Keith Gillard
Keith Gillard is the Cofounder and Chief Executive Officer of SUSTAERO, Canada’s leader in sustainable aviation fuel production, and Cofounder and Board Chair of Foresight Cleantech Accelerator Centre, Canada’s largest cleantech accelerator, with over two decades of experience in venture capital, cleantech innovation, and sustainability leadership. He is a former Fortune 100 executive who has founded, led, invested in, and exited dozens of sustainability companies throughout his career.
Keith is spearheading the development of Canada’s first billion-liter sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production infrastructure at SUSTAERO, working alongside Fortune 100 leadership and industry experts to convert wood waste into ASTM D7566-certified SAF at repurposed paper mills.
The company leverages proven, fully scaled technology, utilizing existing infrastructure and low-carbon renewable energy, to address aviation’s annual emissions of over one billion tons of CO2. With the global SAF market projected to grow at a 34% CAGR to $73 billion by 2030, and Canada’s market expected to reach $2.7 billion, SUSTAERO is positioned to capture a leading share while benefiting from British Columbia’s clean energy policy incentives that offer credits worth $350-450 per ton of CO2 avoided, adding over 20% to topline revenue. Read Meet Our Team.
As Cofounder and Board Chair of Foresight Canada since 2013, Keith has grown the organization to a national scale over twelve years, establishing it as Canada’s largest cleantech accelerator with over 1,500 client companies to date. Foresight is a nonprofit Canadian company with a mandate to help entrepreneurs form and accelerate clean technology companies in British Columbia and across Canada. It brings together entrepreneurs with strategic corporate partners, universities, and government agencies to foster the growth of clean technology ecosystems.
Previously, Keith served as Chief Executive Officer of UpperStage.Capital from 2020 to 2025, an ESG-focused buyout and growth investor acquiring profitable North American companies, making a positive impact across sustainability, wellness, and community.
Under his leadership, UpperStage.Capital combined impact investment and operational experience to boost profitable businesses to their next level of success. He also served as President of BASF Venture Capital America from 2006 to 2010, during which he established the Silicon Valley office and managed all direct and fund investments for the 125 million Euro fund, focusing on advanced materials, energy, industrial biotech, and chemistry-related technologies.
Keith spent five years with Mitsubishi Corporation from 2001 to 2006, managing venture investment and business development activities with a specific focus on cleantech. He also served as General Partner of Pangaea Ventures from 2009 to 2020, where he quadrupled capital under management from $40 million to $162 million, tripled the number of Strategic LPs from 7 to 25, and secured Pangaea’s first financial institution as an LP.
During his tenure, Pangaea became recognized as the world leader in advanced materials venture capital. Read Pangaea’s Keith Gillard to chair Vestaron.
Throughout his career, Keith has held numerous board leadership positions, including Chairman of Vestaron Corporation from 2014 to 2019, where he guided the company’s development of peptide-based biopesticides derived from spider venom. He has also served as director of the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (CVCA), Talius, Keela, Hazel Technologies, NewLeaf Symbiotics, Advanced BioNutrition, Sciona, SDC Materials, and other companies.
He served on the advisory boards of ARCH Venture Partners, Chrysalix Venture Capital, and NGEN Partners. Read NewLeaf Symbiotics Raises $7 Million in Series A Financing.
Keith has been a prominent voice in global sustainability discussions, serving as advisor to the World Economic Forum on sustainability and collaborative innovation in chemicals and materials, and speaking at Davos in 2020.
His work with the WEF focused on positioning materials and processes developed by the chemistry industry at the heart of modern functional systems, fostering cross-sectoral collaboration and challenging established boundaries for collaborative discovery. The initiative supported the creation of a roadmap for the chemistry and advanced materials industry to develop collaborative responses to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Read Sustainability becomes central in Davos while the World Economic Forum celebrates its 50th anniversary.
Keith earned his Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature from The University of British Columbia in 1993 and studied Japanese at UBC from 2002 to 2004. In the 1990s, he was a serial entrepreneur in software and media, beginning his career in investment banking, where he structured lower-middle-market mergers and acquisitions, as well as manufacturing technology joint ventures with China.
Currently, Keith serves as a venture partner with Pioneera Ventures, a voting committee member of Canada's Best Private Boards, and a mentor with the Scotiabank Women Initiative.
Keith is the coauthor of Inside The Minds: Best Practices for Energy Venture Capital which shares insights on best practices in the energy venture capital sector. His contributions to the field have been recognized through numerous speaking engagements at prestigious venues and various international conferences.
Outside of his professional endeavors, Keith is an accomplished musician and producer, having led Fidgital Digital Co. since 1999. The band won the 2004 Canadian Independent Music Award for Favourite Electronica Artist/Band and was nominated again in 2009. Fidgital achieved numerous Canadian college chart successes, including #1 on the RPM charts in 2002 and #17 on the RPM charts in the US in 2008.
The band released four full-length albums, two EPs, and a remix album before rebranding as Hollowlove in 2019, and subsequently released an award-winning and internationally charting album. Read Everything Falls In Line by Hollowlove.
Keith resides in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where he is a high-energy father of three and an avid cyclist. His diverse background, spanning Fortune 100 corporate leadership, venture capital, entrepreneurship, and the creative arts, has positioned him as a unique voice in the sustainability and cleantech sectors, with an extensive international network and close relationships throughout multinational organizations and industry leaders across North America, Asia, and Europe.
Visit his LinkedIn profile and Foresight CAC profile. Follow him on X.