Leadership Profiles

The Windmill Development Group is led by a Board of Directors composed of visionary entrepreneurs who have been successful in a wide range of roles within the green development community. The track record built by these Board members demonstrates our leadership, our consistent adherence to our triple bottom line philosophy and our ability to deliver complex projects.

Jonathan Westeinde

“The sustainability movement has created an unprecedented cycle of innovation in the building industry driving towards less use of natural resources, energy, water and generation of waste in our buildings. The result is healthier buildings with stronger financial fundamentals. We aim to keep Windmill at the front of this movement.”

Jonathan is the founder of Windmill and brings a great deal of experience in corporate strategy, finance and business development as it relates to green development practices. Jonathan has spearheaded a new national consortium that is focused entirely on green building retrofits as part of Ledcor Construction. Prior to founding Windmill, Jonathan was a founding partner of Venbridge, a venture capital services division of Gowlings, one of Canada’s leading law firms. Previously, Jonathan was CEO and founder of LOSC, Inc., a Boston based venture capital firm, and held senior positions with Corel Corporation and Exocom Consulting after completing his MBA.
Jonathan has been actively involved in the evaluation of various innovative technologies and finance structures that enable high performance green buildings to be both innovative and viable. To date, Jonathan has been responsible for the complete oversight of four LEED Platinum mixed-use projects totaling +/- $500M.

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Jonathan is a former board member of the Canada Green Building Council and is active in speaking at conferences and other events to share his green building experience. Jonathan was also the Chair of the Centre for Environmental Cooperation’s Green Building Advisory Group. This is a NAFTA initiative aiming to provide an integrated green building strategy for Canada, USA and Mexico. Currently, Jonathan is a volunteer with various non-profit green building initiatives. Jonathan was recognized as one of the Top 40 under 40 in his hometown of Ottawa, Canada.

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Peter Busby

“At Windmill, we are as committed to design excellence as we are to attaining the highest level of environmental performance in all our projects.The result is high quality architecture and planning that will perform well for decades.”

As Managing Director of Perkins+Will’s Vancouver office, Peter is involved in the design and sustainable direction of each project the firm engages. Peter directs more than 100 employees working on projects internationally and provides sustainable design leadership to the firm’s 23 offices worldwide. Peter is a founder and recent Chair of the Canada Green Building Council. He became a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada in 1997, and in 2005 was invested as a member of the Governor General’s Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian award. In 2008 Peter was conferred an Honorary Doctorate in Science by Ryerson University and in 2011 became a Fellow of the Cascadia Green Building Council.

Jeff Westeinde

“Decreasing the environmental footprint of our built environment is critical to humankind’s continued survival and enjoyment on our planet. Windmill is leading by example in real estate development and proving that greater sustainability is not only achievable, but advantageous on numerous levels.”

Jeff Westeinde is a founding partner of the Windmill Development Group, Canada’s leading sustainable real estate developer. Mr. Westeinde provides his expertise with the selection, remediation and development of brownfield sites in urban areas, a major part of Windmill’s development model.

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Mr. Westeinde is also the Chief Executive Officer of Quantum Murray LP, Canada’s largest environmental decommissioning contractor. Jeff co-founded the Quantum Environmental Group, a national full service environmental remediation and hazardous waste materials management company, in 1992 and championed a merger in 2007 with Murray Demolition, Canada’s largest demolition contractor, to form Quantum Murray LP. Quantum Murray employs over 800 professionals from offices throughout British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario. Quantum Murray has been recognized as one of Canada’s fastest growing companies and one of the Top 50 Employers in Canada.

Mr. Westeinde is an active investor and entrepreneur in both the cleantech and real estate sectors with investments in solar energy technologies that promote the beneficial re-use of waste and significant developable real estate holdings.

Mr. Westeinde has been distinguished as Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young, named one of Canada’s Top 40 under 40 by the Globe and Mail, and won the Young Alumni Award from the University of Western Ontario.

Jeff is active on numerous charitable, civic and industry initiatives including serving as the chairman of the Ottawa Center for Regional Innovation (OCRI), is on the Community Services Cabinet for the United Way
of Ottawa and is on the Algonquin College Foundation Board.

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