38 BCBusiness OCtObER 2018
e n T r e P r e n e u r o F T H e Y e A r 2 0 1 8 / C L E A N T E C H
Burnaby-based keystone Environmental
advises organizations on how to deal with
contaminated sites, yet it was started by a
company that processes coal tar. koppers,
a global enterprise with headquarters in
pittsburgh, launched keystone there to
deal with environmental liability related to
its coal tar refineries. the Canadian office,
opened by bill Donald in 1988 to conduct a
risk assessment of the former Expo 86 lands,
became independent five years later and
now operates from b.C. to Ontario.
Raminder grewal, president since 2013,
grew up in Vancouver and surrey, graduat-
ing from
ubC with a basc in environmental
and geotechnical engineering. he joined
keystone in 2000, became the youngest part-
ner and department head in the company's
history seven years later and began shifting
its focus to federal government clients. public
services and procurement Canada is now
one of keystone's top three accounts.
the 95-employee firm also works
with sectors from forestry and mining to
transportation and property development.
before purchasing a site, developers want to
understand their environmental liability. Once
they own the property, keystone advises
them on how to remediate it cost-effectively,
grewal explains. "then we'll help our client
tender and get contractors involved." –F.S.
R U N N E R U P
Raminder Grewal
p R E S I D E N T , k E y S T O N E
E N v I R O N m E N T a L
R U N N E R U P
Thomas Ligocki
p R E S I D E N T a N D C E O , C L E v E S T S O L u T I O N S
EOy finalists in 2011, thomas ligocki
and Clevest reapplied in 2017 because sales
had grown 44 percent year-over-year and the
firm attracted a major new investor, Energy
impact partners
(Eip). based in new York, Eip
is a coalition of global energy companies.
"We focus on utilities, so having [Energy
impact partners] take interest in us was a
great boost of confidence, given their criteria
for innovation," ligocki says. Clevest's
mobile workforce management software
for utilities is used by more than 220 energy
companies worldwide.
When ligocki's family immigrated
to b.C. from Czechoslovakia as political
refugees in 1985, he was 13 and spoke no
English. nine years later, he graduated from
ubC with a bsc in computer science and
began working on skytrain software for
train manufacturer alcatel alsthom (now
alstom). he also studied part-time for a
master's degree through a university con-
sortium that comprised
ubC, sFu and the
university of alberta, graduating with an
msc in software technology from uofa. in
2006, after founding and then selling online
food delivery service YummyWeb, ligocki
launched Clevest. –F.S.
25th
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