Jay is the founder and President of REV. An entrepreneur since the age of 18, Jay has spent the last five years researching and studying renewable energy technologies and its impact on the automotive and energy industries. Jay is passionately committed to automotive electrification.

As part of his industry involvements, Jay is a member of the City of Surrey’s Clean Energy Advisory Network. Working with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Jay is the only industry representative to the City of Vancouver’s Project Get Ready advisory group. He is an active member of Electric Mobility Canada, a federally assisted non-profit lobbyist group working with Transport Canada on the EV Technology Road Map. He is also an active speaker in industry-related events, including speaking engagements at Globe 2010, planning and consultation meetings for Green Fleets BC, Washington’s Beyond Oil 2009 Conference, with the Toronto Atmospheric Fund and Pollution Probe in Ontario, and at EV2010 in Vancouver BC.

During his time at Carter Motorsports he achieved the highest sales every month as Salesperson, and as Sales Manager increased sales 98% during the lean winter months. As Co-Founder and Director at Athena Apparel, he was responsible for handling all strategic partner relationships, bank and investment matters, marketing, sales and sales forecasting. He worked with lawyers, accountants and bank managers negotiating funds and with large corporate clients such as Intrawest and Snowshoe resorts, with whom he achieved first sales orders of $60,000 each while also managing an outside sales force across Canada and the U.S.

Jay’s adult life began in 1996 when he moved to Whistler BC to become an internationally recognized professional freestyle snowboarder. He represented his 11 sponsors while competing in international and world cup contests in North America and Asia and trained national and junior national teams in BC and in Korea.

Ronald W. Steeper, MBA, VP Strategic Alliances

Ronald W. Steeper, MBA, VP Strategic Alliances

Ron Steeper is a Vancouver based entrepreneur and business consultant and brings his business analytical and revenue model planning expertise to REV.

As President and CEO of four successful businesses, including 2 exits, Ron was provided with a wealth of knowledge and experience in the success of business development.

Ron co-founded and developed several companies including one of the world’s first public internet broadcasting facilities and led to the development of internet broadcasting software and the establishment of several of ‘netcasting’ facilities.

Over the past 20 years Ron has helped the development and growth of numerous companies by offering services in business planning/strategy, business development, marketing and program/project management. Client engagements have been international in nature, have involved all sizes of business from start-up business planning to BC Hydro ($5 billion + annual revenue) and have included several publicly traded companies.

Reporting directly the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at BC Hydro Ron led numerous projects and programs across the enterprise and all lines of business.

Ron is the former President of the Board of Directors for the British Columbia Coalition for Safer Communities and has been a Business Mentor for the Telus New Ventures Capital Competition for 2 years.

Mr. Steeper holds an M.B.A. in Executive Management from Royal Roads University in Victoria, BC. He also has a degree in Business Marketing and has completed the Systems Architecture and Lifecycle Design program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Blair Simonite, P. Eng, Advisory CFO

Blair has 28 years of operational and financial management experience with firms ranging from Honeywell and Duke Energy to technology startups. Since 2000 Blair has been Vice President, Finance & Operations for audit analytics software firm ACL based in Vancouver Canada, where he has built the organizational capabilities needed to scale a complex and growing business that operates around the globe.

In addition to providing financial guidance to REV, Blair is active as board member and advisor to early stage software and clean technology companies. He is a partner and board member of BC Social Venture Partners, a philanthropic group from the technology industry that provides funds and expertise to grow the capacity of charitable organizations dealing with social issues in Vancouver. Blair holds an MBA from Simon Fraser University, an Electrical Engineering degree from the University of British Columbia, and is a registered Canadian professional engineer.

Kody Baker, P.Eng, Engineering Manager

Kody Baker holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of British Columbia and has over 10 years of experience in mechanical design and project management with several clean-tech and high-tech companies such as Nexterra Systems Corp, Honeywell, and Eagle Picher Energy Products.  He has developed a reputation for being a 3d CAD guru and enjoys mentoring others and developing more efficient design methodologies.  
Kody's technical expertise in a 3d-based production engineering environment, lithium cell chemistry, Enterprise Resource Planning, and Six Sigma methods will help Rapid Electric Vehicles to transition from a clean-tech start-up to a successful and profitable electric vehicle company.

Leigh Christie, Lead Design Engineer

Leigh Christie holds a degree in Engineering Physics from the University of British Columbia, and has more than 7 years of experience in the fields of clean energy and sustainable transportation technologies, including the development and commercialization PEM fuel-cells and electric vehicle components. He has extensive experience in creative problem solving and CAD-based design. He has worked with Ballard Power Systems, AFCC, Creo Products, Motorola Labs, and Polyfuel. Leigh holds three patents in the areas of fuel cell design and mechanical pick-up devices.

While working for Ballard Power Systems and AFCC, Leigh worked on a project comparing Ballard's state of the art fuel cells to advanced battery technologies. The goal of the study was to compare the future potential of fuel cell systems to that of current plug-in hybrid systems. In almost every respect, PHEVs were predicted to eventually dominate personal transportation for the foreseable future, thus paving the way for a clear path towards mass-produced pure electric vehicles.

Dr. Guy Faubert, Standards Compliance and Special Projects Manager

Guy completed a B.Eng. in Chemical Engineering at McGill University in 1993.  From 1993 to 1998, Guy earned a doctorate in Electrochemistry at the University of Quebec developing non noble metal catalysts for use in polymer electrolyte fuel cells.  He then was awarded a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Industrial post doctorate scholarship (1998-2001) and worked as a research scientist at H Power Canada on the development of a fuel cell based residential cogeneration unit.  From 2001 to 2008, Guy worked as a research scientist at Ballard Power Systems and at the Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation (AFCC) on several projects ranging from fuel cell component development to durability testing.

Gary Yurkovich, Chairman

Gary Yurkovich is an experienced and successful executive in the technology industry. Previously, Gary was the Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Service for Creo Products where he helped grow the company from $6M to over $125M in revenue over a 3 year period. He was also the VP Sales and Corporate Development for BrightSide Technologies which was purchased by Dolby Labs in 2007.  Gary started his career with Digital Equipment Corporation where he served in a variety of management and operational positions, and was one of the most highly recognized contributors in the company’s history. He is a BCIT graduate in Electronics and has a B.Sc. in Biochemistry and Genetics from the University of British Columbia.  Gary currently sits on the Board of Directors or Advisory Board of several technology companies.

Geoff Davenport, Director and Co-Founder

As part of several executive management teams, Geoff has had oversight and influence on product development, marketing and many other operational dimensions in large organizations. With experience ranging from VP of Sales for BC Tel, Executive VP at RFID Systems, Onvia and Radiant Communications, Geoff brings high level of sales, management and business analytics to the team.

Geoff has 28 years of sales, sales management, and general management expertise in both large and small organizations. He has a tremendous depth of experience in the IT industry and an ability to manage and develop teams in a structured and disciplined way to maximize the effectiveness of the team. Geoff has demonstrated expertise in leading sales teams on large complex deals. Foremost he is passionately committed to achieving the REV business goals.

Vice President of Engineering and Operations for Burlington Hydro Inc.

Dan is a Professional Engineer with a Bachelor of Applied Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Windsor – Class of 1986, and a diploma in Electrical / Electronics Engineering Technology from St. Clair College of Applied Arts and Sciences.

Dan has spent 24 years in the electricity generation and distribution industry. He began his career with the Thermal Generation Division of then Ontario Hydro and has subsequently worked with distribution utilities since 1989. He has experience in all areas of administration and operation for utilities and their affiliate companies, and has directed projects involving electricity storage, renewable energy and electric vehicle applications.

Past Utility Industry Accomplishments:

• Served as President and Director of a local distribution company, managing excellent overall corporate performance including 71% revenue growth
• Developed, launched and led profitable telecommunications and energy service companies
• Implemented and managed the first North American utility load-shifting project using large advanced sodium-nickel-chloride batteries.
  Contributor to utility boards and industry task forces, including OPA Load
• Serving Entities (Customer Entitlement Agencies) working group.
• He is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario (PEO), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE).

Present Activities:

• Established GridSmartCity technology program for Burlington Hydro
• Managing deployment of intelligent switching network
• Developing pure-electric vehicle fleet applications and deployment of community charging stationDeveloping and managing renewable energy program and projects
• Developing large-scale electricity storage projects

industry expert, Calcars.org

Founder Felix Kramer is a marketing strategist and communicator with an entrepreneurial track record with startups; in the environmental realm, he has managed major events and run campaigns and organizations. After founding, running and selling a small Internet company, beginning in 2001 he volunteered his time to CalCars. In April 2006 he became the world's first non-technical consumer owner of a plug-in hybrid. See Kramer Communications and Felix Kramer Bio, his Feb. 14, 2005 OpEd on global warming, Kyoto and Beyond. and Power, Plugs and People, his 2005-2006 blog. A Cornell graduate, he lives with his wife and son in Silicon Valley.