Nigel is an experienced executive and consultant with over forty years’ experience in international and multi-sector assignments. His advisory work focuses on incorporating principles of sustainability, innovation, risk mitigation and continuous improvement in strategic, operational, and technical engagements. He has worked on four continents serving clients in a wide range of industries including aerospace, banking, capital markets, oil and gas, mining, commercial real estate, and renewable power systems. His mission is to co-create and/or accelerate the execution of business strategies with triple bottom line benefits – economic, environmental, and social – serving clients from start-ups to multinationals.

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After initiating his career with Ontario Hydro, he did graduate work in biomedical physics and consulting with PA Technology, an R&D innovation hub in Cambridge England. He was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company for 7 years before his executive leadership roles (COO,CTO) with major start-up projects in the financial, real estate and energy industries including E*Trade’s on-line brokerage, Fidelity Investment’s Canadian mutual fund back office, and Potentia Solar, now Canada’s largest solar independent power producer having developed the TDSB 300-school project portfolio, and previously a geo-exchange HVAC system for a $350 Million Infrastructure Ontario facilities construction project. More recently he has specified, designed, and/or built geo-solar systems for near-net-zero green (multi-) residential homes and commercial offices. As an executive and/or co-founder he has launched three start-ups – E-Trade Canada, Potentia Solar, and Isla Power – which collectively have raised over $130 M in investor capital, and two of which have seen successful exits for the founders.

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He has spoken at many conferences and/or chaired conferences (‘Securing Ontario’s Grid of the Future’,2013 and the Canada Energy Storage Summit,2014)) and served on task forces of industry associations (Alternate Trading Systems, IDA; Distribution Generation Task Force, CanSIA 2016) and Boards of Directors (CanSIA, Efficiency Capital). As a CanSIA director, he represented the solar industry on the Canadian delegation to Energiewende 2015 courtesy of the Democratic Republic of Germany.

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Mr. Etherington holds a B.Sc. (Hons) in Engineering Physics from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario and a M.Sc. degree in Medical Physics and Electronics from the University of London in England. He is an alumnus of McKinsey & Company mini-MBA program and has Canadian Securities Institute (CSI) credentials for Partners Directors and Senior Officers. He is a licensed professional engineer in the province of Ontario. He has also served on the boards of Efficiency Capital Corp, a spin-off of The Atmospheric Fund, and the Canadian Solar Industries Association (CanSIA/CanREA) where he was the President’s Award winner in 2013. Currently, he serves on the board of directors of Rethink Sustainability Initiatives (RSI).