Ron Wallace is an accomplished environmental scientist, manager, mediator and regulator, widely published through refereed scientific journals, textbooks and submissions to Parliamentary/Senate Committees, he has managed industrial, provincial and international programs for international-scale developments for major oil and gas developments.
His extensive corporate experience includes senior executive management positions with Petro-Canada, the CanStar Oilsands Joint Venture and as EVP Agra Earth & Environmental Ltd, a major Canadian engineering company. As Chief Executive Officer, and Vice Chairman of a publicly-traded corporation he managed TSV and TSE listings, with acquisitions of subsidiaries in Delaware and Florida, with Board Members that included a former US Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff, a former Director of US Secret Service and senior Canadian oil and gas corporate owners and investment managers.
In 2013 he was appointed as Permanent Member to the National Energy Board (NEB) serving as the first-ever elected interim NEB Chairman and who then, in addition to regulatory decision-making, subsequently chaired the NEB Risk Management and Safety Committee. He retired from the NEB in 2016.
A graduate of the University of Regina and the University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon), his subsequent experience included regulatory enforcement actions for onshore and offshore oil and gas activities in the NWT that included provision of technical advice to the NWT Water Board and a secondment by Environment Canada to the Berger Pipeline Enquiry. He was extensively involved in environmental enforcement and research programs in the Mackenzie Delta, the Beaufort offshore region and the Eastern Arctic. He led several successful prosecutions directed at certain mining companies located near Yellowknife and subsequently directed regional scientific studies of the Eastern Arctic Marine Environment Studies Program based in Pond Inlet, NU.
Subsequently, he developed and delivered training programs for Federal and Alberta managers and enforcement officers (under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and the Fisheries Act). His investigative and prosecutorial experience included further work as lead investigator in Alberta and NWT that resulted in landmark environmental prosecutions.
His international oil and gas regulatory experience included senior advisory assignments in Venezuela, Mexico, China and Russia with the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the EBRD. In 1992, he led an internationally-recognized engineering and assessment team for the World Bank that was charged with the management and containment of the massive Kharaga Oil Pipeline spill in the Pechora Region near Usinsk, Russia.
In Alberta he managed major monitoring and research programs (Alberta Oil Sands Environmental Research Program, Alberta Acid Deposition Research Program and the Southwest Alberta Medical Diagnostic Review). He was an ERCB-appointed mediator (SERG, SARG, DART oilsands mediations) between aboriginal bands and oil sands producers that led to the establishment of the highly successful Ft. McKay Group of Companies. He was appointed to the Alberta Minister’s Environmental Enforcement Task Force (1988) that led to amendments in Alberta’s enforcement legislation.
He was appointed to the Environmental Impact Screening Committee (Inuvik) and the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board (Yellowknife) and presently serves on the board of the Canada West Foundation. In 2021 he was appointed by the Minister of Energy as chair of the Alberta Coal Policy Committee.
Active in the visual arts scene, he founded (1985) Wallace Galleries (Calgary) and has been an active supporter of the Glenbow Museum and the Calgary Military Museums.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS BY RON WALLACE
Carbon Change: Canada on the Brink of Decarbonization
The global energy transition confronts East vs West reakpolitik: Why energy security matters
Russian Energy Ambitions - A Retrospective
