meet the founders
Dr. John Varsek, PhD, P. Geo
John is the co-founder and CEO of OCHIUS, and currently an adjunct professor at Queen’s University, teaching about sustainable energy systems. Prior to retirement, John led strategy development at Cenovus Energy and managed petroleum development at EnCana. John holds a PhD from the University of Calgary in Earth Sciences, is a professional geoscientist registered in Alberta, and served as President of the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists in 2010.
With OCHIUS, John believes his “carbon career” will have come full circle.
Jesse Hébert, B. Eng, MEERL
Jesse is the co-founder and COO of OCHIUS. After studying net-zero fuels while completing the Master of Earth and Energy Resources Leadership (MEERL) program at Queen’s University, he was compelled to pursue a venture in this emerging field. Before OCHIUS, Jesse held a variety of mining engineering roles, from operations to consulting. He has designed and operated multi-million-dollar mining projects and has seen the benefits they can bring to stakeholders.
Jesse believes that redefining what carbon can do for us will change the world.