510 Applicants, 1 New Agency, and 22% Annual Growth: Scaling up your Energy Cooperative

If it feels like you haven't heard from our team in a while, it’s because we have been incredibly busy behind the scenes laying the groundwork for OREC’s next decade of impact.

To power our continued annual growth and fulfill the ambitious mandate our membership endorsed at the 2025 AGM, we are scaling up our capabilities.

We are thrilled to introduce Banfield as OREC's new marketing agency partner. Finding this crucial partner was spearheaded by our VP Paul Haskins, who brings years of experience leading digital transformation initiatives for multinational companies. Banfield has just wrapped up its initial research phase and is moving into brand positioning and marketing strategy—a major step toward improving our message and broadening our reach to more citizens and B2B project partners alike.

Equally important, we launched a serious outreach to fill two new and critical positions. The response was overwhelming:

• Business Development Manager (BDM): Over 150 applicants. This role will spearhead our portfolio expansion and capitalize on evolving provincial policies like the Local Generation Program.

• Membership Growth & Engagement Lead (MGEL): Over 360 applicants. This role will own our member engagement, add value to a membership in OREC, and lead our 2-year Thumbs Up RE collaboration with CAFES Ottawa.

Things are moving fast. After a rigorous review process and intensive interviews, we officially signed the contract with our top finalist for the BDM position today!

At the exact same time, we are just days away from making a formal offer to our top choice for the MGEL position. The momentum here is palpable, our team's very excited, and we are moving forward literally on a daily basis.

We're grateful for your patience and shared enthusiasm as we build out a team capable of accelerating Ontario's clean energy transition.

The future is arriving ahead of schedule. Watch your inbox for an upcoming Flash Newsletter officially introducing our second and third full-time employees!