Richard Boudreault

Mr. Richard Boudreault is the inaugural Chairperson of Polar Knowledge Canada with a world-class research station located in the Canadian High Arctic. Where science and traditional knowledge (TD) of First Nations and the Inuit people cohabit and thrive. TD is a scientific force multiplier. He is an insightful leader, strategic thinker, and agent of change, able to assess and transform organizations through advanced skills in business planning, financial management, team leadership, while driving innovative solutions within the technology, environmental, and engineering fields. Manage risks, overcome obstacles, and turn potential losses into profits. Experience working with early stage, growth, and start-up companies in the private and public sectors. He has held a total of five federal government appointments. Holds 13 awarded patents with 68 pending. Prior and current experience serving on 30 boards of directors. He graduated in Earth System Physics and is a Professional Physicist (P.Phys.), has a MEng from Cornell University, and MBA and environment & sustainability postgraduate diplomas from the U. of Sherbrooke. Richard was a professor at U of Sherbrooke and taught at U of Waterloo and Ottawa U and is now Adjunct Professor at École Polytechnique in Montreal and a Visiting Scholar at McGill’s. But also, a Fellow of a variety of learned societies, but in particular of the Canadian Academy of Engineers, Royal Canadian Geographic Society, and of the World Academy of Arts & Sciences. Mr. Boudreault has authored 13 awarded patents, with 65 others pending, and has published more than 50 learned papers and book chapters. He is a reviewer for the UN IPCC. He was awarded the George E. Pake award, for innovation management, from the American Physical Society; and, was knighted into the Order of Academic Palms by France. 

He is Executive Chairman of Sigma Energy Storage, developing reliable sustainable energy storage for remote isolated communities, the CEO of Awn Nanotech an energy-less extractor of potable water from the atmosphere. He also chairs the Science and Technology committee at the National Optics Institute.