Robert Cooke

With over 12 years of experience in government and academia working with and assisting remote communities in the Canadian North to transition away from fossil fuels for energy generation, Rob Cooke is the Operations Manager for Yukon University's Northern Energy Innovation and the Accelerating Community Energy Transformation (ACET https://www.uvic.ca/acet/index.php) Strategic Research Area (SRA) Manager for remote microgrids. Understanding and supporting the vital need for communities to want, develop and own clean energy projects in their communtiies, Rob uses his skills, knowledge and experience to aid communities and build capacity to ensure communities can develop and grow their own clean energy projects. Rob is also Canada's technical lead to the Arctic Council Sustainable Deverlopment Working Group Arctic Remote Energy Network Academy (ARENA https://sdwg.org/what-we-do/projects/arctic-remote-energy-networks-academy-arena-ii-1 ), a pan-Arctic capacity building program aimed at giving energy champions from remote communities the skills, knowledge and network to grow renewable energy projects in their own communities and regions. With 23 years prior experience as an aircraft electrical engineer with the UK Royal Navy, Rob has travelled extensively throughout the Canadian North and Alaska, mostly by dog team, and the broader Arctic. He lives in a small, off-grid cabin just outside Whitehorse in Canada's Yukon Territory where he shares his life with 42 Siberian Huskies and a quick thinking cat. Rob is a multiple finisher of both the Yukon Quest and Iditarod 1000 mile sled dog races.