products. He develops budgets, work scope and assists junior staff in identifying optimal solutions. He also sets and maintains QA/QC processes and standards for the Geomatics Department and reviews all products before their release.

Marine and Land Use Management:
Scott Trusler, B.Sc., M.Sc.

Scott Trusler is a senior vegetation ecologist and Area Manager for Sidney, BC. His areas of expertise include vegetation ecology, land use planning, environmental assessment and ecosystem-based management. He has worked throughout British Columbia, northern Alberta, the Yukon and western Northwest Territories both in the private and public sectors. For several years, he owned and operated a resource consulting firm in the BC central interior providing a variety of ecological inventory, research and management services to industry and government clients.

Prior to joining AXYS in 2003, Mr. Trusler was a senior analyst in the Yukon Government leading corporate implementation of Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA) mirror legislation. He is dedicated to building effective teams and working with them to deliver sound outcomes and products.

Vegetation and Terrain:
Linda Halsey, B. Sc., M.Sc., P. Geol

Linda Halsey is a wetland scientist and manager of the Vegetation and Terrain Division. She obtained her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in geology from the University of Alberta where she studied surficial geology. She is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists, and Geophysicists of Alberta (APEGGA) and the Society of Wetland Scientists.

Ms. Halsey brings a variety of expertise in wetland ecosystems and both large- and small-scale terrain analyses. She is co-author of over twenty refereed papers and her work on wetland distributions has been published at both the provincial (Alberta and Manitoba) and national scale (National Atlas of Canada). As part of her work on wetland distributions, she has developed and refined a system of wetland classification that provincial governments from sea to sea have adopted.

Ms. Halsey has also participated at various levels in a number of large EIAs that include providing expert testimony at hearings. Project involvement has included the CNRL Horizon Oil Sands Project, Imperial Oil Resources Cold Lake Expansion Project (Nabiye and Mahihkan North), ConocoPhillips Canada Surmont SAGD Project, Firebag Oil Sands Project, Fort Hills Oil Sands Project, JACOS Oil Sands Project, Petro-Canada Meadow Creek Oil Sands Project, Rio Alto Kirby Oil Sands Project, Shell Jackpine Mine, Shell Lease 13 Oil Sands Project, and the TransCanada PipeLines Limited Ekwan Mainline Extension.

Wildlife:
Paul Sargent, B.Sc.

Paul Sargent is a senior wildlife biologist and manager of the Wildlife Division. He has over 15 years of field experience working for government agencies, non-government organizations and environmental consulting companies. His vast skill set includes wildlife handling and wildlife survey techniques, habitat use and suitability assessment skills, and experience studying effects of disturbances on wildlife. Paul has worked with birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, fish and invertebrates. He conducts biological inventories, habitat suitability models, wildlife impact assessments, and effects monitoring and mitigation programs.

Before joining AXYS, Paul was a Parks Canada federal park warden for five years and worked in several national parks. His area of expertise was wildlife-human conflict, specifically related to black and grizzly bears, other large carnivores and elk. He has extensive experience with wildlife aversive conditioning techniques, chemical immobilization of wildlife, telemetry work, wildlife disease management, population surveys, and habitat selection and use surveys.

KAVIK-AXYS Inc:

Details about KAVIK-AXYS management and staff can be found on their website at http://www.kavik-axys.com.