2008 Speaker Bios
Tom Corbett, Partner
Advocates LLP
Tom Corbett was born in St. Catharines, Ontario. He obtained a chemical engineering degree, with environmental engineering courses, from Queens University, Ontario, in 1974 and his law degree from the University of British Columbia in 1978. He practiced law in Vancouver from 1978 until he moved to London, Ontario in 1989.
David Thompson and Tom Corbett moved together from McCarthy Tetrault to jointly found the firm of Thompson Corbett in 1996. In 2005, the firm changed its name to Advocates LLP.
In the 1990s, Tom Corbett taught environmental law at the University of Western Ontario law school. He was a member of the environmental committee of the London & District Construction Association and for many years has been a director of the London Centre for Health, Safety and Environment, a corporation created under the auspices of the London Chamber of Commerce for the purposes of delivering environmental education to business in south-western Ontario. He has repeatedly spoken before a variety of audiences on environmental topics including due diligence, environmental management systems, defence of prosecutions, appeals of Ministry orders and trends in environmental legislation.
Tom has also presented papers on corporate and commercial litigation matters, including presentations to the Ontario Bar Association on shareholders remedies associated with the winding up of privately held corporations and on the liability of directors and officers.
Outside the practice of law, Tom is active in sports, now primarily skiing and playing and coaching lacrosse.
Marvin R. DeVries, President
Trojan Technologies
Marvin R. DeVries is the President of Trojan Technologies, an environmental company based in London, Ontario, Canada. Trojan is a global leader in the supply of ultraviolet light (UV) based treatment systems for water and wastewater treatment, with successful installations in more than 50 countries. Trojan has 500 employees in Canada, USA, Europe and China, has annual revenues in excess of $130 million, and annually invests >$5 million in the development of environmentally sustainable water treatment solutions.
Mr. DeVries joined Trojan in 1988 as Sales and Marketing Manager to build and expand the company´s global sales network. He established a global network of more than 100 industry partnerships, as the foundation for developing broad acceptance and support for UV technology, world-wide. Mr. Devries held a series of progressively senior leadership positions until appointed as President in 2003. He also led the transition from successful publicly traded company (TUV: TSX) to the purchase of Trojan by Danaher Corporation in 2004.
Prior to 1988, Mr. Devries worked as a Professional Engineer on water-related and infrastructure development projects in Bangladesh, India and Haiti. He is also a member of the Water Environment Federation and the American Water Works Association.
Tom Ewart, Managing Director
Research Network for Business Sustainability
Tom Ewart is Managing Director of the Research Network for Business Sustainability. The Network facilitates business sustainability by bridging research and practice — making research more relevant to industry, enabling interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral collaborations, and packaging knowledge for easy consumption by various audiences.
Tom is also an assistant adjunct professor at the University of Waterloo's Centre for Environment and Business. Previously, he was a Research Associate at the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, where he developed case studies and contributed to research on business sustainability. Tom graduated from the University of Western Ontario as a gold medalist in the Engineering Faculty and as an Ivey Scholar in the Honours Bachelor Administration program.
Wayne MacLeod, President
Hazard Control Systems Inc.
EH&S Compliance Service Inc.
Wayne A. MacLeod is the President of Hazard Control Systems Inc. and EH&S Compliance Service Inc. He provides consulting, training, and auditing services related to the management of hazardous materials and CSA and ISO standards to industries across Canada, into the USA, and internationally. Formerly, Wayne spent fourteen years in several management positions in the Aluminum Industry with PPG Canada Inc. and Lorlea Architectural Systems.
Wayne has developed teaching materials and lectured at the University of Western Ontario (UWO) Business School (in both the MBA and Executive Education Programs), Fanshawe and Georgian Colleges in courses including environmental law, management systems, auditing, and software applications as well as waste and air quality management. Wayne has lectured at the HAZTECH CANADA and ECO-LOG Environmental Conferences held at the International Centre in Mississauga. As a volunteer executive member of the Industrial Accident Prevention Association, Wayne also teaches health and safety subjects to London area high school and grade school students.
As project manager and trainer, he has developed and delivered education and training programs relevant to EH&S issues including Transportation of Dangerous Goods, Hazardous and Liquid Industrial Waste, Solid Non-Hazardous Waste, Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS), Emergency and Risk Management, Emergency Electrical Power Supplies, and Effective Solutions using Root Cause Analysis.
He has written a Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS) Safety Manual and a 3Rs Compliance Manual, and is presently developing other safety manuals and training programs for different legislation and standards. Training programs regarding most areas of health, safety and environmental legislation are made available to his clients including Emergency Preparedness and Response training.
Professional affiliations include:
- Member of the Canadian Environmental Auditing Association (CEAA)
- Executive member of the Industrial Accident Prevention Association (IAPA)
- Past member of the London Chamber of Commerce (LCC)
- Past member of the LCC Environment Committee
- Past Vice-President of Education Toastmasters
- Member of the Ontario Association of Engineering Technicians and Technologists (OACETT), past Assistant Programs Director