Where are they now? Catching up with our past Clean50 Emerging Leaders (Part Three)

Each year, Clean50 recognizes 20 Emerging Leaders across sectors who are pushing Canada’s sustainability transition forward. This week is our final installment of our “Where Are They Now” series, which highlights honourees driving impact in ESG leadership, clean finance, wellness innovation, housing decarbonization, sustainable policy, and climate-positive manufacturing. From building global networks of microfactories, to shaping clean-energy law, to embedding ESG into business and finance, their work shows how recognition can open doors, sharpen focus, and scale solutions. We’re proud to have supported their journeys—and prouder still to amplify the impact they’re making today.

Dustyn Lanz, 2016 Winner

Prior Role: Director, Research and Communications, Responsible Investment Association

Current Role: CEO, OxProx and Founder, Everlead
Dustyn has been a leading force in mainstreaming responsible investment and ESG in Canada. Named an Emerging Leader in 2016, he became CEO of the Responsible Investment Association in 2018. He spearheaded the Canadian Investor Statement on Diversity & Inclusion in 2020, uniting 45 institutional investors managing over $4 trillion in assets against racism, and co-developed Climate Engagement Canada in 2021, a coalition of institutional investors managing over $6 trillion in assets pushing high-emitting corporations toward net zero. His body of work earned him a Globe and Mail Changemaker award in 2021. Today, Dustyn is CEO of OxProx, a proxy voting analytics firm building the world’s first public database of voting records to promote transparency and accountability. He is also developing Everlead, a venture delivering cost-effective leadership training for new and aspiring leaders.

Recognition from my peers helped fuel my professional growth and supported my drive to make a positive impact in Canada’s business community.

Roya Aghighi, 2025 Winner

Role: CEO and Co-Founder, Lite-1 Microbial Colour Ltd.

Despite only winning a Clean50 last year, Roya Aghighi has already led Lite-1 to scale exponentially since then. In May 2025, Lite-1 Microbial Colour Ltd. won the WebSummit Pitch competition in Vancouver among 1,000+ international startups, elevating their visibility on the global stage and validating the disruptive potential of their technology. Their team has since doubled in size, adding exceptional talent across science, engineering, and business, accelerating R&D and strengthening their ability to execute at scale. They have built a strong pipeline of international customers, with pilots and trials already underway across multiple industries. Additionally, they successfully closed their investment round and secured non-dilutive grants, providing both the resources and validation to accelerate Lite-1’s path to market.

 Winning a Clean50 Award has helped open doors to new investors, strengthened our ability to recruit world-class talent, and supported us in securing non-dilutive funding opportunities. In short, Clean50 didn’t just celebrate our achievements—it elevated our platform, expanded our network, and accelerated our trajectory.

Felix Böck, 2018 Winner

Role: Founder & CEO, ChopValue

Since 2018, Felix Böck of ChopValue has scaled their microfactory model approach which enables decentralized, localized production on a global scale. Today, there are more than 80 Microfactory locations operational or in development across 9 countries, including Canada, the US, Japan, the UK, Mexico, and Indonesia. Their urban harvesting approach has diverted over 200 million chopsticks from landfill and transformed them into engineered wooden design alternatives for homes, businesses and more. Earlier this year, ChopValue introduced their parent brand, the Microfactory Venture Platform (MVP), dedicated to scaling climate-positive materials and products wherever possible. They have continued to expand their technology by franchising their business model and training their partners in market-specific sourcing, manufacturing and design. By rethinking overlooked resources and enabling distributed manufacturing, ChopValue is proving that climate leadership can start small but scale globally.

It reminded us that we were not alone in pushing for a better way, and that leadership in climate innovation can come from every sector, every material, and even something as overlooked as a chopstick.

Stefany Nieto, 2021 Winner

Prior Role: Founder & CEO, Green Iglu

Current Role: EVP Growth, resbiotic

Since 2021, Stefany Nieto has leaned further into the wellness space. After leaving Green Iglu in 2021, she became a Founder and COO at Gwella, a company within the psychedelic space devoted to delivering mushroom-based products, content and tools. In 2023, she delved deeper into the microbiome space with resbiotic, first as a VP of Operations, and since 2025, as the Executive Vice President of Growth. resbiotic is a probiotic supplement brand that creates science-backed formula that communicate with the gut in order to create long-lasting positive impact in target areas, including the lungs and metabolic system. Their formulas are science-backed, certified, and clinically researched.

Winning the Clean50 award helped establish my career in the wellness industry as a leader with a genuine interest in bettering our communities.

Kathryn Bakos, 2023 Winner

Prior Role: Director, Climate Finance and Science, Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, University of Waterloo

Current Role: Managing Director, Finance and Resilience, Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, University of Waterloo

Climate change is increasing risks to people, infrastructure, and ecosystems, and Kathryn Bakos has made advancing resilience her mission. Since receiving her Clean50 Emerging Leader award in 2023, she has become Managing Director of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, where she leads national efforts to strengthen resilience through multi-sector collaboration, climate-informed financial strategies, government advising, and public outreach. She is pioneering the world’s first study on the mental health impacts of flooding using anonymized life and health insurance data, co-authoring a national report on shoreline vulnerability, and developing tools to help municipalities deploy flood risk solutions. Kathryn was also elected Chair of the Ontario Biodiversity Council and serves on multiple boards and advisory committees.

Since receiving the Clean50 award, I have leveraged every opportunity to expand my impact—bridging research, policy, and action to build a more sustainable and climate-resilient Canada.

Arman Mottaghi, 2023 Winner

Role: CEO, Properate

Making homes healthier and more energy efficient is critical to reducing Canada’s emissions, and since winning his Clean50 Emerging Leader Award in 2023, Arman Mottaghi has been advancing that mission at scale. Under his leadership, Properate has assessed over one million homes across Canada, helping households and governments identify practical, cost-effective upgrades. A key milestone was launching Properate Homes to power the BC Home Energy Planner, giving every homeowner in the province access to tailored energy models, savings estimates, and rebate information. Now, Arman is preparing to launch Properate Stride, a groundbreaking CSA-F280 certified tool that leverages LiDAR scans and 3D models to modernize energy audits for contractors and advisors.

Winning a Clean50 Award gave both me and Properate more visibility and credibility, which opened doors to conversations I would not have been part of otherwise.

Kate Huibers, 2024 Winner

Prior Role: Manager, ESG, Tru Earth Environmental Products Co.

Current Role: Head of ESG, Tru Earth Environmental Products Co.

Embedding sustainability into business strategy is vital for lasting change, and Kate Huibers has built her career around that mission. Since her 2024 Clean50 Emerging Leader recognition, she has advanced to Head of ESG at Tru Earth, a multinational B Corporation. She expanded the company’s donation matching program, raising its impact to more than 55 million eco-strips donated worldwide, while also launching the Tru Earth Impact Loyalty Program to connect customer purchases with measurable outcomes such as plastic saved and eco-strips donated. Beyond these initiatives, Kate has embedded ESG across departments, making sustainability part of product development, marketing, operations, and customer experience. She also lends her expertise as a member of World Vision’s Corporate Engagement Advisory Council.

Some of the relationships I formed through Clean50 have turned into lasting collaborations and friendships that continue to shape my perspective and growth…beyond the network, the recognition gave me a stronger platform to advocate for sustainability within my organization and the broader community.

Mostafa Saad, 2024 Winner

Prior Role: Public Scholar and Researcher at  Concordia University 

Current Role: Assistant Professor at Université Laval 

Climate progress depends on rigorous research, effective outreach, and, critically, turning complex theory into real-world action. Since his Clean50 recognition, Mostafa has focused on that translation. At the Ottawa Retrofit Accelerator, he worked hands-on with building owners across the National Capital Region, demystifying retrofits and guiding the adoption of cutting-edge, low-carbon solutions that turn properties into models of efficiency. To scale his impact, he recently moved into academia, mentoring the next generation of innovators. His teaching equips students with holistic skills: designing high-performance buildings, creatively adapting existing structures, and systematically retrofitting cities for a resilient future, building the skilled workforce this transition needs. The Clean50 Summit was pivotal: engaging peers from diverse fields broadened his perspective, strengthened conviction in his work, and underscored the power of cross-sector collaboration to build a sustainable future. 

The Clean50 summit was a pivotal experience that went beyond simply reinforcing my beliefs, as it fundamentally expanded my perspective. Engaging with fellow awardees, each tackling sustainability from a unique angle, was a monumental moment…I left not only with a stronger conviction in my work but also with a renewed appreciation for the power of cross-sector collaboration in building a sustainable future.

Diana Virgovicova, 2025 Winner

Role: Co-founder & CEO at Xatoms 

Solving the global water crisis takes technology that scales, and trust with communities and industry. Since Diana’s Clean50 recognition, Xatoms has closed a $3M pre-seed round, grown to 11 team members (adding four full-time roles to strengthen technical and field capacity), and engaged 200+ stakeholders from industrial partners and Indigenous communities to municipal leaders and NGOs. The company is moving toward large-scale pilot deployments in 2025–26, while actively seeking partnerships and clients in North America with mining companies, vertical-farming operators, and dyehouses. Xatoms also joined the Google for Startups AI for Nature Accelerator and earned recognition including first place at SXSW Innovative World Tech and the She Pitches award at TiECon Silicon Valley, with international media coverage. The Clean50 Award provided credibility and opened doors, to investors, advisors, collaborators, mentors, and partners, strengthening fundraising, recruiting, and the confidence to scale.  

For us, Clean50 was more than an award — it became part of the foundation that helped transform Xatoms from an early-stage idea into a growing company with global pilots, industrial partnerships, and the backing to scale.