High Performance Buildings
Instruction and Leadership Team
Instruction Team
The instructors for the Master of Engineering Leadership (MEL) in High-Performance Buildings are renowned experts who have built strong connections and research partnerships with leading industry players.
Ali Nazari
Widely regarded as a pioneer in his field, Ali Nazari has led sustainability designs for the first commercial Living Building Challenge project in Canada and the first certified LEED Platinum office in Vancouver. As a Principal at Integral Group, Ali is well versed in integrated design facilitation, energy efficient building design, LEED, sustainability and advanced energy simulations. With over 15 years of industry experience, he leads a team of energy modellers and sustainability advisors throughout Integral Group’s Canadian offices. Ali serves as the Vice Chair of the BC Chapter Leadership Board of CaGBC and is on the CaGBC’s Experienced Modellers List. He is also a recognized key speaker at many international energy modelling and sustainability conferences.
Michel Labrie
Michel Labrie has over 25 years of experience in sustainable architecture design projects, integrated design process, public consultation and green building research. He is an acknowledged leader in the field of sustainable construction and has expertise with a broad range of sustainability rating systems including LEED, the Living Building Challenge, Envision and Passive House. As a founding principal of Local Practice Architecture + Design, Michel leads his firm in the delivery of sustainable civic infrastructure, education projects and high-performance housing, achieving design excellence through multidisciplinary collaboration and the holistic integration of social, environmental and technical sustainability.
John Madden
John directs the activities of the Sustainability and Engineering unit within Campus and Community Planning at UBC. He brings over 18 years of experience working for local municipal government, international agencies and non-profit consulting working to advance sustainability policies and implementation strategies. While working in the Middle East, John led efforts in the design and implementation of an innovative green building and sustainability program which was awarded the “Best Regional Sustainability Initiative” by the World Green Building Council. John is also a sessional instructor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design teaching on the subject of Sustainable Master Planning. He holds a B.A. from the University of British Columbia as well as graduate studies at UBC’s School of Community and Regional Planning.
Andrea Frisque
Andrea Frisque provides technical direction and leadership in low-energy design for buildings and communities. She publishes technical papers in international journals, presents at national and international conferences, and has been invited for talks and lectures. Dr. Frisque has over 15 years of experience related to analyses and computer simulations for sustainable design, and she uses her extensive knowledge in heat and mass transfer, thermodynamics and fluid dynamics to provide cost-effective sustainable design and unique solutions, helping project teams achieve their performance goals. A Certified Passive House Designer, Andrea was an Associate and Senior Building Performance Engineer at Stantec and a founding director of the Canadian Passive House Institute (CanPHI). She is currently dean for the School of Energy at BCIT.
Daniel Eden
Daniel Eden is a professional engineer and LEED-accredited professional with more than 10 years of experience as an engineering consultant, specializing in high-performance buildings. He is currently the manager of custom software solutions at OPEN Technologies, a company that designs software that promotes energy-efficient building design and regulatory innovation. Daniel contributes his expertise in building assessment, energy and water audits, green building certification and fault detection and diagnostics to software solutions that enable the building sector to make pro-climate decisions. He has a Bachelor of Engineering from McGill University and a Master of Engineering Leadership in High Performance Buildings from UBC.
The UBC Sauder Robert H. Lee Graduate School business instructors for the MEL in High Performance Buildings are renowned experts who lead the way in Canada and internationally in business and management research and knowledge dissemination.
Perry Atawal
Perry Atwal is a lecturer at UBC Sauder’s Robert H. Lee Graduate School who has also worked as an assistant dean and executive director of Executive Education and executive director for the Centre for Healthcare Management. Perry has led several successful projects with extremely diverse participants from around the world and spanning industries that include health care, transportation and education. He is one of the most highly rated and award-winning teachers at UBC.
Justin Bull
Justin is the academic director for the MEL and MHLP programs and a lecturer at the UBC Sauder’s Robert H. Lee Graduate School and Chair of the Sustainability and Ethics Group. He teaches extensively on sustainability, innovation and strategy, with a focus on graduate and executive learners. He has worked with big companies – like IKEA, Lyft, and Rolling Stone – to implement climate innovations. Justin serves as an advisor and board member to several technology starts-ups and First Nations in Canada. He graduated with a BA in International Relations and a PhD in Wood Science from the University of British Columbia.
Donabel Santos
Donabel Santos is the Associate Director, Business Intelligence at UBC’s Development and Alumni Engagement portfolio where she leads a team of data experts that deliver on operational tasks and strategic data initiatives. A Tableau Accredited Trainer, she has over 18 years of technical and academic experience in the data space – from infrastructure development, data engineering, reporting, analytics and visualization to training and coaching professionals who work with data. She is also the principal of QueryWorks, a boutique consulting and training company specializing in databases and visualization. Donabel was a multi-year Microsoft Data Platform MVP who has authored four technical books and has spoken at numerous conferences.
Leadership Team
Get to know the High Performance Buildings Directors who are leading the program.
Ron Kellett
Ronald Kellett is a professor and director of the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA) and co-director of the elementslab at UBC. He holds degrees in environmental studies and architecture. In SALA, Kellett teaches design studios and courses in environment and urban form and conducts research related to community scale energy and emissions. From 2010-2012, he was a University Sustainability Initiative Teaching and Learning Fellow and in 2011 received a Killam Teaching Prize.
Read the full profile of Ron Kellett.
Dr. Steve Rogak
Dr. Steve Rogak received his BASc from UBC (Mech ’86) and PhD from Caltech (Environmental Engineering Science ’92). Dr. Rogak is a world-leading expert on the morphology, transport properties and aerosol dynamics of aerosol nanoparticles, with 1500 citations of his papers on these topics. He is the ASHRAE liaison for the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and works closely with companies in the buildings and clean energy sectors.
Read the full profile of Steve Rogak.
Application Deadlines
2023 Application Deadlines
The online application portal for 2024 admission opens on January 1, 2023.
Round 1: March 30, 2023
Round 2: June 30, 2023
Round 3 (Canadian Citizens, Permanent Residents of Canada, and US citizens only): August 30, 2023
See how to apply section for full details.
How to Apply
