Annette Verschuren is a superstar of Canadian business, though her Nova Scotian roots would perhaps make her uncomfortable with that designation.

Verschuren is an Officer of the Order of Canada for her contribution to the retail industry and corporate social responsibility, and an inductee in the Canadian Business Hall of Fame in 2019. She is a board member of Liberty Mutual, Air Canada, Saputo Inc. and Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL). Verschuren is also the Chair of both the MaRS Discovery District Board and the Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) on behalf of the Federal Government and is on the board of the Ontario Energy Association.

These are just some of the highlights.

Verschuren is the recipient of 14—yes, 14—Honorary Doctorates from Canadian Universities, including her alma mater, St. Francis Xavier University. But it is her North Sydney, NS, upbringing that formed her educational foundation.

Verschuren’s parents immigrated from Holland to Canada and started a dairy farm. She and her four siblings participated a great deal in the family business and saw first-hand the connection between hard work and sustaining a business.

“I’m a farmer’s daughter, and grew up in a small business,” says Verschuren. “I learned that the cheque had to cover the expenses at a very young age.”

“I learned a lot from those years,” she says. “I had great determination; I was a hard worker and relied on common sense. Those attributes really helped me get to where I am today.”

This confidence led her to Saint FX, where she graduated with a degree in Business Administration. Straight out the gate, Verschuren worked as development officer for the Crown Corporation Cape Breton Development Corp., one of Canada’s largest underground coal mining operations, at a time when coal mining was the engine of the provincial economy.

After nine years there, Verschuren “really wanted operational experience,” and then moved to Toronto for the role of executive vice-president of Canada Development Investment Corp.

Verschuren then parlayed this experience to the retail sector when she cofounded Michaels, the arts and crafts stores in Canada, expanding from no storefronts at all to 17 stores in just 27 months. Then as President of The Home Depot Canada, she famously oversaw the growth of the company’s Canadian operations from 19 to 179 stores from 1996-2011, increasing revenue from $600 million to $6 billion.

After Home Depot, she took a year off and went around the world. In her travels, she saw energy as a global issue, with enormous business potential, and many benefits to developing economies.

“I really wanted to think about what I wanted to do next,” says Verschuren. “While travelling, I saw the challenges associated with sustainability of the planet. I came back and said I don’t want to do another retail job as I have in the past. What I want to do is make money, but do it in a purposeful way.”

Enter NRStor

Verschuren founded NRStor in 2012 with an investment from Northwater Capital. NRStor’s vision is to be the leading profit-with-purpose energy storage developer. NRStor develops, owns, and operates industry leading energy storage projects in partnership with Indigenous communities, progressive stakeholders, and technology providers.

“It’s been really exciting because I am an entrepreneur, truly and deeply, an entrepreneur,” says Verschuren.

An example of NRStor’s work is its Oneida Energy Storage Project, the largest of its kind in Canada and amongst the largest in the world. In partnership with Six Nations of the Grand River Development Corporation, the Oneida project will provide a gigawatt-hour of much needed capacity to the Ontario grid, while prioritizing local Indigenous partnerships and environmental benefits.

The Project will supply the Ontario electricity system through a 250 megawatt / 1,000 megawatt-hour Tesla Megapack system in southwestern Ontario and is scheduled to be completed in 2025.

“I learn by doing,” says Verschuren. “I’m a hands-on person. I saw how important storage (product warehouses) was to the success of Home Depot. We’re pretty good at storing water, pretty good at storing food, but not so good at storing electricity. Storage is really a great opportunity because there are all these electricity generation types, like coal plants, natural gas plants, nuclear plants, hydro plants and renewables, but they only go one way—they solely generate electricity to the grid when needed. What’s great about energy storage, including battery storage, is that it goes both ways—it can take in electricity when there is excess and store it, as well as generate electricity back to the grid exactly when it is needed most.”

“I don’t know whether it’s because of my Dutch heritage but I hate waste,” says Verschuren. This applies to NRStor as well as how Verschuren plans her own time. “I want to organize and use my time efficiently both in my professional and personal life.”

Verschuren sees energy storage as being a bridge to reducing and managing energy costs. “We must make our existing assets perform better. I see energy storage, particularly battery energy storage, being critical to making and delivering better quality, lower carbon energy to the customer and the local distribution company. It’s a critical bridge that needs to be attached to all parts of the supply chain.”

Verschuren’s mantra is “you’re as good as the capacity of your team”. Which is why she highly values diversity of input around her. She also prioritizes the input of her First Nations partners for their invaluable perspective and talent.

As the need for energy storage continues to grow, it’s exciting to see how Verschuren’s expertise will influence the future of this industry. No doubt it will be fun to watch.

“If I have a talent, that talent is surrounding myself with really good people, talented people, and creating a big enough sandbox to innovate in and take calculated risks in and then grow our business.”

For more information: http://nrstor.com/