Clearsum is a Canadian, business management and strategy advisory firm
Specialized in managing climate-related risks and environmental performance, our advisors help organizations integrate climate resilience, environmental excellence, and sustainability in corporate and organizational strategy.
We enable our clients to build resilience to climate-related threats, realize the full potential of climate-driven opportunities, and improve corporate environmental performance. Our data-driven process is focused on building climate-readiness and meeting the growing demands of capital markets.
We achieve results by delivering carefully crafted and uniquely organized services that we refer to as: The Clearsum Way to Build a Climate-Ready Business Foundation.
OUR PURPOSE
Our purpose is to help organizations recognize and build resilience to the environmental challenges of today and tomorrow, and to support them in realizing the full value of related opportunities. We have one fundamental goal in mind: building a sustainable economy, a sustainable future.
OUR MISSION
Our mission is to help organizations create enduring financial and societal value. We achieve this by offering industry-leading, science-based, and data-driven strategy services that place climate-resilience, environmental performance and sustainability principles at the core of corporate strategy.
OUR VISION
Our aim is to become the world’s most trusted advisors, by leading the movement to integrate climate resilience, environmental excellence, and sustainability in corporate and organizational strategy. Across continents, market structures and industries, we strive to be renowned for our ability to help build an enduring and sustainable competitive advantage.
OUR MISSION
Our mission is to help organizations create enduring financial and societal value. We achieve this by offering industry-leading, science-based, and data-driven strategy services that place climate-resilience, environmental performance and sustainability principles at the core of corporate strategy.
Our values
Ethics and Integrity. We are honest and trustworthy. Driven by strong moral principles, we never compromise our conduct and always deliver the highest level of quality on our commitments.
Respect and Collaboration. Our value for people leads us to collaborate with all stakeholders with a mindset of humility, empathy, and forbearance.
Knowledge and Empowerment. We believe in making informed, data-driven decisions, and in empowering others to do accordingly. We nurture our fundamental desire to learn and to share our learnings.
Our team
Founder, Executive Officer, Head of Performance and Resilience
Cedric B. Robert, EP, CSR-P, MBA
Cedric is a passionate, values-based entrepreneur who holds the purpose, mission, and values of Clearsum as core beliefs. Determined to have a substantial, positive impact on the transition to a low-carbon economy, he is committed to rallying clients, partners and the Clearsum team around the vision he set for the firm. Cedric is a skilled communicator who values people, authenticity, and integrity. As an experienced executive, he is known for his collaborative leadership style, his ability to build genuine and lasting relationships, and for delivering results. Responsible for actualizing the company’s vision, and for executing its strategy, Cedric is focused on helping organizations build resilience to climate change and building a sustainable future.
A subject matter expert with a deep understanding of strategy and corporate environmental performance, Cedric is devoted to delivering value and quality. Through Clearsum, he leverages his experience, expertise and data-driven approach to help organizations thrive and become climate-ready.
Prior to founding Clearsum, Cedric spent approximately 15 years at the helm of a specialized environmental consultancy, where he led teams of professionals and helped renewable energy producers, infrastructure developers, and civil contractors develop and embed sustainable construction practices throughout their projects. He dedicated more than a decade of his career helping industry maintain the highest levels of social licensing in British Columbia (BC). In his past role as president, he had complete P&L accountability for the firm and was responsible for maintaining top line growth and profitability. He sold the firm in December 2016 to embark on a skills-honing journey, a long-time goal of his.
Co-Founder, Legal Officer, Head of Strategic Foresight and Monitoring
Daria Hobeika, B.C.L., LL.B., MBA
Daria is a lawyer and strategic advisor dedicated to enabling organizations to pursue sustainable growth. A generalist, deep thinker and committed doer, she is known for her sound judgment, straight-forwardness, calmness, rigour, and capacity to work well under pressure. She thrives in complex environments and excels in clear communication. Daria has intricate knowledge of the workings of government and of legislative and regulatory processes, which she leverages for Clearsum clients.
Prior to co-founding Clearsum, Daria completed her executive MBA from McGill University and HEC Montréal and returned to the private sector. While working in the private sector, she managed operations and acted as a solution-creator and thought partner to the executives she advised. Among others, her key tasks included developing, communicating, executing, and sustaining corporate strategic initiatives.
Having held key positions with elected members of the Government of Quebec and of the National Assembly over a period of 11 years, she has direct experience dealing with a cross-section of policy issues, including in the energy, infrastructure and environment sectors.
Co-Founder, Financial Officer, Head of Governance and Risk
François Senez, Pl.Fin., MBA
A dynamic and unifying leader in finance and business development whose expertise in risk and investments have led him to the upper echelons of a large Canadian financial institution, François ensures the financial success of clients as well as offering them a flawless experience along their journey to build a climate-ready business foundation.
A core member of our scenario planning team, Francois assumes complete leadership of our quantitative scenario analysis services, oversees our model development and modelling team, and is responsible for deciphering and integrating the pricing of externalities in our value-at-risk assessments.
Having been responsible for a team managing $ 1.2 billion in assets, he is recognized as a genuine, visionary and creative leader. During his Executive MBA at McGill University and HEC Montreal, he combined his career experience with his background in science (applied physics) to explore the impacts of artificial intelligence on the financial industry. In doing so, he demonstrated yet again his ability to think transversally and resolve complex problems thanks to a multidisciplinary approach. At Clearsum, François utilizes his in-depth knowledge of organizational governance, financial markets, enterprise risk management (including portfolio and investment risk), and financial instruments to the benefit of our clients.
By co-founding Clearsum, he concretizes his desire to help companies make a sustainable transition while ensuring they create financial, economic and societal value.
Senior Climate Strategy Advisor
Gregory Lynch, M.s.d., MBA
Gregory is a passionate advisor focused on using market solutions to help organisations become more resilient in the face of climate change. With a background rooted in sustainable development, he has over 10 years of experience supporting businesses and organizations, including small and medium enterprises and non-profits.
Holding master’s degrees in sustainable development focused on energy and the environment as well as in business administration, his education gives him a unique perspective on the transition to a low carbon economy. In his work with our clients, Gregory draws on this knowledge and his experience founding and running a business to embed sustainability principles across organizational sectors. He revels in the opportunity to delve into complex issues and problems, to identify the key issues and to communicate solutions in practical and understandable terms.
As a member of the Clearsum strategic advisory team, Gregory works with clients to identify priority risks and opportunities related to climate change and to develop financially responsible strategies to adapt to the transition to a low carbon economy. Driven by curiosity and conviction, Gregory strives to develop relationships of trust enabling him to engage with the human aspect of organisational change to build solutions that respond to the analytical and societal needs of our clients. He is focused on delivering impactful and effective advice rooted in reliable and rigorous research.
Senior Business Analyst, Process and Quality Management
Omar El Kebbi, B. Eng., MBA
Omar is a recent MBA graduate from HEC Montreal and a civil engineer with more than 4 years of experience in the construction industry.
Working with multinational builders, designers and subcontractors, he built extensive experience in project management, contracts management and stakeholder management. He also developed a quality management and process lens, which he leverages with Clearsum. His experience and understanding of heavy civil and transportation infrastructure bring substantial value to Clearsum’s offer, particularly considering how both sectors require extensive transformation to adapt to a low carbon future.
During his MBA, he developed practical skills in the sustainability, financial analysis and risk management fields, and he refined his modelling skills. Omar believes he can contribute and create valuable input to any organization through his analytical and communications skills.
Senior Data Analyst, Business Intelligence
Nikhil Sharda, B. Eng., MBA
An engineer with extensive hands-on experience in data extraction, analysis and reporting, and a passion for business intelligence tools and analytics, Nikhil helps organizations develop key insights and make data-driven decisions to align their strategy to the imperatives of climate change.
Nikhil first joined the Clearsum team in the summer of 2020 as a member of the HEC Montréal MBA Consulting project, immediately prior to graduating from the programme with a specialization in Business analytics and Strategy.
Specifically, he creates value for Clearsum clients by analyzing critical datapoints, transforming raw data and storytelling through creative data visualization using Tableau, suggesting actionable initiatives in a broader business context and generally collaborating with data scientists and senior management to fully utilize the value of data.
Engaged
Because we believe that the outcome of collective effort is greater than the sum of its parts, we engage in a large and growing community working towards creating a sustainable future.
We proudly support
In addition to supporting and investing in initiatives we believe in, we have interest in offering our expertise for the benefit of communities and society at-large.
Please contact us if you have a project that could benefit from our advice or involvement.
About our name
Clearsum is derived from “clear-sighted” (adj.) [having clear vision, having or marked by keen perception or sound judgment] and “sum” (noun) [symbol: +, the aggregate of two or more numbers, magnitudes, quantities, or particulars as determined by or as if by the mathematical process of addition].
By widening the lens through which organizations see and prepare for the future, they, and we, add financial and social value for stakeholders and society at-large.