Nicolas Dery, PhD, MBA | Co-Founder, Consultant
Nicolas is one of the founders of Borealis Sustainability Consulting. He has always been interested in sustainability. He pursued environmental science courses in university and volunteered as an elected board member on the Burlington-based Field and Stream Rescue Team. After starting his career as an academic researcher, Nicolas pivoted into public sector administration. He has diverse professional experience in strategy, research development and operations, and research ethics. He is well-connected in the academic research community, including with scientists and engineers working to develop novel sustainable products, technologies and processes. In pursuit of building his administrative skillset while pursuing his passion for sustainability, Nicolas completed his MBA in Sustainable Commerce from University of Guelph’s Lang School of Business and Economics, which emphasizes the quadruple bottom line throughout it’s curriculum–the importance of people, planet, profit and purpose–which must be considered in harmony for a business to maximize profit while minimizing harm. He is adept at engaging stakeholders, developing buy in, and leading multi-disciplinary teams into action. Nicolas provides the long-term strategic vision for Borealis, and leads and builds dynamic teams to fulfill client needs. As a consultant, Nicolas leads our research and insights team, keeping us informed of the latest changes in sustainability policy, government incentives and grants programming, research and technology development trends, and CSR and integrated reporting best practices.
Patience Cathcart, MBA | Co-Founder, Consultant
Patience is one of the founders of Borealis Sustainability Consulting. She is a seasoned professional in the electrical industry. Her passion for safety and wellbeing has been a fundamental part of her 17-year career and is in large part why she is committed to sustainability. With exceptional communication skills, Patience completed her undergraduate degree at Wilfrid Laurier University, studying French, German and Spanish. She obtained certificates from the Chambers of Commerce of Paris and Madrid. Throughout her career, Patience obtained her Certificate of Adjudication for Administrative Boards and Tribunals through Osgoode Hall Law School’s Professional Development and completed her Masters Certification in Enterprise Risk Management from the Schulich School of Business. Most recently she achieved her Masters in Business Administration with a focus on Sustainable Commerce from Lang’s School of Business through the University of Guelph. Among these achievements, Patience is a life-long learner, continually taking courses on areas such as policy and leadership. Her approach to sustainability comes first from a place of risk management. She has a penchant for helping business move forward, adapting to our ever-changing world for the benefit of sustainable commerce, the earth and humanity. Her many years of experience managing customer service and administrative teams, to leading teams on innovative projects, government audits, strategy implementation, business continuity and most recently data science and program development have given her broad insight to many areas of public systems. She thrives as a “fixer” and is committed to helping businesses find their own unique way of doing well by doing good. Patience’s professional experience in strategy, enterprise risk management and adjudication provide her a rare combination of skills that pertain to helping organizations identify their risks and creatively navigate underlying issues that are critical to enable organizations to realize how they can become more sustainable. Patience is our in-house regulatory expert. She aligns our operations to achieve our vision of creating shared value for our clients and our communities.