Our Team

Board of Directors

Srikanth Venugopal, Chair

Srikanth Venugopal is the Chair of the Board of Directors at Sustainable Alberta Association. He has served on SAA’s Board since 2006. Srikanth currently works at TransCanada as the Director of the Environmental Risk and Trading department. In this role, he advises senior leaders on climate and air policy, is responsible for commercial management of environmental risks for energy assets. Prior to his current role, he has worked in varying capacities at TransCanada that include operations and engineering, business development, and corporate environment. He started his career as a consulting engineer. He holds a Bachelors and Masters in Engineering with expertise in risk management and environmental policy. He is actively involved in industry associations such as Electric Power Research Institute, Canadian Electricity Association, Industry Provincial Offsets Group, and the International Emissions Trading Association.

Robert Bott, Treasurer

Robert (Bob) Bott has been a director of Sustainable Alberta since 2001. He is a Calgary-based writer, editor and communications consultant with 40 years’ experience in the fields of natural resources, environmental management and industrial history. He was a founder of Calgary’s carsharing co-operative www.calgarycarshare.ca and served on its board for nine years, including terms as chair and as co-chair, as well as on the steering committee of a low-income carsharing project. An urban cyclist in Calgary since 1974, he is also a “bike tourist” and has ridden in 22 U.S. states and seven Canadian provinces.

Ron Schafer

Ron Schafer has over three decades of transportation planning experience with The City of Calgary. As the City’s Transportation Demand Management Specialist he is responsible for programs aimed at reducing the number of Single Occupied Vehicles on Calgary’s roadways during peak periods. Ron has worked with employers, organizations and different levels of government on the development and implementation of strategies and initiatives that support a variety of transportation choices. These include: implementation of Calgary’s Regional Carpool Program, integration of Transportation Demand Management into The City of Calgary’s Land Use Bylaw, Mount Royal University’s C-Choices program, a comprehensive trip reduction program for staff and students, the Blue Skies Award, a Calgary Awards Environmental Achievement Award that recognizes innovative employer programs that increase smart commuting in the workplace, and the development and implementation of a telework pilot and telework program for City employees. Ron represented The City of Calgary on Alberta’s Clean Air Strategic Alliance Vehicle Emissions Team and is a board member of ACT Canada and the Sustainable Alberta Association.

Dr. Lina Kattan

Dr. Lina Kattan is the Urban Alliance Professor in Transportation Systems Optimization in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Calgary. Lina’s ITS research program at the University of Calgary focuses on advanced traffic management and information systems. Lina’s research and industrial experience spans several critical areas of modern transportation research, including, ITS, application of artificial intelligence to ITS, sustainable transportation, network modeling and analysis, transportation planning, and traveler behavioral modeling. She has joined Sustainable Alberta Association’s board of directors in 2011.

Staff

Kathryn Winkler, Executive Director

A life long cyclist, Kathryn Winkler has always been interested in environmentally sustainable innovation especially as it relates to influencing individual behavior. Her prior career in IT, along with her interest in social marketing, has provided the ‘backbone’ of the Commuter Challenge since 1993. As Executive Director of Sustainable Alberta Association since 1998 she has created community, business and government partnerships that have demonstrated leadership in influencing changes in commuter behavior. Kathryn’s creative and flexible business style in the not-for-profit sector has inspired many innovative projects for SAA.

Kristin Marquardt, Associate Director

Kristin Marquardt joined the SAA team in 2009. She coordinates the national Commuter Challenge program, plans our marketing and communications strategies, and serves as secretary for the board of directors. Prior to her current role Kristin worked as marketing analyst and as journalist for a local newspaper in Germany. She holds a degree in media culture with a major in marketing and management. Growing up in Europe, Kristin has been a life-long walker, cyclist and public transit user. Her passion is community building and cities that are filled with life on the streets.

Back to top