Backgrounder
Proposed Jackpine Mine Expansion Project in Alberta – Joint Review Panel - Biographical Notes

Jim Dilay

Jim Dilay was appointed as a Board Member of the Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB) in January 2008. Mr. Dilay was previously appointed as a Board Member of the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB), successor to the previous ERCB, in 1995. He began his career at the ERCB immediately upon graduation from the University of Manitoba in 1971 with the degree of Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and has worked in the organization for more than 40 years.

Prior to being appointed to the Board, Mr. Dilay worked in a number of departments including gas, pipeline, drilling and production, and field operations, and served as Executive Manager of Operations. He is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists, and Geophysicists of Alberta. He is currently Alberta's official representative on the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, of which Alberta is an international affiliate.

Mr. Dilay has chaired and served on numerous ERCB and joint ERCB-CEAA hearing panels for the consideration of oil, gas, oil sands, utility, and coal proposals in Alberta.

Alex Bolton

Alex Bolton was appointed as a Board Member of the ERCB in October 2010. Mr. Bolton is a professional geologist and member of the Association of Professional Engineers, and Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta. He has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Earth Sciences and has completed a Masters of Management Sciences in Management of Technology through the University of Waterloo.

Prior to joining the ERCB, Mr. Bolton was President and CEO of Epicentre Consulting Inc. He also spent four years as Director, Compliance & Enforcement with the Natural Resources Conservation Board, six years with Anderson Exploration dealing with environmental issues and community and regulatory affairs, and nine years as a Senior Environment Advisor and Exploration/Development Geologist with Home Oil.

Les Cooke

Les Cooke has over 40 years of strategic policy and planning, program management and executive experience with the Governments of Saskatchewan and Alberta, and provincial governments in South Africa. Mr. Cooke completed graduate studies in land and resource planning at the University of Alberta. He is President of Les Cooke and Associates, a consultancy focused on strategic management and organizational effectiveness in forest management and infrastructure development.

Mr. Cooke has held executive positions focused on natural resource and environmental management, economic development and strategic policy and planning. He has led national strategic planning processes and has spearheaded new approaches to public sector governance and program management, including integrated land management and partnership-based environmental management. Mr. Cooke has considerable experience in Aboriginal business development, most recently working with First Nations and Métis communities in Saskatchewan to receive wood supply licenses and develop new forestry businesses.

Mr. Cooke has chaired resource management organizations and served on environmental assessment panels. He has chaired the Board of Directors of the Saskatchewan Wetlands Conservation Corporation and served as the Vice-Chairman of the Alberta Advisory Committee on Heavy Oil and Oil Sands Development. He was a member of the joint federal-provincial panels examining the development of the Kearl oil sands mining and extraction facility and the expansion of the Muskeg River oil sands operation, both in northern Alberta.