Darren Sokoloski |
|
Infralinx Strategic Partner Canada
CONSTRUCTION • PROJECT FINANCE • CONTRACTS • STRATEGY • BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Galvanizes teams, builds alignment with clear and compelling explanation of strategic objectives underpinned by hard data.
Business strategist and tactician, plans and initiates an aggressive approach to eradicate obstacles, sharpen the competitive edge and achieve excellence. Empowering leader, establishes clear role definitions, sound governance and fact driven decision-making processes while building organizational capacity and fostering individual performance and growth. Engaging, intuitive and analytical communicator, engenders confidence, directness and empathy to relay succinct messages. Key competencies include:
Executive Leadership | Business Analysis | Strategy | Resource Management | P&L | Business Development
Public-Private Partnerships | Joint Ventures | Project Procurement | Project Finance | Contract Negotiations
Transportation and Transit | Water and Wastewater | Energy
Project Management | Systems Engineering | Technology Development
ACADEMIC ASSET
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (MBA) | Class of 2006
Graduated with Distinction
S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University – USA
Smith School of Business, Queen’s University – Canada
CAREER MILESTONES
Generated ~20% top line growth and rebuilt Acciona’s business backlog by factor of ~14x, to ~$1.2B, over period of 5 years.
Won ~$2B main civil works contract for the Site C Hydroelectric project, one of the largest infrastructure projects in Canada.
Launched new lines of business in water/wastewater and road maintenance, securing over $1B in new contract awards.
Led commercial negotiations of consortium construction and operations contracts to capture $3.1B Port Mann Highway project.
Directed team that built a world’s first full-size and full-performance fuel cell powered vehicle for Ford.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE AND ACHIEVEMENTS
Acciona Infrastructure (Vancouver, BC)
COUNTRY DIRECTOR + PRESIDENT – Acciona Infrastructure Canada
(7 direct + 35 management staff + ~2,000 project level employees | $18M OpEx | $375M P&L)
2014 – 2019
Controlled all Canadian lines of business, co-managing with global business unit and operational leads headquartered in Madrid.
Recruited with a challenging mandate set by the Madrid-based executive team to rebuild a dysfunctional, uncompetitive and underperforming country business unit requiring swift and firm leadership.
Worked across all levels of company, from global CEO to local staff, to gain buy-in for change and consolidate business planning and business development decision-making process with a focus on optimizing the Canadian business.
Evaluated all facets of the business, exited ineffective leaders, sourced and retained new replacements in business development, operations, commercial and contract management, procurement, legal, QHSE and marketing.
Built a strategic plan focused on building a domestic platform to leverage corporate technical competencies.
Planned and launched an aggressive business development campaign, developed a robust pipeline of strategic target projects, boosted relationships with external stakeholders and elevated brand recognition. DARREN SOKOLOSKI, MBA, P.ENG.
Page 2
ACCIONA | continued
Realigned long-term strategic objectives to diversify and reduce risk to Canadian business, align organizational capabilities with market requirements, and build new capabilities to overcome market obstacles.
Implemented annual business planning process to analyze and communicate market drivers, set a framework of strategic objectives and report on progress to date.
Focused business on firm’s deep technical strengths in road and bridge, rail transit, and water/wastewater projects.
Tightened project pre-qualification to reduce reliance on domestic partnerships or joint ventures.
Developed internal self-performance capacity to broaden human resource base in Canada, to provide protection and flexibility with subcontractors and to sharpen the competitive edge against aggressive competitors.
Forcefully promoted the ~$2B Site C Main Civil Works project to implement a full self-perform delivery model, currently working through execution stage for a ~300 management/supervisory and ~1,500 worker staff complement.
Developed labour strategy and formed a unionized labour company under the Acciona-Samsung project JV company.
Planned and deployed self-performance model for concrete formwork and placement on major wastewater project to win project and drive down costs by ~4%.
Challenged to grow and diversify Canadian revenues, improve consistency of business flow and flexibility of staff deployments.
Built up a $1.2B backlog (~4 years of contracted revenues), a 14x increase over 5 years.
Secured ~$2B of non-P3 revenue streams under conventional measured quantities contract model, developed optimal financial structure to enable pursuit of DBF contracts and subsequently won ~$1.5B in contract value.
Launched water/wastewater construction and operation business in Canada, securing contracts valued at ~$700M and creating platform for expansion of operations business.
Established presence in Canadian rail transit market with multiple successful short listings, recruited key senior and technical staff from the dominant rail-transit builder in the Canadian market, setting foundation for successful execution.
Renewed company’s existing presence in road and bridge sector with multiple successful short listings, launched the tender and finalized the design/construction strategy key to winning the ~$1B Pattullo Bridge project.
Launched a road maintenance division in BC to diversify and smooth revenues while also strengthening relationship with a key project client (the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure), secured contracts valued at $525M over 15 years and built platform for expansion in BC, AB and ON.
Bilfinger Berger Project Investments (Vancouver, BC)
DIRECTOR DEVELOPMENT
(Led consortium teams of 10-20 partners/consultants | $1.5M OpEx)
2011 – 2013
Served as the prime point-of-contact and leader of P3 project tenders for projects in transportation, water, social infrastructure, regulated utilities, and power sector.
Devised unique teaming and risk allocation strategy to combat multiple hindrances and place Bilfinger in a competitive stance to pursue investment opportunity in construction and maintenance of a hydroelectric facility for BC Hydro.
Promoted and implemented strategy of internalizing operational risk within equity partnership to avoid uncompetitive pricing of a sub-optimal operations contract structure.
Secured support of major equity and construction partner Acciona for this strategy, developed operational pricing model for equity, and won the support of lenders.
Engaged with top-shelf turbine generator supplier to optimize pricing of maintenance risk versus up-front procurement costs and achieve overall net improvement in tender competitiveness.
Delivered an efficient and expertise-heavy bidding consortium to lessen risk prior to Bilfinger withdrawing from their project finance on a global basis and halting initiative advance.
Charged with diversifying investments from sole dependence on P3 projects, sourcing and securing contracts to fit the firm’s global reach and able to be executed within North America.
Tapped extensive network to propose engaging in redevelopment of coal-fired power plants for conversion to natural gas, taking advantage of existing political and regulatory shifts while leveraging a core area of expertise for Bilfinger.
Asked to develop proposal on behalf of North American business unit and presented proposal to Global executive team. DARREN SOKOLOSKI, MBA, P.ENG.
Page 3
Macquarie Capital Markets Canada (Vancouver, BC)
SENIOR ASSOCIATE
(Led consortium teams of 10-20 partners/consultants | $1.5M OpEx)
2007 – 2011
Guided teams to secure P3 projects, managed client and partner relationships, directed qualifications development and bid submissions, handled commercial negotiations, and oversaw due diligence.
Recruited to negotiate construction and operations contracts and manage technical due diligence reporting for the P3 PortMann Highway 1 project.
Drafted, presented and negotiated a suite of contracts and due diligence with a design-build contractor, 2 operators, toll system provider, lenders, and a special purpose project company.
Developed bottom-up design-build, operations toll system, and interface agreements and contract meeting multiple stringent demands and governance of disputes combined with multiple other agreements and pricing.
Captured the high-profile project based on price with stipulation and during final negotiations achieved further reduction of ~10% in construction costs.
Project contracting model modified at close due to unacceptable private financing costs arising from global financial crisis. Managed hand-off of construction contracts to client as condition of securing substantive break fee.
Directed P3 consortiums in pursuit of major projects such as Calgary Ring Road, Herb Gray Parkway, and Interior Heart and Surgical Centre.
Led development of consortium teams, negotiation of team structure and directed development of pre-qualification proposals.
Oversaw negotiation of financing, construction and operations contracts for fully financed and committed offers valued at over $3B in aggregate.
Advised private sector mine developer on project financing and procurement strategy for construction of ~$400M access road.
Researched mining regulatory requirements and interacted with mining executives to devise a value proposition for third party project financing of essential access road infrastructure.
Provided advisory services and pursued business development of investment opportunities in smart metering, carbon credits, renewable energy, and sports stadiums.
SCS Infrastructure Advisory (Vancouver, BC)
PRINCIPAL
2004 – 2007
Teamed with peer to form a technology start-up in the fuel cell sector, working through product concept and development while also leading efforts to secure government funding prior to stepping back from company to pursue EMBA. Company was ultimately sold for ~$90M valuation.
Advised BC Hydro on $450M utility investment in smart metering technologies, leading internal team through technology requirements specification and development and presentation of business case.
Advised geothermal energy developer Sierra Geothermal on project financing; developing financial models for portfolio of projects and presenting to lenders.
Worked with EMBA colleague to develop and document a carbon credit aggregation business model for proposal to a major Canadian agri-food company.
Advised venture capital firm on prospective investment in Asian company looking to enter the electric bicycle market utilizing fuel cell and metal-hydride hydrogen storage technologies.
General Hydrogen (Vancouver, BC)
SYTEMS ENGINEERING MANAGER / BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
2000 – 2004
Recruited and managed a team of systems and testing engineers to develop hydrogen refueling and hybrid fuel cell/ultracapacitor systems targeting the materials handling vehicle market.
Led investigations of the materials handling vehicle market and development of value proposition and supporting economic model for replacement of batteries with hydrogen fuel cell.
Ballard Power (Vancouver, BC)
SYTEMS ENGINEERING MANAGER / PROJECT MANAGER
1996 – 2000
Directed team building a prototype fuel cell vehicle for Ford, in ~$10M project co-funded by Canadian Government. The vehicle was world’s first full size fully functioning sedan demonstrating hydrogen fuel technology and its successful completion and positive reception at the Detroit auto show led to Ford’s further investment in a series of FCEV demonstration vehicles.
Led the systems engineering team supporting the development of automotive and heavy-duty fuel cell engines.
ADDITIONAL TRAINING AND EDUCATION
2007 - Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA Candidate – Level III) – CFA Institute
2000 - Professional Engineer – Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia
1995 - Bachelor of Engineering – Mechanical Engineering (First Class) – University of Victoria
Patent details shared on LinkedIn
CONSTRUCTION • PROJECT FINANCE • CONTRACTS • STRATEGY • BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Galvanizes teams, builds alignment with clear and compelling explanation of strategic objectives underpinned by hard data.
Business strategist and tactician, plans and initiates an aggressive approach to eradicate obstacles, sharpen the competitive edge and achieve excellence. Empowering leader, establishes clear role definitions, sound governance and fact driven decision-making processes while building organizational capacity and fostering individual performance and growth. Engaging, intuitive and analytical communicator, engenders confidence, directness and empathy to relay succinct messages. Key competencies include:
Executive Leadership | Business Analysis | Strategy | Resource Management | P&L | Business Development
Public-Private Partnerships | Joint Ventures | Project Procurement | Project Finance | Contract Negotiations
Transportation and Transit | Water and Wastewater | Energy
Project Management | Systems Engineering | Technology Development
ACADEMIC ASSET
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (MBA) | Class of 2006
Graduated with Distinction
S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University – USA
Smith School of Business, Queen’s University – Canada
CAREER MILESTONES
Generated ~20% top line growth and rebuilt Acciona’s business backlog by factor of ~14x, to ~$1.2B, over period of 5 years.
Won ~$2B main civil works contract for the Site C Hydroelectric project, one of the largest infrastructure projects in Canada.
Launched new lines of business in water/wastewater and road maintenance, securing over $1B in new contract awards.
Led commercial negotiations of consortium construction and operations contracts to capture $3.1B Port Mann Highway project.
Directed team that built a world’s first full-size and full-performance fuel cell powered vehicle for Ford.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE AND ACHIEVEMENTS
Acciona Infrastructure (Vancouver, BC)
COUNTRY DIRECTOR + PRESIDENT – Acciona Infrastructure Canada
(7 direct + 35 management staff + ~2,000 project level employees | $18M OpEx | $375M P&L)
2014 – 2019
Controlled all Canadian lines of business, co-managing with global business unit and operational leads headquartered in Madrid.
Recruited with a challenging mandate set by the Madrid-based executive team to rebuild a dysfunctional, uncompetitive and underperforming country business unit requiring swift and firm leadership.
Worked across all levels of company, from global CEO to local staff, to gain buy-in for change and consolidate business planning and business development decision-making process with a focus on optimizing the Canadian business.
Evaluated all facets of the business, exited ineffective leaders, sourced and retained new replacements in business development, operations, commercial and contract management, procurement, legal, QHSE and marketing.
Built a strategic plan focused on building a domestic platform to leverage corporate technical competencies.
Planned and launched an aggressive business development campaign, developed a robust pipeline of strategic target projects, boosted relationships with external stakeholders and elevated brand recognition. DARREN SOKOLOSKI, MBA, P.ENG.
Page 2
ACCIONA | continued
Realigned long-term strategic objectives to diversify and reduce risk to Canadian business, align organizational capabilities with market requirements, and build new capabilities to overcome market obstacles.
Implemented annual business planning process to analyze and communicate market drivers, set a framework of strategic objectives and report on progress to date.
Focused business on firm’s deep technical strengths in road and bridge, rail transit, and water/wastewater projects.
Tightened project pre-qualification to reduce reliance on domestic partnerships or joint ventures.
Developed internal self-performance capacity to broaden human resource base in Canada, to provide protection and flexibility with subcontractors and to sharpen the competitive edge against aggressive competitors.
Forcefully promoted the ~$2B Site C Main Civil Works project to implement a full self-perform delivery model, currently working through execution stage for a ~300 management/supervisory and ~1,500 worker staff complement.
Developed labour strategy and formed a unionized labour company under the Acciona-Samsung project JV company.
Planned and deployed self-performance model for concrete formwork and placement on major wastewater project to win project and drive down costs by ~4%.
Challenged to grow and diversify Canadian revenues, improve consistency of business flow and flexibility of staff deployments.
Built up a $1.2B backlog (~4 years of contracted revenues), a 14x increase over 5 years.
Secured ~$2B of non-P3 revenue streams under conventional measured quantities contract model, developed optimal financial structure to enable pursuit of DBF contracts and subsequently won ~$1.5B in contract value.
Launched water/wastewater construction and operation business in Canada, securing contracts valued at ~$700M and creating platform for expansion of operations business.
Established presence in Canadian rail transit market with multiple successful short listings, recruited key senior and technical staff from the dominant rail-transit builder in the Canadian market, setting foundation for successful execution.
Renewed company’s existing presence in road and bridge sector with multiple successful short listings, launched the tender and finalized the design/construction strategy key to winning the ~$1B Pattullo Bridge project.
Launched a road maintenance division in BC to diversify and smooth revenues while also strengthening relationship with a key project client (the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure), secured contracts valued at $525M over 15 years and built platform for expansion in BC, AB and ON.
Bilfinger Berger Project Investments (Vancouver, BC)
DIRECTOR DEVELOPMENT
(Led consortium teams of 10-20 partners/consultants | $1.5M OpEx)
2011 – 2013
Served as the prime point-of-contact and leader of P3 project tenders for projects in transportation, water, social infrastructure, regulated utilities, and power sector.
Devised unique teaming and risk allocation strategy to combat multiple hindrances and place Bilfinger in a competitive stance to pursue investment opportunity in construction and maintenance of a hydroelectric facility for BC Hydro.
Promoted and implemented strategy of internalizing operational risk within equity partnership to avoid uncompetitive pricing of a sub-optimal operations contract structure.
Secured support of major equity and construction partner Acciona for this strategy, developed operational pricing model for equity, and won the support of lenders.
Engaged with top-shelf turbine generator supplier to optimize pricing of maintenance risk versus up-front procurement costs and achieve overall net improvement in tender competitiveness.
Delivered an efficient and expertise-heavy bidding consortium to lessen risk prior to Bilfinger withdrawing from their project finance on a global basis and halting initiative advance.
Charged with diversifying investments from sole dependence on P3 projects, sourcing and securing contracts to fit the firm’s global reach and able to be executed within North America.
Tapped extensive network to propose engaging in redevelopment of coal-fired power plants for conversion to natural gas, taking advantage of existing political and regulatory shifts while leveraging a core area of expertise for Bilfinger.
Asked to develop proposal on behalf of North American business unit and presented proposal to Global executive team. DARREN SOKOLOSKI, MBA, P.ENG.
Page 3
Macquarie Capital Markets Canada (Vancouver, BC)
SENIOR ASSOCIATE
(Led consortium teams of 10-20 partners/consultants | $1.5M OpEx)
2007 – 2011
Guided teams to secure P3 projects, managed client and partner relationships, directed qualifications development and bid submissions, handled commercial negotiations, and oversaw due diligence.
Recruited to negotiate construction and operations contracts and manage technical due diligence reporting for the P3 PortMann Highway 1 project.
Drafted, presented and negotiated a suite of contracts and due diligence with a design-build contractor, 2 operators, toll system provider, lenders, and a special purpose project company.
Developed bottom-up design-build, operations toll system, and interface agreements and contract meeting multiple stringent demands and governance of disputes combined with multiple other agreements and pricing.
Captured the high-profile project based on price with stipulation and during final negotiations achieved further reduction of ~10% in construction costs.
Project contracting model modified at close due to unacceptable private financing costs arising from global financial crisis. Managed hand-off of construction contracts to client as condition of securing substantive break fee.
Directed P3 consortiums in pursuit of major projects such as Calgary Ring Road, Herb Gray Parkway, and Interior Heart and Surgical Centre.
Led development of consortium teams, negotiation of team structure and directed development of pre-qualification proposals.
Oversaw negotiation of financing, construction and operations contracts for fully financed and committed offers valued at over $3B in aggregate.
Advised private sector mine developer on project financing and procurement strategy for construction of ~$400M access road.
Researched mining regulatory requirements and interacted with mining executives to devise a value proposition for third party project financing of essential access road infrastructure.
Provided advisory services and pursued business development of investment opportunities in smart metering, carbon credits, renewable energy, and sports stadiums.
SCS Infrastructure Advisory (Vancouver, BC)
PRINCIPAL
2004 – 2007
Teamed with peer to form a technology start-up in the fuel cell sector, working through product concept and development while also leading efforts to secure government funding prior to stepping back from company to pursue EMBA. Company was ultimately sold for ~$90M valuation.
Advised BC Hydro on $450M utility investment in smart metering technologies, leading internal team through technology requirements specification and development and presentation of business case.
Advised geothermal energy developer Sierra Geothermal on project financing; developing financial models for portfolio of projects and presenting to lenders.
Worked with EMBA colleague to develop and document a carbon credit aggregation business model for proposal to a major Canadian agri-food company.
Advised venture capital firm on prospective investment in Asian company looking to enter the electric bicycle market utilizing fuel cell and metal-hydride hydrogen storage technologies.
General Hydrogen (Vancouver, BC)
SYTEMS ENGINEERING MANAGER / BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
2000 – 2004
Recruited and managed a team of systems and testing engineers to develop hydrogen refueling and hybrid fuel cell/ultracapacitor systems targeting the materials handling vehicle market.
Led investigations of the materials handling vehicle market and development of value proposition and supporting economic model for replacement of batteries with hydrogen fuel cell.
Ballard Power (Vancouver, BC)
SYTEMS ENGINEERING MANAGER / PROJECT MANAGER
1996 – 2000
Directed team building a prototype fuel cell vehicle for Ford, in ~$10M project co-funded by Canadian Government. The vehicle was world’s first full size fully functioning sedan demonstrating hydrogen fuel technology and its successful completion and positive reception at the Detroit auto show led to Ford’s further investment in a series of FCEV demonstration vehicles.
Led the systems engineering team supporting the development of automotive and heavy-duty fuel cell engines.
ADDITIONAL TRAINING AND EDUCATION
2007 - Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA Candidate – Level III) – CFA Institute
2000 - Professional Engineer – Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia
1995 - Bachelor of Engineering – Mechanical Engineering (First Class) – University of Victoria
Patent details shared on LinkedIn