David F. Montpetit, President & CEO
President, Diadem Group LTD.
Mr. David Montpetit is an accomplished executive with a proven ability to align strategy with day-to-day operations and a comprehensive understanding of the rail transportation and port logistics industry.
Mr. Montpetit abilities are underpinned by his 30+ years of experience in project/sales management and contract negotiation/administration. Mr. Montpetit has held numerous senior leadership roles including Vice President of External Affairs and Logistics with Coalspur Mines Limited where he was responsible for directing the company’s transportation access and operations of rail/port logistics.
In his current position as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President of the Western Canadian Shippers Coalition (WCSC) Mr. Montpetit is responsible for the strategic leadership and management of the Organization and has played a pivotal role in ensuring its growth and sustainability over the past 10 years. Mr. Montpetit participates in various task force groups including both federal and provincial stakeholders and oversees projects aimed at enhancing infrastructure, optimizing supply chains, and promoting efficient operations for WCSC membership.
Mr. Montpetit is an active member of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. He is a highly sought contributor and active member of numerous committees and working groups, including the Supply Chain Council of Canada; Transport Canada/NRCan Railway Working Group; Transport Canada Commodity Supply Chain Table; Transport Canada Supply Chain Task Force Roundtables; BC Trucking Association Eco-Certification Program Advisory Committee; Transport Canada Service Contingency Plan Initiative Steering Committee; Transport Canada Supply Chain Recovery Working Group; Active Vessel Traffic Management Program; and Transport Canada National Supply Chain Summit. Mr. Montpetit has participated on both the House of Commons Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities and the Senate of Canada Transport and Communications Standing Committee on various issues related to transportation.
David has held the roles of Chair and Director since July 2014.
Robert Bell, Director
Consultant, Montem Resources Corp.
Bob is a mining executive with extensive international experience marketing coking coal to the steel industry and energy coal to the power generation industry. He also has extensive experience in transportation including negotiation of major rail and port agreements, leading the logistics function in two large coal producers and arbitration of commercial disputes. Other focus areas included transportation strategy, marketing strategy development, major commercial agreement negotiations and corporate development. He is a former Director and Chair of the Board of Neptune Bulk Terminals (Canada) Ltd., a large coal, potash and agricultural product export terminal in Vancouver.
From a coal industry perspective, Bob is a director of the Western Canadian Coal Society, is past Chair of the Coal Association of Canada, sat on the Board of the Canadian Clean Power Coalition, and was a member of the Coal Industry Advisory Board to the International Energy Agency.
Bob has been involved in transportation advocacy work for many years. This has included meeting with regulators and elected officials during his tenures with Teck and Luscar advocating for improved shipper protection. He appeared before the Competition Policy Review Panel to discuss the importance of greater competition in Canada’s rail industry and on two occasions appeared before the Rail Freight Service Review panel and supervised the work of others in appearances before regulators and elected officials. Bob was also actively involved with the Western Transportation Advisory Committee and Transport Canada’s Gateway Performance Table Bulk Committee. He also served on the Port of Vancouver’s Active Vessel Traffic Management advisory panel.
Bob’s education includes a degree in mining engineering from McGill University in Montreal, a master’s degree in business administration from Queen’s University in Kingston Ontario and the Directors Education Program (ICD.D) from the Rotman School of Management/Institute of Corporate Directors. His early career was spent in the Alberta Oilsands in engineering and operations. He joined the coal industry in 1988 in the finance group of Luscar Ltd. and in 2001 was appointed its VP Marketing. In 2007, Bob was appointed Chief Commercial Officer of the coal business unit of Teck Resources, the world’s second largest coking coal exporter, responsible for all Teck’s coal marketing and transportation. In 2013 he set up his own consulting providing advice to the international coal industry and the North American shipping community. In addition, he has been the CEO of three junior coal companies. He is currently a consultant to the coal and transportation industries.
Bob has served on the WCSC’s Board of Directors since February 2018.
Patrick Black, Director
Director, Logistics, Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Inc.
Pat has over 25 years’ experience in the forest industry and is currently the Director, Logistics for one of Canada’s largest pulp producing mills located in Athabasca Alberta, Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries. Pat specializes in supply chain management and the coordination of shipments of pulp via vessel, rail and truck to international and domestic stakeholders. He has extensive experience in overseas shipping, rail operations and rate negotiations with steamship lines, rail companies and terminals.
In 2005, Pat moved into sales and was the key contact from all overseas sales until 2019. He was involved in two corporate restructurings and one company sale as the sales and logistics analyst, as well as gaining experience in negotiation with end users and supporting key company logistics initiatives.
In 2019 as he took over the role as Manager of Logistics. Pat was responsible to restructure and hire a new team in a new city/province and was able to achieve this with minimal effects to all stakeholders. In 2024 he was appointed the Director, Logistics which expands his responsibility to cover all outbound and inbound transportation and all finished goods and inbound parts inventories. He is responsible for coaching the teams to ensure that inventory, costs, planning and customer service remain the top priority. Patrick is the lead for all contract negotiations and overseeing the audit requirement are met for logistics and stores.
Pat has served on WCSC’s Board of Directors since February 2023.
Charles Gunn, Director
Vice President Business Development, Source Energy Services Ltd.
Charles is an energy industry leader with over 15 years of experience across logistics, oilfield services, mining, field operations, energy infrastructure development and investment banking. As VP Business Development, Charles develops business opportunities related to emissions reduction, carbon capture, low carbon fuel switching and transportation optimization for Source and its customers.
Previously, Charles led Source’s logistics function with a keen focus on innovation, collaboration and efficiency. This included implementing a state-of-the-art inventory and supply chain system, working with Class 1 railways on novel rate and service structures, as well as reducing standby costs associated with Source’s last mile trucking business through the use of Realtime performance analysis.
Charles was an Associate at Rothschild (Canada) Inc. where he was involved in numerous financial advisory assignments worldwide for clients in the energy sector. He also worked as a Financial Analyst at TransCanada Energy Corp (now TC Energy) in the development of power, oil and gas storage infrastructure investments throughout North America.
Charles is a Professional Engineer (P.Eng.) and member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA). He holds a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Calgary (2005). Charles is service-driven with a track record of delivering value for clients.
Charles has served on WCSC’s Board of Directors since February 2023.
Nancy Read, Director
Vice President of Transportation & Logistics, Sultran Ltd.
Nancy has worked in the transportation & logistics industry for more than 25 years. She has a deep knowledge and understanding of transportation design & delivery, demand planning & forecasting, asset optimization, logistics, governance, and organizational leadership. Nancy is truly passionate about continuous improvement and finding value for stakeholders.
Nancy has been at Sultran Ltd. for three years serving as Vice President of Transportation & Logistics. She is responsible for oversight and delivery of logistics solutions & services for Canadian bulk exporters. Providing a seamless customer experience is paramount through management and strategic planning of rail assets, inventory & stockpile capacity, vessels, product quality, and port terminal reliability.
Nancy has served on WCSC’s Board of Directors since June 2020.
Ali Sanjari, Director
Vice President of Operations, Wolverine Terminals ULC
Ali is the Vice President of Operation at Wolverine Terminals, Prince Ruperts’ first marine fueling terminal. He is a seasoned leader with over 22 years of diverse commercial and logistics management experience at various organizations including Nexen Chemicals, CN Rail and Irving Oil and AltaGas prior to joining Wolverine Terminals in April of 2023.
Ali holds an Executive MBA from Royal Roads University and B.Sc. in Environmental Science.
Ali has served on WCSC’s Board of Directors since February 2023.
Shivaughan Sky, Director
Director of Commercial Operations, Keyera Corp.
Shivaughan has a unique multidisciplinary background in logistics and information technology. After completing a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Calgary, her career began in IT at a software company that specializes in Marketing, Accounting and Logistics in the Midstream space. This experience led her to Keyera where she started in Information Technology as a business analyst, project manager and after a few years, she moved into Logistics. She has a passion for leadership, efficiency, and optimization and delivers effective solutions and services that bring value to the customer and organization. She has over 20 years of experience in either a supporting role or directly involved in Transportation and Logistics. Her technical background, strong analytics and business acumen make for a versatile professional.
She is the Director of Commercial Operations at Keyera Corporation and leads of team of over 20 people managing logistics for a variety of facilities servicing many of Keyera’s top assets. Her responsibilities include Keyera’s rail shipments, customer rail shipments, trucking and transloading movements as well as pipeline transportation and storage. Before becoming Director, she was the Manager, Terminal Operations and was responsible for providing leadership to the Terminal Logistics team and ensuring the team provides best in class logistic services to both internal and external stakeholders.
Shivaughan has served on WCSC’s Board Directors since February 2023.
Ryan Staschuk, Director
Vice President, Marketing, Product Quality and Logistics, Conuma Resources Ltd.
Ryan is a charismatic young leader, driving commercial success in international sales, marketing and logistics for Canadian commodities. His current core focus at Conuma Resources Ltd. in the role of Vice President, Marketing, Product Quality and Logistics, is to push innovation through Conuma’s mining, product development, logistics, technical marketing and global commodity trading activities. Ryan is responsible for over CA$1 billion in annual sales, supported by a diverse team of mining, geoscience, chemical, logistics, and marketing professionals.
Before Conuma, Ryan spent over 7 years working at Trigon Terminals (formerly Ridley Terminals Inc.) in Prince Rupert, where he led business development efforts to diversify into new commodity exports such as LPG from AltaGas’s RIPET. Ryan brings in-depth experience in Canadian ports and class 1 railroads, Canadian export business development, global commodities trading and shipping to the WCSC.
Ryan holds Chartered Accountant (CA) and Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) designations, and a Batchelor’s Degree majoring in Economics and Political Science from Simon Fraser University.
Ryan has served on WCSC’s Board of Directors since February 2023.
Lucia M. Stuhldreier, Senior Legal Counsel / Advisor to the Board
Partner, McMillan LLP
Lucia is a partner in McMillan’s Vancouver office and a member of the firm’s transportation group. Her practice focus includes rail transportation, aviation and trucking.
Lucia advises and represents rail shippers in negotiations of rail transportation agreements, including rate and service matters, and agreements for the construction, acquisition and shared use of rail trackage. She has extensive experience in rail regulatory proceedings before the Canadian Transportation Agency and arbitrations relating to rail freight rates, service issues, interswitching and railway line discontinuance, as well as related judicial review and appellate proceedings. Lucia also advises clients on rail transportation policy. Lucia’s practice also includes advising clients on regulatory matters relating to aviation and truck transportation.
Lucia has represented clients before the Canadian Transportation Agency, the Transportation Appeal Tribunal of Canada, the Manitoba Motor Transport Board, the Saskatchewan Highway Transport Board, all levels of court in Manitoba, the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal.
Lucia is a member of the Law Society of British Columbia and the Canadian Bar Association, and is a graduate of the University of Manitoba, receiving her B.A. (Hons.) in 1986 and her LL.B in 1997.