Our Team

NRStor’s team brings a unique combination of expertise and experience in designing, developing, and delivering innovative energy storage solutions across Canada. Their deep knowledge spans utility-scale battery storage, renewable energy integration, and sustainable clean energy projects, driving reliable and cutting-edge solutions for clients and communities alike.

Annette Verschuren, O.C.
Chair & CEO
Joseph Arcuri
Chief Financial Officer
Jason Rioux
Chief Development Officer
Scott Matthews
Vice President, Projects
Inês Ribeiro Canella
Director Asset Operations
Richard Medal P.Eng
Director Engineering
Mihskakwan James Harper, EIT
Manager, Business Development
Ahmad Alameddine
Analyst, Finance
Homaira Siddiqui
Manager, Development & Partnerships
Fariha Husain 
Director, Project Development
Allison Blunt
Office of the Chair & CEO 
Colton Martin
Executive Assistant & Office Manager
Mike Schnarr
MPOWER Energy Solutions
Managing Director
Stacy Uschner
MPOWER Energy Solutions
Project Manager
Manav Joshi
MPOWER Energy Solutions
Project Manager
Paula Pereira
MPOWER Energy Solutions
Sales Support Specialist
Visit our Projects page to learn more about how the NRStor team is making an impact by delivering innovative energy storage solutions across Canada.
Projects
  • MaRS Centre, Heritage Building
    101 College Street, Suite 345
    Toronto, ON M5G 1L7

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Annette Verschuren, O.C.

Chair & CEO

Annette Verschuren is Chair and Chief Executive Officer of NRStor Inc. The company develops and manages energy storage projects.

 

Prior to this, Ms. Verschuren was president of The Home Depot Canada. She oversaw the growth of the company’s Canadian operations from 19 to 179 stores from 1996-2011, increasing revenue from $600 million to $6 billion.

 

After Home Depot, she took a year off and went around the world. In her travels, she saw energy as a global issue, with enormous business potential, and many benefits to developing economies. Back in Canada, Ms. Verschuren
founded NRStor in 2012 with an investment from Northwater Capital.

 

Her career began at the Cape Breton Development Corporation. She then worked with Canada Development Investment Corporation to help privatize crown corporations. Her next stop was as a Vice President of Corporate Development at Imasco Ltd., one of Canada’s largest holding companies. Ms. Verschuren then launched Michaels of Canada, a chain of arts and crafts stores before landing at the helm of Home Depot Canada.

 

Ms. Verschuren has been appointed to numerous government advisory roles. Among them: Economic Advisory Council, during the economic crisis in 2008, the Canada-U.S. Council for Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders and the Advisory Council for NAFTA. Recently, Ms. Verschuren participated in our Government’s Roundtable on Decarbonization.

 

Ms. Verschuren sits on the corporate boards of Liberty Mutual, CNRL, Air Canada and Saputo.  She is Chair of the MaRS Discovery District Board. Chair of the Ontario Energy Association and member of the IESO Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAC).

 

Ms. Verschuren is the Chancellor of Cape Breton University and is on the Board of the Verschuren Centre for Sustainability in Energy and the Environment, (VCSEE).

 

Annette Verschuren has received several Honourary Doctorates from Canadian universities including her alma mater, St. Francis Xavier University. She supports many causes but focuses on mental health, education and indigenous programmes. She is a founding member of the Rideau Hall Foundation. She co-chairs the Smart Prosperity Initiative, which is mapping out a course to a stronger, cleaner economy for Canada.

Annette Verschuren is a Companion of the Canadian Business Hall of Fame. She champions volunteerism and
was named to the Order of Canada for her contributions to the retail industry and corporate social
responsibility.

 

Ms. Verschuren wrote the book Bet On Me, about succeeding in business and in life.  Annette Verschuren and her husband, Stan Shibinsky, often return to her home province of Nova Scotia and her family home.

 

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Joseph Arcuri

Chief Financial Officer

Joseph Arcuri, CPA, CA, is our Chief Financial Officer. He has been a Director of BioSyent Inc. since May 29, 2018 and is currently Chair of the Audit Committee and Disclosure Policy Committee of the Board of Directors. He previously served as Executive Vice President, Operations and Finance, Content Group, at St. Joseph Communications, a marketing communications firm. Between 2013 and 2016, Mr. Arcuri served as Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer at TableRock Media Ltd., a streaming service company. In 2012, Mr. Arcuri was Chief Financial Officer of GlassBOX Television Inc., a television service provider. Between 2007 and 2011, Mr. Arcuri was President of AOL Canada Inc., an internet service provider and previously led Bell Canada’s managed services group. Mr. Arcuri started his professional career with PriceWaterhouseCoopers within its assurance group and later transferred to its valuation, and mergers and acquisitions service team. He is also currently the treasurer and an executive board member of Villa Charities Inc.

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Jason Rioux

Chief Development Officer

Jason Rioux has a proven track record in developing and operating all forms of energy projects, especially carving new paths through complex energy markets, contracting, regulatory, and political environments. As Chief Development Officer of NRStor, Jason leads the operations and business development activities across Canada and internationally, and thrives on the challenge of marrying new storage technologies with new commercial business models — a key success factor in developing energy storage projects.  Previously the Director of Business Development for Ontario Power Generation, Jason led a wide variety of business development initiatives and played a large role in decarbonizing the Ontario power sector.

During his time at OPG, Jason worked on the repowering of coal plants to natural gas and biomass, new gas fired generation development, combined heat and power development, partnership management of joint venture gas fired facilities ­Brighton Beach and Portlands Energy Centre, advanced biomass research and development, and new technology projects such as energy storage.  Jason served as Commercial Manager of the Portlands Energy Centre, a 550 MW natural gas fired generation station located in downtown Toronto. He developed and led the commercial organization of this $730 million facility, with responsibility for all gas and power trading activities.

 
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Scott Matthews

Vice President, Projects

Scott is a renewable energy executive with expertise in overall company leadership, including project development and construction, M&A, legal, as well as business planning and analysis. He also brings over 20 years of project and construction management experience to his role.

Prior to joining NRStor, Scott served as Vice President, Projects at UGE International, a C&I solar developer, overseeing project engineering, construction, and operations worldwide. He also served as President of two of its subsidiaries, UGE Canada Ltd. (formerly Endura Energy) a leading solar engineering and project management firm in Toronto, and UGE RE Inc. (formerly Carmanah Solar), a respected international solar EPC and engineering firm.

Prior to joining UGE, Scott was Director of Construction at major US solar developer Recurrent Energy. Scott oversaw the construction of over 220 MW of projects in Ontario as well as the early-stage technical development, execution, and technical due diligence on projects in the US totaling over 1GW and $2B.

He has also served in Senior Manager roles at several large Canadian real estate development and construction firms. This project experience included oversight of over $400M of large-scale residential, resort, and commercial developments across Canada.

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Inês Ribeiro Canella

Director of Asset Operations

Inês brings a breadth of experience in the renewable energy sector, having led the development activities of wind farm projects totaling over 200MW, been responsible for the safe and reliable performance of a 46MW wind farm, worked on early-stage microgrids, and most recently, on the feasibility phase of the Kivalliq Hydro-Fibre Link high-voltage transmission line project. Inês was a founding Co-Chair of Emerging Leaders for Solar Energy, an organization for young professionals and students focused on building a strong solar energy future. She holds a Master of Science degree in Environmental Management and Policy from Lund University in Sweden and is a Project Management Professional.

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Richard Medal, P.Eng.

Director, Engineering

Richard is an experienced Professional Engineer in Ontario, specializing in energy storage systems since 2015. His career encompasses significant contributions in the development and operation of ground-breaking energy storage projects, ranging from grid-scale battery and flywheel systems to distributed residential battery fleets. His expertise is rooted in practical experience and a deep understanding of the fundamental theory underlying these technologies. With a career that bridges roles in technological innovation, project development, and system operation, he has acquired a nuanced perspective on the real-world applications and opportunities within the rapidly evolving energy storage industry.

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Mihskakwan James Harper, EIT

Manager, Business Development

Mihskakwan James Harper is from Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation in Treaty 8, Alberta. He graduated from the University of Manitoba with a Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering and holds a Masters of Science in Renewable Energy from KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Ecole Polytechnique, with entrepreneurial training from ESADE Business School. He loves his family and his community now and generations ahead, which inspires him to work on energy storage and renewable energy projects to build a future that is sustainable and empowers all. 

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Ahmad Alameddine

Analyst, Finance

Ahmad brings his financial expertise to NRStor and plays a key role in managing the company’s finances, accounting and operations.

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Homaira Siddiqui

Manager, Development & Partnerships

Homaira works with clients to help them navigate pathways towards a distributed, net-zero carbon, and resilient energy future. She brings a decade of experience in markets across North America, where she has supported communities, distribution utilities, independent system operators, and regulators tackle complex issues related to demand flexibility, renewable energy integration, grid operations and planning, tariff structures, market design and coordination.

Homaira is a strong believer in the power of building the right kind of partnerships grounded in shared values and nurtured through
mutual trust. Her approach to development centers around genuine care and collaborative responsiveness to the evolving functional needs of a community-driven, localized and integrated system.

Her recent work includes co-authoring a thought leadership piece for the Ontario Independent Electricity System Operator on effective transmission-distribution coordination for a high distributed energy resources future. This work was crucial in the design of the York Non-Wires Alternatives demonstration project—the first local electricity market pilot in North America. 

Homaira sits on the board of the Toronto Renewable Energy Co-operative. She holds a Master’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Western Ontario, and is a Certified Energy Manager.

Previously, Homaira was a senior policy advisor at the Ontario Ministry of Energy, a distribution grid strategy and energy efficiency consultant at ICF, and an intern at the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

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Fariha Husain

Director, Project Development

Fariha Husain is an experienced project manager who has led strategic initiatives in the public and private sectors for the last decade. At NRStor, she leads the development of energy storage projects across the portfolio. Previously, she worked at CreateTO, the City of Toronto’s real estate development agency, leading development projects for all City Divisions including emergency services, community services, health and social services, and corporate and environmental services. While working for the City of Toronto, Fariha led the daily operations of the Tower Renewal Program and spearheaded the Hi-RIS Financing program for energy efficiency retrofits at multi-unit residential buildings. She doubled the program from $10 M to $22 M to drive deep retrofits in Toronto apartment buildings that reduce GHG emissions while also improving quality of life for residents. 

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Allison Blunt

Office of the Chair & CEO

Allison Blunt spent 10 years as Internal Communication Manager for Home Depot Canada prior to joining NRStor. Allison has held positions as Financial Analyst for BMO, Office Manager at Zeno Editions UK and Compensation and Benefits Manager for Zurich Insurance Canada. Allison volunteers her time with Lupus Ontario along with other members of her family.

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Colton Martin

Executive Assistant & Office Manager

Colton Martin joined the NRStor team in 2014.

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Mike Schnarr

Managing Director, MPOWER Energy Solutions

Mike brings to the team 15 years of business development, sales and operations experience in the solar industry. He has experience building large distribution/installation networks for emerging energy technologies throughout Canada and Australia. In addition, Mike was directly involved with the supply and operational role out of 10,000+ residential solar hot water/PV systems to end customers.

>> Learn More about MPOWER Energy Solutions

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Stacy Uschner

Project Manager, MPOWER ENERGY Solutions

Stacy Uschner is a designated Project Management Professional with a passion for sustainability and environmental stewardship. She recently joined the MPower team in 2024, bringing with her a wealth of experience in managing large-scale infrastructure and technology projects. Stacy holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Trent University and is committed to making a positive impact on the environment and communities through the implementation of innovative sustainability projects.

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Manav Joshi

Director, Project Development

Manav Joshi is a dedicated and customer-centric project manager with over 5 years of progressive experience across various industries, including underground utilities, rope access, mechanical engineering, and construction. With a strong background in Energy systems, project management, estimating, procurement, and stakeholder relations, they have consistently delivered exceptional results throughout their career.

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Paul Pereira

Sales Support Specialist, MPOWER ENERGY Solutions

Based in Toronto, Paula is a dynamic Sales Engineering professional with a solid background in International Business Management and Sales Operations. With expertise in project management and strategic analysis, she has achieved significant results in the clean energy sector. Paula has a proven track record of empowering sales teams, implementing software solutions, and nurturing client relationships across retail, clean energy, and finance industries. 

Paula, a Production engineer by trade, is deeply committed to fostering innovation and building lasting partnerships to make a positive impact on the world.