CE3C 2027 Conference Program
Connecting Environmental & Engineering Consulting Executives
CE3C 2027 brings together the leaders of the environmental and engineering consulting industry for two days of focused sessions on the business issues shaping the sector. The program combines pre-conference seminars, keynote addresses, and a new interactive Executive Exchange format designed to place every participant at the centre of the conversation.
Wednesday — Pre-Conference Seminars & Executive Exchange
Pre-Conference Seminars: Risk Management
Wednesday Morning
Seminar 1 — Gowling WLG
10:00 AM · Legal Risks Facing Environmental & Engineering Consulting LeadersGowling WLG has been a CE3C sponsor since the inaugural conference and brings deep expertise in environmental law, corporate governance, and M&A legal advisory.
The Risk Landscape: Legal Exposures Every Consulting Executive Must Navigate in 2027
Topics covered:
- Regulatory and compliance risk: the evolving patchwork of federal and provincial environmental regulations, ESG disclosure requirements, and increasing personal and corporate liability exposure for owners, shareholders, directors, and officers.
- Professional liability and negligence: trends in claims against environmental consultants, including recent case law, what courts now expect of environmental professionals in terms of standard of care, and how AI-generated reports are changing the liability picture.
- M&A transaction risk: environmental liabilities that surface during due diligence, representations and warranties exposure, and the legal pitfalls in vendor take-backs and management equity structures — including the role of the legal team in closing the transaction.
- Contractual and subcontractor risk: limitation of liability clauses, indemnification gaps, and the risks of working with subcontractors and joint venture partners.
- Data and cybersecurity risk: the legal obligations that arise from data breaches, including client data, environmental monitoring data, and proprietary methodologies.
Gowling presents these risks through composite scenarios based on anonymized real-world situations in the industry, with each scenario revealing a different category of risk.
Speaker to be announced.
Seminar 2 — Steamboat Insurance
11:00 AM · Managing Risk Through Insurance & Risk TransferCarl Spensieri, President of Steamboat Insurance, is well known to the CE3C audience. Steamboat specializes in environmental liability insurance, M&A representations and warranties coverage, and D&O insurance — services directly aligned with the risks identified in the Gowling session.
The Safety Net: How Insurance Can Protect Your Firm Against the Risks You Just Heard About
Topics covered:
- Environmental liability insurance: responding to regulatory and compliance risks. Pollution liability policies, site-specific coverage, and how to ensure an insurance program keeps pace with evolving regulations — including the gap many firms face on emerging contaminants such as PFAS.
- Professional liability (E&O) insurance: addressing professional negligence risks. What a well-structured E&O program looks like for an environmental consulting firm, how insurers view the use of AI tools in professional work, and what triggers coverage gaps.
- Representations and warranties insurance: directly tied to the M&A risks discussed earlier and to the afternoon panel. How R&W insurance can facilitate deal completion, protect sellers from post-closing claims, and give buyers confidence — a product in which Steamboat specializes.
- Directors and officers (D&O) insurance: personal liability protection for executives. How D&O coverage addresses regulatory enforcement, shareholder disputes, and the growing category of ESG-related claims.
- Building a comprehensive risk management program: thinking about insurance not as a series of individual policies but as an integrated risk management strategy, and the role of trusted advisors — brokers, lawyers, and accountants — in designing the right program.
For each risk scenario Gowling introduces in the first seminar, Steamboat walks through the corresponding insurance solution, creating a direct connection between legal exposure and insurance coverage.
Carl Spensieri
President, Steamboat Insurance Agency
Carl Spensieri is President of Steamboat Insurance Agency. He helps clients achieve better outcomes by using creative, individualized insurance products to address complex business risks. Before moving into underwriting, Carl practiced as an environmental engineer, and his areas of expertise include merger and acquisition due diligence, professional liability, environmental liability assessment and risk transfer, property transactions, and Canadian infrastructure projects. He holds a Master of Applied Sciences and Engineering from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of London (UK), and is a licensed Professional Engineer in Ontario.
Opening Remarks
Wednesday, 1:30 PM
Peter Brown
CBC Radio Host & Producer
Peter Brown is CE3C 2027's master of ceremonies. Educated at the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Cambridge, Peter enjoyed a 25-year career as a CBC Radio host and producer, including hosting CBC Edmonton's afternoon show Radio Active and leading the creative team on the award-winning national comedy program The Irrelevant Show. These days he can be heard on CBC doing comedy on The Debaters and devising word puzzles once a month on The Sunday Magazine. His 2023 radio documentary Flop Sweat won second place in the International Sports Press Association awards.
Industry Benchmarking Presentation
Wednesday, 2:00 PMThrough a high-level benchmarking of the industry the senior executives will be able to track Key Performance Indicators (KPI) while discussing the KPIs and other relevant operational and corporate topics important to their Canadian operations in a panel session forum at the conference. The benchmarking of the attending companies' performance conducted by CE3C has now become an index for the industry leaders to measure their performance against the industry.
Leroy Banack
Senior Partner, F&M Management
Leroy Banack is a Senior Partner at F&M Management, with more than 20 years of consulting experience and a specialty in internal business processes and systems improvement. He conducts financial performance and operations assessments and prepares business valuations specific to the engineering and scientific consulting industry. With expertise in numerical modelling and database management, Leroy builds customized models and analytical tools that help clients make decisions, and he is especially valued for translating large amounts of complex information into a few simple key concepts and ideas.
A New Format: The Executive Exchange
CE3C 2027 introduces the Executive Exchange — a reimagined session format that replaces the traditional panel throughout the conference. The Executive Exchange is built around dialogue rather than lectures and positions every attendee as a participant. It reflects the core message of CE3C: connecting industry leaders to one another.
Three Executive Exchanges anchor the 2027 program, each pairing a curated group of contributors with structured audience participation.
M&A: Financing the Deal
Wednesday, 3:30 – 5:00 PMM&A TRENDS, OWNERSHIP TRANSITION FINANCING & RECAPITALIZATION
Today’s M&A environment is being shaped by economic uncertainty, changing capital markets, tariffs, political developments, and evolving buyer expectations. This Executive Exchange explores how these forces are influencing mergers and acquisitions, ownership transitions, recapitalizations, and acquisition financing strategies. The discussion will examine practical approaches to financing ownership transitions, recapitalizing businesses for future growth, and structuring acquisitions. Participants will gain insight into the financing options available through private equity and other capital providers, along with the key considerations for executives planning long-term growth or preparing for an eventual exit.
Discussion topics:
- Recent transaction activity and valuation multiples
- How tariffs, economic volatility, and political uncertainty are affecting deal activity in Canada
- What strategic and financial buyers are looking for in acquisition targets
- How businesses can prepare well in advance to maximize value and improve exit outcomes
- The importance of succession planning and ownership transition strategies
Faramarz Bogzaran
Managing Partner, F&M Management
Faramarz Bogzaran is the founder and Managing Partner of F&M Management Ltd., a management consulting firm providing M&A and corporate advisory services in Canada. With a career spanning more than four decades, he has managed and steered environmental consulting, waste management, and remedial contracting companies in Canada, and has led organizations through ownership transition processes. Faramarz was instrumental in founding CE3C Management Ltd., holds a Bachelor of Science degree, is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC), and has served on several company boards, including as Chairman of the Board of ECO Canada.
Michael Andrisani
Partner, Clairvest Group
Michael Andrisani is a Partner at Clairvest Group, a private equity firm. He joined Clairvest in 2020 and participates in all areas of the investment process. Before joining Clairvest, Michael worked on a variety of M&A transactions in investment banking at Lazard in New York and as an attorney at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York. He earned a JD from Osgoode Hall Law School and an MBA and Bachelor of Business Administration from the Schulich School of Business. Michael is a board member of NCS Engineers, a water and wastewater engineering firm based in Phoenix, Arizona.
Executive Industry Guest: to be announced.
Thursday — Keynotes & Executive Exchanges
The Nanos Report
Thursday, 8:30 – 10:00 AMThe Nanos Report delivers a data-rich picture of economic conditions, political dynamics, and public sentiment. This session takes that macro context and dives into what these macro level economics mean for how we run our businesses; this transition normally is in the mind of most executives attending the conference.
Nik Nanos
Chief Data Scientist & Founder, Nanos Research
Nik Nanos is the Chief Data Scientist and Founder of Nanos Research. An expert in reputation and risk management, he has hands-on experience developing and applying machine learning algorithms and business intelligence in the workplace. Nik leads the team behind the weekly Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index and is featured in a weekly segment on CTV News Channel, Nanos on the Numbers. He is a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Chancellor of Carleton University in Ottawa.
The Business of Disruption
Thursday, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM · Following the Nanos ReportAdapt or Be Disrupted: Forces Reshaping the Environmental Consulting Landscape
Following Nik Nanos’s keynote — a data-rich picture of economic conditions, political dynamics, and public sentiment — this Executive Exchange translates that macro view into something directly actionable for the executives in the room. The session explores the broader forces reshaping how environmental and engineering consulting firms compete, win work, and deliver value. AI is part of the story, but so are changing client expectations, new entrants, consolidation, regulatory shifts, and evolving talent models.
The discussion moves from macroeconomic context to the practical question most executives carry into the conference: what do these forces mean for how we run our businesses?
Eric Pringle
CEO & Managing Partner, Milestone Environmental Contracting Inc.
Eric Pringle is CEO and Managing Partner of Milestone Environmental Contracting, a Canadian environmental remediation and infrastructure services firm operating across Western and Central Canada. He leads the company's growth strategy, Indigenous partnerships, governance initiatives, and acquisition activities. With more than 35 years of experience in engineering, environmental services, and business leadership, Eric works at the intersection of client expectations, market consolidation, talent development, and technological change. He brings a practical executive perspective on how firms can adapt and thrive amid disruption.
Brian Lapos
Senior Vice President, Canada, Onterris
Biography to follow.
Additional contributors to be announced.
AI in Professional Services
Thursday, 1:30 – 3:00 PMThe Thursday afternoon keynote focuses specifically on AI’s impact on professional services — not AI in general — and sets the stage for the Executive Exchange that immediately follows.
Keynote themes:
- The AI readiness gap: where environmental and engineering consulting firms are today versus where they need to be, with a practical assessment of adoption levels in this industry relative to other professional services.
- The economics of AI: how AI changes cost structures, pricing models, and margins. When AI investment pays off, and what an ROI timeline realistically looks like.
- The talent equation: AI does not replace people, but it changes what people need to do. How firms should think about reskilling, hiring, and organizational design.
- Risks and responsibilities: professional liability when AI is involved in deliverables, quality control, and client trust — connecting back to the morning pre-conference seminar on risk management.
Benoit Tessier
Benoit also joins the AI in Action Executive Exchange as a panelist. Biography to follow.
AI in Action
Thursday, 3:30 – 5:00 PM · Following the AI KeynoteThe AI Playbook: Practical Strategies for Environmental & Engineering Leaders
The final session of the conference is the explicitly AI-focused Executive Exchange. Where the keynote provides strategic and economic framing, this session brings the discussion down to the practical, operational level.
Building on the 2025 conference panel “AI Revolution: Harnessing the Power for our Industry,” which covered broad topics such as use cases, competitive advantage, and ethics, the 2027 conversation reflects a more mature moment. AI development has moved rapidly, many firms have already begun experimenting or implementing, and the Executive Exchange format is designed to surface what is actually working, what is not, and where to invest next.
Leroy Banack
Senior Partner, F&M Management
Leroy Banack is a Senior Partner at F&M Management, with more than 20 years of consulting experience and a specialty in internal business processes and systems improvement. He conducts financial performance and operations assessments and prepares business valuations specific to the engineering and scientific consulting industry. With expertise in numerical modelling and database management, Leroy builds customized models and analytical tools that help clients make decisions, and he is especially valued for translating large amounts of complex information into a few simple key concepts and ideas.
Rayna Carmichael
Digital Solutions Lead, AECOM Canada
Rayna Carmichael is the Digital Solutions Lead for AECOM Canada's Environment Business Line, with more than 20 years of experience helping organizations transform the way environmental data is managed, understood, and used. Her career has evolved from GIS and technical delivery to data stewardship, digital strategy, and the integration of emerging technologies. As projects become increasingly data-driven and AI-enabled, Rayna helps teams and clients translate complex data and digital capabilities into practical, trusted solutions, with experience spanning the mining, remediation, energy, transit, and water sectors.
Benoit Tessier
Benoit also delivers the AI in Professional Services keynote. Biography to follow.