Our Team

Jim Barnhart has enabled business customer delight through flexible and industry-leading services and operational excellence during hyper-growth periods for startups and established companies. As a corporate officer at multiple high-technology companies, he has a rich history of advancing global growth, delivering record financial performance, ensuring business continuity, and earning best-in-class customer satisfaction with superior operational performance.

Author of Amazon Best Seller Elite and True: Leadership Lessons Inspired by the US Navy, Jim is a Distinguished Naval Graduate of the U.S. Navy’s Officer Candidate School and served as a naval engineering officer leading nuclear controls and instrumentation divisions aboard submarines.

Jim holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Washington State University and an MBA from Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley.

Nayeem Chowdhury is head of CCUS, responsible for defining and executing the company’s strategy within the Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) industry. Nayeem believes in advancing technology and promoting innovation as cornerstones in our road to energy transition.

Prior to joining Project Canary, Nayeem spent 17 years at NOV Inc. in various leadership roles including Director of Business Strategy for their Low carbon solutions / CCUS business.

Nayeem Holds an MBA from Rice university and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Texas Tech University.

Caroline Dunn is responsible for managing operations, business development, and internal finance. She ensures coordination among the company’s core functions to meet customer needs and fulfill Project Canary’s mission.

She spent her early career with ExxonMobil as an engineer implementing downstream projects, transitioning to leading structured finance transactions with NY Green Bank to invest in projects reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Caroline holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia.

Will Foiles is Project Canary's Co-CEO. Foiles is responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations, including supply chain management, field monitoring systems, new product development, growth strategy, partnership building, financial modeling, clean gas market development, operations, and long-term data projects. He plays a key role in coordinating company resources to fulfill the Project Canary brand promise and ensure customer success as the company grows.  His background in energy finance and work developing data acquisition technologies is vital to Canary’s long-term technology goals.

Will holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, an MS in Environment and Resources from Stanford’s School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences, an MS in Finance from Villanova’s School of Business, and an BBA in Real Estate from The University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charterholder.

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A 30-year energy sector veteran, Brian is responsible for developing markets for Project Canary and our customers. Brian leads our state and federal public policy development programs, which seek to enable and expand markets for differentiated energy products, both domestically and abroad. Brian also plays a lead role in assisting our customers across the energy supply chain, by developing comprehensive solutions that align with their business, operational and environmental objectives.

Brian’s energy sector and government experience includes Noble Energy (now Chevron), BP, and the US House of Representatives. Throughout his career he has worked at the intersection of business and policy development, enabling win-win solutions that encourage energy production, environmental protection, and economic prosperity.

Brian holds an MBA and has undergraduate degrees in Political Science and Communications from James Madison University.

Michael Oh is the VP of People & Culture at Project Canary, responsible for recruiting, onboarding, DEI, culture engagement, performance management, organizational design, total rewards, and learning and development.

He brings 17 years of People (HR) experience with 6 years of experience working in an early-stage startup having grown and scaled companies throughout his career. With an emphasis on B2B SaaS startups, prior companies held verticals in real estate, local municipality, education, financial services, culture engagement, logistics and supply chain, and non-profit.

In his spare time, he consults individuals and organizations regarding career development and meditation coaching. and is an Ambassador Council of TEDxMileHigh, and an Advisory Committee at CU Boulder.

He holds a BA from the University of California, Irvine.

Josh Roer is the VP of Growth and Strategy, responsible for business development, corporate strategy and financial analysis.

Before joining our team, Josh worked at Barclays in the Power & Utilities coverage team advising clients on M&A transactions. Prior to investment banking, Josh worked as a management consultant at Kaiser Associates in Washington, DC.

Josh holds an MBA from The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and a BA from Bowdoin College.

Chris Romer is the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of one of the fastest-growing companies in ClimateTech, Project Canary. His history of public service, economics, and leadership in energy have all combined for his role at this Public Benefit Corporation focused on altering the course of climate change.

Chris spent 24 years developing energy infrastructure and public-private partnerships with investment banks, including JPMorgan & Citibank and was a leader in energy policy as a Colorado State Senator from 2006 – 2010.

He is also a co-founder and senior advisor at Guild Education, Denver’s top unicorn-status SaaS startup. At Guild, Chris helped Fortune 500 companies partner with leading universities to offer education as a benefit to increase employee satisfaction and retention. His background in energy, education, policymaking, B-Corp capital formation, and entrepreneurship is instrumental in achieving Project Canary’s mission-driven growth goals and customer service objectives.

Chris holds a BA in Economics from Stanford University. He can be found mountain biking in the Colorado mountains or doing yoga in a local studio when he’s not enjoying a Broncos game or spending time with his wife, children, or his grandchildren.

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Tim Romer is Project Canary's Co-CEO. He brings over 35 years of experience working in US infrastructure markets to help build critical assets that promote economic growth with a long-standing focus on technology, ESG, and sustainability. Working at the intersection of the private and public sectors, Tim has been an early market leader developing innovative solutions to complex problems with a proven track record of executing a variety of deals and partnerships. Tim brings critical expertise to the Project Canary team with over $75 billion of M&A advisory and financing transactions covering a broad range of assets in transportation, water, power, renewables, social, sustainable, digital, and other sustainable infrastructure sectors.

Before joining Project Canary, Tim worked as a Goldman Sachs Investment Banker and a software company CFO. He holds a degree in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from The Wharton School.

Colin is responsible for Project Canary’s economic strategy and forecasting. His previous experience includes investment banking, private equity, corporate development and small business entrepreneurship.

Colin holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BComm in Finance from the University of Calgary.

Jessie Schiavone is Project Canary's SVP of Sales & Operations. She is responsible for building and leading high performance teams to help energy companies measure and reduce GHG emissions on their systems. She believes the future power grid (and the future of our planet) will require proven, tech-enabled decarbonization – measured and verified impact, not estimates. She joined Project Canary to help utilities embrace the use of real time monitoring and leak detection in order to meet increasing demands from PUCs and legislators for improved environmental stewardship. She now leads the Sales and Operations teams for Project Canary's core business and looks to drive emissions reduction across the full natural gas supply chain, from well to gate station.

Before joining our team, Jessie spent 15 years in the gas and electric utility sector deploying hardware, software and analytics solutions to drive energy efficiency, demand response, customer engagement, and operational improvements for many of the largest utilities in the US. Now, as a seasoned startup executive, she has expertise in all major business areas - sales, marketing, operations, product, finance and customer success – and seriously enjoys the challenge of bringing order to chaos to scale good ideas.

Jessie holds a BS from the US Naval Academy, an MBA from Boston University, and an executive certificate from MIT in Artificial Intelligence & Business Strategy. She is also the executive sponsor for the Women of Project Canary and occasionally still flies planes with her former US Navy colleagues. She's a fierce, combat-decorated veteran and we're stoked to have her on our team. 💪

Masoud Sharifi is the VP of Technology, responsible for the technology roadmap and implementation at Project Canary. Masoud launched his career as co-founder of a startup company and has since worked in several small to large-sized companies in varying capacities from a software engineer and platform architect to a technology leader. Most recently, he worked for Schwab Charitable, a non-profit organization that streamlines charitable giving in the U.S.

Masoud brings over 20 years of experience in designing, building, and leading enterprise software solutions. In addition, Masoud has a background in Software Engineering and Algorithms and holds a degree from the University of Colorado in Computer Science and Engineering.

Adam Smoot is the Vice President of Customer Success, responsible for providing cross-functional support across the company to drive usage and adoption of Project Canary's technology and deliver customer value.

Before joining our team, Adam worked at Amazon Web Services (AWS) and GE in customer facing and program management roles. Adam started his career in the U.S. Army, where he served as a helicopter pilot for eight years.

Adam holds an MBA from NYU's Stern School of Business and a B.S. degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Elizabeth Stolpe is the VP, US and International Government Affairs, responsible for leading Project Canary's strategic engagements with international and US federal governments, legislatures, and associated stakeholders.

Elizabeth brings over 30 years of experience, previously serving in the White House, at Royal Dutch Shell, and most recently working with the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Penfield Tate III is the Chief Environmental Justice Officer for Project Canary, overseeing environmental justice issues for low-income utility customers. Penfield is focused on refining Project Canary's commitment to the triple-bottom line and how ESG data can be used to drive equity for those who have been disproportionately affected by the actions of others driving climate change.

Before joining Project Canary, Penfield founded his law firm Tate Law. He has over 30 years of experience serving governments in public finance and municipal law and helping people in corporate and business matters and with estate planning.

He previously served as an aide to Denver Mayor Federico Peña and served in the cabinet of former Colorado Governor Roy Romer as Executive Director for the Department of Administration. He has over six years of service in the Colorado General Assembly, four years in the House as the State Representative for District 8, and over two years in the Senate as the State Senator for District 33.

Penfield takes pride in giving back to the community by serving on boards and volunteering. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Colorado State University in Sociology and a J.D. from Antioch School of Law. In his spare time, he can be found with his wife and daughter and enjoys watching sporting events, fly fishing, and scuba diving.

Miles Tolbert serves as General Counsel for Project Canary. Before joining our team, Miles practiced law extensively in the energy and environment sectors, heading the environmental practice group at Crowe & Dunlevy in Oklahoma City and serving as Vice-President and Associate General Counsel at Chesapeake Energy. Before entering the private sector, Miles had a distinguished public career that included service as the Secretary of the Environment for the State of Oklahoma. Miles holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. in Political Science and Classics from Stanford University.

Dr. Jim Scherer has over 28 years of postgraduate experience (Ph.D. Berkeley 1994) in basic and applied research in physics, physical chemistry, lasers, chemical sensing, and related technology transfer. His expertise is primarily in developing and commercializing laser-based chemical sensing techniques and instrumentation.
Dr. Scherer has founded and sold three startup companies: Los Gatos Research (ABB acquired) NovaWave Technologies (Thermo acquired), and Aeris Technologies (Project Canary acquired).
He is currently CEO at Aeris Technologies, a Project Canary company, focusing on gas analysis applications in the oil and gas and environmental monitoring sectors.

Josh Zier is the Head of Certifications for Project Canary. He is responsible for leading and executing the development and evolution of Project Canary's TrustWell Certification and Midstream Certification programs and accompanying verified attributes. He is passionate about driving data-driven solutions to reach net-zero goals--this passion resonates through the projects he leads within Project Canary.

Josh has over 11 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, where his experience has focused on drilling activities and project management. Prior to Project Canary, Josh worked as the lead environmental engineer for International Environmental Standards PBC, an independent ratings, analytics, and certification company in the energy industry. Before this, he worked as a field drilling engineer for Hess Corporation, an American global independent energy company involved in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas.

Josh graduated from Montana Technological University with a degree in Petroleum Engineering. He spends as much of his free time as he can outdoors, hunting and mountain biking.