Team

Senior Executives:

Ralph Turfus – Executive Director

• Mr. Turfus serves as Executive Director of Endurance Wind Power Inc. Mr. Turfus founded Escom Software (latterly Class Software) and served as its Chief Executive Officer for 28 years.
• Mr. Turfus is a hands-on angel investor and executive mentor, and is active in organizations that promote the region’s technology industry. He serves as the Executive Chairman of Redlen Technologies Inc., Chairman Navarik Corp., Executive Chairman of Rewardstream Inc. Director of Mazza Innovations and most recently, he serves as a Chairman and Executive Director of Endurance Wind Power.
• In recognition of his business success and industry contributions, he was named the B.C. Technology Industry Association’s “Person of the Year” in 2006.
• Mr. Turfus holds a Bachelors of Science, Masters in Science, Masters in Business Administration, and he is a professional Engineer in Canada.

Brad Bardua – Chief Financial Officer and Interim CEO

• Mr. Bardua joined Endurance as Chief Financial Officer in June 2014 and is responsible for all finance and accounting related functions of the company. He has over 20 years of senior level financial leadership of both public and private companies, including extensive experience raising equity and debt capital in both public and private sectors.
• Prior to joining Endurance, Mr. Bardua was the CFO of Avigilon Corporation, a global publicly traded company that designs and manufactures high-definition surveillance systems, where he was a key member of the team that grew the company’s market cap from $125 million at its IPO to over $1 billion within 2 years. Prior to this he held positions in a variety of industries, including renewable energy, entertainment, property development and resources, including CFO of Gateway Casinos and CFO of Pacific Bioenergy Corporation.
• Mr. Bardua is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Simon Fraser University. He serves as a member of the National Board of Financial Executives Canada, and previously held a Chapter President role. Mr. Bardua is a supporter of the Arts and currently serves on the Board of the Childrens’ Arts Umbrella Foundation, the charitable foundation of Arts Umbrella, a not-for-profit arts education centre for children and youth ages 2 to 19.

Amir Alagheband – Senior Vice President Operations

• Mr. Alagheband is currently focusing on continuous improvement and lean implementation within production, as well as developing strategic plans to increase efficiency and mitigate risk in a rapidly evolving and more complex supply chain network.
• He has a broad range of experience in manufacturing and distribution, dealing with domestic and overseas suppliers and creating strategic alliances.
• He brings the in depth ability to create highly optimized and efficient operations in small to mid-tier sized organizations, with focus on processes and procedures.
• Mr. Alagheband has worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as well as world-renowned industrial design firm Ziba Design focusing on design projects with Fortune 500 companies such as FedEx, P&G, Microsoft, IBM, Intel and GE.
• Mr. Alagheband has an M.Sc. (honors) in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, a B.Sc. (honors) in Engineering & Applied Science from Caltech, and a B.A. in Physics from Reed College

Trevor Wiebe – General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, Vice President Corporate Development

• Mr. Wiebe is part of the executive team and is responsible for the management of Endurance’s legal affairs.
• Prior to Endurance, he practised law with blue chip law firms in Winnipeg and Vancouver, and held General Counsel & Corporate Secretary roles in two technology companies listed on US and Canadian exchanges, and has particular expertise in the areas of corporate governance, commercial law and intellectual property, in addition to negotiating numerous commercial transactions.
• Mr. Wiebe holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Manitoba, as well as a Master of Laws from the University of Ottawa, and has been called to the Bars of the Provinces of British Columbia and Manitoba. His language abilities include French and Japanese.

Ole Sangill – Vice President Technology

• Mr. Sangill is an accomplished executive and highly experienced engineering veteran in the wind turbine design and technology industry. Mr. Sangill looks after the strategic and corporate focus of design and technology at Endurance Wind Power, in particular provides the company’s technological focus on the X Series.
• Co-Founder and executive for Norwin A/S – Mr. Sangill’s primary responsibilities included design and development for the Norwin 750kW and 225kW including project management, technology transfer and adaptation to international markets including Germany, India, Brazil and the USA, and significant testing and certification for various EU bodies.
• Mr. Sangill is based in Denmark and is a member of the Society of Danish Engineers (IDA), he holds an MASc in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark in addition to a BASc in Engineering from the Technical Collage of Copenhagen.

Brett Pingree – Vice President Commercial

• Mr. Pingree is a seasoned and accomplished international sales executive with over 15 years experience and a strong background in senior sales leadership, market creation, market development, strategy deployment and channel development, product commercialization and business planning.
• While at Northern Power Systems, Mr. Pingree grew the commercial distributed wind business from a start up to $30 million in annual revenue in just 3 years.
• As a distributed wind energy industry expert, Mr. Pingree chairs the Small Wind Steering Committee for Renewable UK. He is a long serving member of AWEA’s Small Wind Committee and currently serves as chair of AWEA’s Distributed Wind Committee. He is also a founding member and a Board of Director for DWEA.
• Mr. Pingree holds an Executive Leadership Certificate from the Wallace E. Carroll Graduate School of Management at Boston College (2005) as well as a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science (1991) from the University of Vermont.
• Mr. Pingree was named AWEA’s “Small Wind Advocate of the Year” in 2012 and currently holds a Chair position with RenewableUK’s Small and Medium Wind Strategy Group.

Ed Mufford – Vice President Engineering

• Mr. Mufford joined the Endurance team as Vice President of Engineering in December 2014, bringing over 20 years of experience in Engineering Management, Strategic Management, and expertise in hybrids, and electrical vehicles to Endurance.
• Mr. Mufford was previously a Consulting Engineer and spent a decade as Vice President of Engineering at General Hydrogen Corp and Plug Power Canada.
• Mr. Mufford holds both a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (1992) and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (1990) from the University of British Columbia. He is also recognized as a Registered Professional Engineer in British Columbia.

Kelli Forster – Vice President Human Resources

• Mrs. Forster has over 15 years building HR infrastructure and programs within high tech and manufacturing environments. She has worked as a senior manager in renewable energy companies for the last 5 years, most recently as the Director, Human Resources for the Solar division of Schneider Electric.
• Mrs. Foster has a B.A. Degree in Psychology from UBC and is a Certified Human Resource Professional (CHRP). She is a co-chair of Senior HR Practitioner Group of the HR Tech Group of BC.

Senior Leadership:

Anthony Rochelle-Whyte – Managing Director UK Operations

• As a Management Consultant, Mr. Rochelle-Whyte specialized in various projects including: introducing Quality Systems and Techniques within Vestas Wind Systems, relocation of automotive tier 1 suppliers from the UK to Eastern Europe and worked at General Motors as a Turnaround Agent to manage problematic suppliers.
• Mr. Rochelle-Whyte held various positions in the automotive industry for OEM and Tier 1 suppliers worldwide, including Operations Director, Quality and Purchase Director, Program Manager, Manufacturing Manager, New Model Introduction Manager and Principal Fuel Systems Engineer for such firms as BMW, Rover Group, Landrover, Landers Automotive and Mann and Hummel.
• Mr. Rochelle-Whyte has a Manufacturing Management and Technology Bachelor of Science Degree in Quality Systems, Quality Techniques, Implementation of New Technologies and Structure and Design of Manufacturing Systems attained at Birmingham University.

Dr. David Laino – Co-Founder, Principal Engineer

• Dr. Laino was a co-founder of Windward Engineering 1999 and a lead designer on the original Endurance S-Series turbine. Previously, he worked at the US National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), Golden, CO, where he developed wind turbine computer modeling capabilities to analyze innovative designs, and evaluate proposed safety standards. He also analyzed and compared test and simulation data in validation studies.
• Dr. Laino is an active member of the American Wind Energy Association and Co-Administrator of the US Technical Advisory Group to IEC Technical Committee for Wind Turbine Standards. He is also active on the Small Wind Coordinating Committee that is drafting rules for certification of small wind turbines in North America.
• Dr. Laino has a Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, 1997, from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah and a M.S. Mechanical Engineering, 1994, from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. In 1991 Dr. Laino received his B.S. Aeronautical Engineering, from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY.

Dean Davis – Co-Founder, Test Facility Manager

• Mr. Davis is a founding partner of Windward Engineering and started the Wind Energy consulting company in 1994 with Dr. Craig Hansen. For the last 13 years Mr. Davis has been testing and designing small and large wind turbines and has over thirteen years of experience in the field of wind energy with a strong emphasis in computer aided design and small wind turbine testing.
• Mr. Davis is well known for many of his published papers including his work on wind turbine aerodynamic subroutines. Mr. Davis and Windward Engineering have worked closely with the US National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) and The US Department of Energy (DOE) for a number of years.
• Mr. Davis has an M.S. Mechanical Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah and a B.S. Mechanical Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California.

Karim Jessa – Director of Technical Services

• Mr. Jessa is an accomplished leader with thirty years of experience in building, leading and integrating service organizations, managing complex projects and cRM systems, customer relations and leading global cross-cultural teams. His strong financial background allows him to be entrepreneurial, make sound economic decisions and manage service as business.
• Prior to joining Endurance, Mr. Jessa spent 6 years with Eastman Kodak, 12 years with Creo Products Inc. and 12 years with Geac Computer Corporation in various progressive technical and leadership roles.
• Mr. Jessa is a graduate of the Executive Program in Marketing and Sales Management from the University of British Columbia and has done undergrad in Electrical Engineering.

Bill Bishop – Director of Global Marketing

• Mr. Bishop has over 20 years of experience in international product marketing, brand strategy and communications in leadership and executive roles with established corporate brands and high-growth, entrepreneurial start-ups.
• Skilled in marketing technology, he has developed integrated customer relationship programs that tighten alignment between marketing and sales, enhancing the customer relationship and increasing close rates. In his past role with a leading global fuel management company, his work in rebuilding the core value proposition led to higher-value customer relationships and increased recurring revenues. This new model enabled the company to access new international markets, contributed to a significant equity investment and was recognized with several coveted business awards.
• Mr. Bishop began his international marketing and branding experience with a decade in South-east Asia as brand strategist and creative director with two of the big five advertising agencies, where he guided product and customer strategy across multiple markets for leading global brands.

Per Lading – Director of Advanced Technology Development

• Mr. Lading is a highly experienced wind turbine designer and technical Engineer, he looks after technology development at Endurance currently.
• Mr. Lading previously worked as a Research Engineer with the Test Station for Wind Turbines at Risoe National Laboratories and as an R&D manager at Danwin A/S. At Danwin A/S Mr. Lading designed the basis for the 225kW model currently making up the X Series. Mr. Lading then went on to become Director and Partner at WEA Technology A/S and Norwin A/S.
• Mr. Lading is based in Denmark and is an Academy Engineer who holds a B.Sc. (Honours) M.E. from Technical University of Denmark, formerly known as the Engineering Academy of Denmark. He previously held a Chairman position with the Technical Committee of the Danish Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association, and has been a member of the Wind Research Committee for the Danish Ministry of Energy as well as Research Evaluator for the European Commission.

Charles Newcomb – Director of Technical Strategy

• Mr. Newcomb is an internationally recognized engineering expert in distributed wind energy systems. Mr. Newcomb’s experience in advancing renewable energy technologies was developed over more than a decade spent at the Department of Energy’s National Wind Technology Center. At NREL Mr. Newcomb’s managed the Department of Energy’s Wind for Schools Program and its Wind and Water Power Deployment group.
• Mr. Newcomb’s industry experience included serving as managing director for Entegrity Wind Systems, where he managed project development, fleet operations and project technical guidance and engineering support. As Chief Technology Officer at NexGen Energy Partners, he lead the technical team as its chief engineer and worked closely with suppliers and customers to ensure optimal performance of NexGen’s fleet of renewable energy systems.
• Mr. Newcomb also served as Vice President of the Small Wind Certification Council’s Board of Directors.