John Keating was a former CEO of Canadian Hydro Developers, Inc., a company he co-founded in 1989 with his brother Ross. Canadian Hydro was solely focused on low-impact electric power generation in Canada. At the time it was acquired by TransAlta Corporation in October 2009, with assets valued at $1.64 billion, Canadian Hydro was Canada’s largest and most successful pure-play renewable energy developer. It owned and operated 694 MW of generating capacity represented by 21 EcoLogo Certified run-of-river hydroelectric, wind and biomass energy plants in central and western Canada.
John led Canadian Hydro to the 2001 Award for Excellence in Management from the Arthur Kroeger College of Public Affairs at Carlton University in Ottawa, and in 2002 was a finalist for Entrepreneur of the Year, Energy Category. In 2009, John’s achievements were celebrated in three memorable events: The Independent Power Producers Society of Alberta created the John Keating Bursary at the University of Calgary, and Ross and John received lifetime achievement awards from each of the Independent Power Producers Society of British Columbia and the Association of Power Producers of Ontario. The latter was represented by the award of the Stephen Probyn Prize for innovation in energy. John has been a Chartered Accountant for over 30 years. Most recently, John and Ross Keating are supporting Kent Brown and his team of talented individuals at BluEarth Renewables Inc., to continue this team’s history of successful development of utility scale renewable energy projects. BluEarth has been successful in raising over $160 million of risk capital, and expect to be very busy in the months and years ahead.