BC Business
Donald McInnes, Chair, Clean Energy B.C. | BCBusiness
In a sector renowned for its byzantine regulatory hurdles, Donald McInnes gets things done. When he set out to found a utility-scale energy provider in the early 2000s, he was looking at a blank slate; six years later he had navigated the environmental and regulatory permits and secured financing, negotiated a contract to supply the BC Hydro grid and built B.C.’s biggest run-of-river Hydro project, as well as other renewable-energy projects. The company he founded, Plutonic Power Corp., then merged with Magma Energy Corp. to become $600-million powerhouse Alterra Power Corp.
By his own count, McInnes has had a hand in creating or building a dozen companies—most in mineral exploration, and one tech company. “What I bring is the bigger picture, a tremendous network and a good track record of leadership in terms of building a team that get projects through the Canadian and B.C. environmental process,” he says.
He advises many mining juniors and if he’s on the board there’s a good chance a deal is imminent; he sat on the board of Fronteer Gold Inc. (bought by Newmont Mining Corp. for $2.3 billion in 2011), and Blue Gold Mining Inc. (acquired by Riverstone Resources Inc. in October 2012).
McInnes is currently chair of the Clean Energy Association of B.C., a governor of the B.C. Business Council and a director of Prostate Cancer Canada. He’s also the former president of the Association for Mineral Exploration B.C.