Robert Niven, MSc
Chief Executive Officer & Founder

​​Robert Niven is the Chief Executive Officer of CarbonCure Technologies, the global leader in carbon dioxide (CO₂) removal technologies for the concrete industry. Rob founded the company in 2012 with the simple goal of making concrete sustainability both profitable and easy for the industry. With Rob at the helm, CarbonCure and its partners are achieving their mission to annually reduce and remove 500 million metric tons of CO₂ emissions from the atmosphere annually.

Under his direction, CarbonCure has won numerous international awards honouring leadership in sustainability, innovation and technology development including the $20M NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, Cleantech Group's 2020 North American Company of the Year, the BloombergNEF New Energy Pioneers Award and recognition as one of the Top 100 Global Cleantech Companies for seven consecutive years.

Featured as one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 for his leadership in CO₂ utilization, Rob holds an MSc in Environmental Engineering from McGill University and a BSc in Chemistry from the University of Victoria, British Columbia. In his spare time, Rob is an avid outdoors enthusiast and devotes his time to nature conservation and environmental community events.

Kristal Kaye
Chief Financial Officer

As CFO, Kristal is responsible for all of CarbonCure’s financial functions. She is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) with extensive experience in process improvements, operational efficiencies and building high performing teams across a variety of industries including mining, energy and retail pharmacy. In her previous role, Kristal was the CFO for Arctic Canadian Diamond Company. 

Kristal has a Bachelor of Applied Business Administration from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and subsequently completed a Master of Business Administration at Laurentian University. To fulfill her passion for continuous learning, Kristal also completed the Directors Education Program and obtained her ICD.D designation.

Kristal is based in Calgary, where she lives with her husband Ted, two children, Tyson and Dylan, and their dog Bailey. Outside of running kids to school and sport activities, in her free time, she enjoys unplugging at their lake cottage, traveling and working on her golf game.

Dean Forgeron, PhD, PEng
Chief Technology Officer

As a concrete innovator, Dean is responsible for the engineering and product development activities at CarbonCure. Along with industry partners, Dean has successfully developed and commercialized technologies for the concrete sector that have been adopted in international markets. His background includes development of concrete macro-synthetic fiber reinforcement, material characterization of fiber reinforced concrete, self-consolidating and self-leveling fiber reinforced concrete, and green concrete technologies.

Dean completed his BEng at TUNS in Halifax before completing his PhD at Dalhousie University. Outside of work, Dean enjoys traveling, outdoor activities and motor sports.

Dave Donaldson
Sr. Vice President of Sales & Marketing

As Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Dave is responsible for directing our global sales teams and marketing strategies, accelerating adoption of CarbonCure’s carbon utilization technologies for lower carbon concrete across diverse regions and markets, and overseeing CarbonCure’s carbon product offerings in the voluntary carbon markets. He is a seasoned executive with more than 24 years of experience driving strategic growth and connecting the ready mix concrete industry to software and hardware solutions that bring results.

Dave earned a Bachelors of Industrial Design from Auburn University. He and his wife, Kate, live in Birmingham, Alabama and have two adult sons and a daughter-in-law. In his free time, Dave enjoys spending time with his family and attending as many Auburn baseball games as the schedule allows.

Brad Vickers
Vice President of Customer Success

As Vice President of Customer Success, Brad is responsible for championing customer success strategies across all organizational levels. In his role, directing and enhancing the entire post-sales customer journey, he oversees our portfolio of hardware and software products and all customer success management, including regional teams of technical program managers and technical services and support specialists, ensuring they create value for our customers around the world. 

Brad has been with CarbonCure since 2014, helping to develop, operationalize and scale our suite of carbon utilization technologies, including the assembly, installation and commissioning of our earliest commercial systems across North America and Asia, and the launch of our carbon credit program in 2021. Over the past decade at CarbonCure, he previously served as a Field Engineer, Director of Engineering and Head of Product. Prior to CarbonCure, Brad spent time at a material testing firm with a focus on in-field concrete testing.

Brad completed his BSc at St. Mary's University before completing his BEng in Civil Engineering from Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is a professional engineer with Engineers Nova Scotia. Outside of work, Brad enjoys spending time outdoors with his wife, Kate, and their dog, Nora.

Christian Weisenburger
General Counsel

In his role as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Christian oversees the legal aspects of the business arrangements of CarbonCure and participates as a member of the leadership team. Joining the company near its inception in 2009, he has guided from a legal perspective each stage of the company’s growth. 

Kevin Cail, PEng
President & Director of Sustainability at Viridian Consulting LLC

Kevin Cail is the President and Director of Sustainability at Viridian Consulting LLC and the Chair of Scientific Advisory at CarbonCure. As CarbonCure’s Chief Technical Officer from 2013 to 2020, he was responsible for all aspects of the company’s technology development and market deployment as well as intellectual property and patent strategy. Kevin is also a former senior executive with Lafarge North America, serving at Lafarge for a decade as Director of Marketing and later Director of Sustainability and Commercial Innovation. In these roles, he was responsible for commercial development, management and policy development of various innovation projects and product changes.

Kevin has served on the board of directors for the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) and the Strategic Development Council of the American Concrete Institute, working on industry issues related to sustainability. Kevin is a native of Eastern Canada and a graduate of the University of New Brunswick in Civil Engineering.

Benjamin Hogan
Director at Blue Earth Capital

Ben Hogan is a Director at Blue Earth Capital. Ben has been active in zero-carbon transition investments for more than a decade across both private and public markets. He led investments on behalf of Blue Earth into CarbonCure, AMP, Sense, TS Conductor and SWTCH. Before joining Blue Earth Capital, Ben was a Director at Inherent Group where he led investments into companies enabling the transition to a lower-carbon economy. Prior to Inherent Group, Ben led energy investing at Orange Capital, a special situations and activist hedge fund and was a Principal at Asset Management Finance, a growth equity subsidiary of Credit Suisse. Ben received a BSc. in Economics from Duke University and an MSc. in Sustainability Science from Columbia University.

William C. Holden
Chair of the CarbonCure Industry Advisory Council

As Chair of the Industry Advisory Council, Bill Holden helps guide CarbonCure on the issues that matter most to today's concrete producers. Holden possesses over thirty years of executive and general management construction materials experience in aggregates, ready mix, masonry products and building materials.

Bill served as the President of Block USA, one of the leading concrete masonry producers in the country, and as President of Couch USA, a major producer of ready mix, block and building materials serving the Southeast USA. As well, Bill was formerly Chairman of the Board of the National Concrete Masonry Association (NCMA) and Alabama Concrete Industries Association, and Chairman of the NCMA’s Long Range Planning Committee. Bill currently serves as a board member of The Concrete Industry Management Program.

Robert Niven
Chief Executive Officer, CarbonCure Technologies

Robert Niven is the Chief Executive Officer of CarbonCure Technologies, the global leader in carbon dioxide (CO₂) removal technologies for the concrete industry. Rob founded the company in 2012 with the simple goal of making concrete sustainability both profitable and easy for industry. With Rob at the helm, CarbonCure and its partners are achieving their mission to reduce 500 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions annually by 2030.

Under his direction, CarbonCure has won numerous international awards honoring leadership in sustainability, innovation and technology development including the $20M NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, Cleantech Group's 2020 North American Company of the Year, the BloombergNEF New Energy Pioneers Award and recognition as one of the Top 100 Global Cleantech Companies for seven consecutive years.

Featured as one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 for his leadership in CO₂ utilization, Rob holds an MSc in Environmental Engineering from McGill University and a BSc in Chemistry from the University of Victoria, British Columbia. In his spare time, Rob is an avid outdoors enthusiast and devotes his time to nature conservation and environmental community events.

Chris Poirier
Member of Breakthrough Energy Ventures

Over the last 25 years, Chris has started or led six technology-based companies that span industries ranging from medical device manufacturing to design automation software to energy technology. Prior to joining BEV, Chris was the Chairman & CEO of CoalTek, Inc., a clean coal technology company. During his 12-year tenure at CoalTek, Chris led the company’s entry into the China market. Chris continued to serve on the board of CoalTek and CoalTek’s joint venture company in the PRC through 2018.

Chris was a three-time appointee to the National Coal Council, a special advisory committee to the US Secretary of Energy, under both the G.W. Bush and Obama administrations. He is an investor in and a member of the board of directors/advisors for a number of traditional technology, energy/environmental technology and materials companies. 

Chris earned his bachelor’s degree in marketing and finance from Boston College. Chris lives in Wellesley, MA with his wife and four children.

Onne van der Weijde
Senior Advisor to the CEO, CRH

Onne van der Weijde is a global executive with more than 30 years of leadership experience in the construction materials industry. He is renowned for his expertise in driving profitable growth, sustainability projects and operational excellence in large organizations across diverse cultural and geographic landscapes. Throughout his career, Onne has successfully led companies with more than 30,000 employees, implementing strategic initiatives that have significantly improved performance and stakeholder alignment. 

Currently based in the Netherlands, Onne serves as a senior adviser to the CEO of CRH, one of the world’s largest vertically integrated building materials businesses. He also holds non-executive directorships with Schneider Electric India since 2021 and Siam City Cement Thailand since 2022. Onne's extensive experience spans Europe, South East Asia, ASEAN and Africa, where he has honed his skills in construction materials and applications, finance, mergers and acquisitions, and commercial leadership. His ability to navigate complex markets and drive change has earned him recognition as a transformative leader in the industry.

In addition to his professional achievements, Onne is committed to fostering sustainable practices within the cement and concrete sectors. He is an advocate for innovative technologies that reduce the carbon footprint of construction materials, aligning with CarbonCure's mission to decarbonize the concrete industry.

Onne holds a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Bradford and a Bachelor's Degree, Business Administration and Management from The Hague University of Applied Sciences. He also completed the Senior Management Program at Harvard University.