Oakville Hydro Corporation
Oakville Hydro Corporation’s Board of Directors is responsible for supervising the management of the corporation’s business and affairs. This includes assuming responsibility for the stewardship of the corporation in areas such as: strategic planning, risk identification and risk management, succession planning, communications policies and integration of the internal control and management information systems. The Board’s nine members are selected to provide the corporation with a breadth of knowledge in business (finance, legal, accounting, marketing), public policy and government relations, board operations, electricity services, risk management, labour relations, environmental issues and occupational health and safety.
Gary Burkett David Brennan Mayor Rob Burton Ray Green Don McCreesh John Mitchell Marie Oswald Mike Russill Robert Wickham
Gary Burkett is a senior Human Resources executive with over thirty eight years experience with three blue chip corporations: Molson Breweries, Bell Canada and Federal Express Canada. Gary's HR subject matter expertise is anchored in business acumen with having been President Molson Saskatchewan Breweries together with having served on six commercial Boards and four volunteer Boards.
Gary is presently Managing Director Human Resources with Federal Express Canada and serves on the Oakville Hydro Board and the George Brown College School of Business Advisory Board.
Gary has lived and worked in western, central and eastern Canada and moved to Oakville in 1986. He and his wife have four children.
David Brennan is the Senior Vice President of Law and General Counsel at Ontario Power Generation. He received his Law degree in 1982, and has since become a member of the Law Societies of Alberta and Upper Canada. Before joining Ontario Power Generation in 2006, Mr. Brennan had worked for General Electric, as a Vice President.
Mayor Rob Burton represents the shareholder, the Town of Oakville. Mayor Burton brings a wealth of business experience and a perspective as a long time Oakville resident to the Board. He has an M.S. degree from Columbia University.
Ray Green is the Chief Administrative Officer of the Town of Oakville. A 30-year veteran with the Town, Mr. Green has held a number of senior positions prior to his role as CAO, including Commissioner of Infrastructure and Transportation Services, Commissioner of Community Services, Director of Public Works and Assistant Director, Operations. Mr.Green is a Professional Engineer with a B.A.Sc., (Civil Engineering), from the University of Toronto.
Don McCreesh is an experienced Board Director and Management consultant with 30 years of experience as a Board Chair, Lead Director, Committee Chair and Director of a number of corporate non-profit and charitable organizations. He is a leader in the professional development of other directors - faculty member of the Directors College – and experienced member of Independent Review Committees. He had a business oriented HR career – culminating in 11 years as the corporate officer responsible for Human Resources and the global head of HR at three of Canada’s major corporations – Celestica, CIBC and Nortel Networks. He also has business expertise in a number of sectors, including: technology, financial services, manufacturing, natural resources, logistics and not for profit; throughout North America, Europe and Asia.
John K. Mitchell received a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in Canada, England and Wales and South Africa.
His work experience includes many years as Senior Vice President Finance and Chief Accountant of Scotiabank and Board member of several of their various operating subsidiaries in Canada, Nassau and Barbados. He remains on the Board of the Scotiabank subsidiary company in Barbados where he was previously Managing Director of their world wide reinsurance operations for several years.
Prior to coming to Canada he was General Manager of the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa where he oversaw international capital projects throughout the world. In 2001 he was awarded a fellowship of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ontario.
Marie C. Oswald is presently National Head of Compliance for Edward Jones. Before joining Edwards Jones, she was Director of Investigations and Enforcement for the TSX, and a Vice President at Merrill Lynch Canada Inc. Ms. Oswald was called to the Ontario Bar in 1983.
Mike Russill joined WWF-Canada as President and CEO in 2004. Under his leadership WWF Canada increased its revenues by nearly 90% and has broadened its conservation reach into Climate Change and Freshwater.
Mike spent thirty-years in the private energy sector, with Shell Canada Inc., Petro-Canada Inc. and Suncor Inc. At Suncor he held several Vice-President assignments; Strategic Integration, Business Services (finance, HR and administration), and Retail.
Mike served as Executive Chairman of Aadco Automotive, an environmentally focused automotive recycling company, and the first to receive Canada's Eco logo.
He has served as a Director on a number of Boards including Nature Conservancy of Canada, CS Able Ltd. USA, Pioneer Petroleum Limited, UPI Petroleum. Mike is past Chairman of the Atlantic Petroleum Association, and the Ontario Region of the Canadian Petroleum Products Institute.
He is a member of the Advisory Boards of the School Of Management at Dalhousie University, Green living Enterprises and Sustainable Prosperity. Mike is a frequent speaker on Business and Sustainability.
He graduated from Ryerson in Business Administration and completed the Western Executive Program and the University of Michigan Human Resources Executive Program.
Mike is married to Karen and they have three grown children. His interests include spending time at the family cottage, hiking, kayaking, canoeing and golfing.
Robert Wickham is a senior finance executive with over 30 years of experience with several Canadian public and private companies. He holds a B.Comm degree from McMaster University, has been a Chartered Accountant since 1982 and became a Chartered Director in 2005. Throughout his career, he has worked primarily as a senior finance executive in the mining and real estate industries dealing extensively in both Canadian and International capital markets. More recently, Mr. Wickham has been involved with several Public Private Partnership transactions in Ontario.
