Chief Executive Officer, director, founder and key developer of the vision for API Labs. As a career, Mr. Metzler has been involved in research and market development across numerous industries in Canada and internationally: including over 20 years of experience developing and launching new products.
API Labs’ board chair, has had an illustrious career as a politician and leader in the private and public energy fields. His nearly 20 years in public office saw Mr. Epp hold the esteemed positions of MP for the Provencher riding, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Minister if National Health and Welfare and Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources in additional to numerous cabinet committee positions. Mr. Epp has also been appointed as an Officer of the order of Canada.
Ryan has been farming with his family in the Southern Alberta area since 1974. He is a second generation farmer and a partner in Mercer Seeds Ltd., a local seed cleaning and seed distributor and a past president of the Alberta Seed Growers Association. In 2010 Ryan and Annette, his wife, were recipients of the Alberta Outstanding Young Farmers Award.
Steven is the former President of Sakai Spice (Canada) Corporation, a company that manufactures mustard flour and wasabi for export to markets around the world. Mr. McDonnell obtained his Chartered Accountant designation in 1978. Since 1978 he has been involved in the special crops contracting, marketing and processing industries internationally and has overseen the construction and commissioning of grain/food processing facilities.
Mr. Jurrius is the CEO of Indigena Capital, a capital firm that provides equity capital to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis in Canada and Tribal Nations in the U.S. (“Nations”). He has spent over 35-years developing projects in partnership with Nations assisting them to empower their rights and resources for the purpose of building their own commercial economies. This has led to the creation of hundreds of millions of dollars of new commercial revenue and billions in assets for these Nations, with investors achieving sector or above returns. As a champion for Indigenous investment, Mr. Jurrius brings attention to the fact that the Indigenous space has latent opportunity and a multitude of advantages providing a preferred haven for investing and industry partnerships. He takes pride that while some see these investments as nothing more than financial returns, the impact of these investments have provided not only new economies for Nation partners but have socio-economic impacts well beyond returns with direct correlation to housing, healthcare, education, and overall wellbeing. Mr. Jurrius’ experience over his career has led to the deployment of over $3 billion in total capital, the creation of over 70 partnerships that spanned a wide range of sectors and in many cases brought together Nations, government, industry and financial institutions to create innovative and beneficial solutions for each party. Prior to his work with Nations, Mr. Jurrius attended Angelo State University after serving in the US Military as an intelligence analyst.