One of the leading lights of climate-friendly business in Canada, Errick ‘Skip’ Willis passed away on January 4th, 2011.
Skip was an alumnus of Trinity College School and the University of Manitoba, where he capitalized on his early exposure to the political landscape through his father, Errick Willis, Manitoba cabinet minister and former Lieutenant Governor. From the age of eight, when he stuffed envelopes for a local candidate, up until the last Ontario provincial election, Skip was actively involved in over fifty political campaigns. His political instincts would serve him well as his career progressed.
In his professional life, Skip found his interests gravitating toward regulated industries, where he was able to combine his political savvy with an emerging understanding of the business world. Between 1984 and 1986, he was lead negotiator for the generic pharmaceutical industry in talks that led to revisions to the Patent Act in Canada. Around the same time, he became interested in emerging areas of work in the environmental field, such as the discussions related to ozone-depleting substances that would eventually be regulated under the Montreal Protocol. He was appointed business advisor to the Canadian Delegation to those negotiations and it was during this time, in the late nineteen-eighties, that he was first exposed to the broad concept of climate change. He became deeply interested in the impacts created by industrialized society, not only on the upper atmosphere, but on every corner of the Earth.
Climate change became Skip’s focus over the last fifteen years of his career. Addressing climate change requires large-scale collaboration between civil society, the private sector, and all levels of government, and this is where he carved his niche. He was drawn towards change that was sustainable, where businesspeople, policymakers and activists could find common ground and balance economic, political and environmental goals.
Skip worked with Energy Advantage before becoming Vice-President and Managing Director for the Canadian operations of ICF International. He then founded the Willis Climate Group in 2009. Besides giving him the opportunity to choose the projects that most piqued his interest, this last initiative allowed him to enjoy more time with his family, particularly at their country home south of Creemore, Ontario.
In addition to the privilege of working alongside a cast of dedicated and creative professionals, Skip was honoured to have recently been named a Fellow of the International Emissions Trading Association.
Skip passed away peacefully from complications related to cancer surgery.