Our Team
Nicole Jardin, P.Eng. - CEO
Nicole’s drive for success came at a young age growing up in a family of eight competitive swimmers. As treasurer and president of her high school, one could also say that leadership skills came naturally. Her love of teaching and helping others also developed early as a swim instructor and lifeguard while she was studying Building Engineering at Concordia University in Montréal.
After graduation, Nicole worked for 6 years in a forensic investigative role on project dispute avoidance and claims resolution cases for Revay and Associates and High-Point Rendel. In this role, she gained experience working on a wide range of projects from convention centres to hospitals, stadiums, bridges and even naval jetties. Nicole learned early on in her career just how critical project controls and management tools are to both project and corporate success.
In 1995 Emerald Associates was founded when Nicole was inspired to put her drive, leadership, organizational, and teaching skills to good use by helping companies use innovative and integrated software tools to improve their project based program management skills.
Emerald’s first clients were located in Eastern Canada and included: Public Works and Government Services (PWGSC), CIBC, Babcock & Wilcox, Sims Moelich Associates, The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), and Ontario Hydro Nuclear (Ontario Power Generation).
When the company relocated its headquarters to Calgary in 1997, Emerald expanded its team and broadened its reach to assist clients across North America and overseas. During this time Nicole continued leading some of the most complex integrated program development projects in oil and gas for Glencore (Caracal Energy), CNRL, Pembina, Encana, Devon, Trident Explorations and Nexen. She also lead projects for governmental teams like Alberta infrastructure, MMSD, Wood Buffalo and other industry leading clients such as Bruce Power, Ontario Power Generation, Direct Energy, CPRail, Tarpon Structures and City of Hope. She has been instrumental in designing business processes, automations, and integrations between Oracle Primavera P6, Primavera Contract Management, Oracle Portfolio Management and Primavera Unifier to INDUS PassPort, JDE and QByte, AFENavigator, Wellview, SiteView, PVR, Prism, TimeContol, Jonas, Livelink, SmartPlant Foundation, SAP, QuickBooks.
With over 25 years of project management, project controls, and dispute avoidance expertise, Nicole’s approach emphasizes practical and streamlined solutions that get the most from the client’s team ensuring long-term client success.
Ian Nicholson, P. Eng. – VP Solutions
As our VP Solutions and a Lead Risk and Implementation Specialist, Ian leads Emerald’s functional consulting group. With over 30 years of international experience in varied fields and roles from manufacturing, heavy civil construction, pharmaceutical plant construction, hospital projects and oil and gas capital and turnaround projects, Ian brings a wealth of project knowledge to all of our clients.
A visionary in the world of CAPEX, maintenance and turnaround planning processes, Ian has lead many of our large clients through their integration projects between ERP/EAM systems and Primavera products. Some of his integration success stories include Suncor Energy SAP to Primavera integration, BP Maximo to P6 integration, implementation of P6 at the Ontario Power Authority as well as the integration of Primavera Contract Manager with Oracle Financials at Capital Health Authority and Vancouver’s Rapid Transit Project 2000. Other major clients include Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, Shell Canada and Shell Global Solutions. Ian has conducted Monte-Carlo risk analysis on CAPEX and turnaround projects for Shell Canada, Suncor Energy, Husky Energy and Bruce Power. He believes that successful Monte Carlo application is a process, not just a tool and has spoken at a number of events on the correct application of risk analysis.
When not assisting clients with their projects, Ian unwinds by riding his BMW motorcycle, listening to music or dragging his kids on long hikes.
Paul Jardin – VP Technology
Paul is our VP of Technology and has been the key visionary for all of Emerald’s tools and integration developments since 1995. Paul has the uncanny ability to find solutions where others only see roadblocks. This skill may have come to him at a young age, where Paul grew up as the only boy in a family of eight kids; dealing with 7 sisters daily – that is a challenge. Sports were Paul’s outlet where he excelled both at the provincial level in baseball and national level as a swimmer. Paul knows what drive, dedication and commitment mean to success and he brings them with him to all Emerald projects.
Paul is our VP of Technology and has been the key visionary for all of Emerald’s tools and integration developments since 1995. Paul has the uncanny ability to find solutions where others only see roadblocks. This skill may have come to him at a young age, where Paul grew up as the only boy in a family of eight kids; dealing with 7 sisters daily – that is a challenge. Sports were Paul’s outlet where he excelled both at the provincial level in baseball and national level as a swimmer. Paul knows what drive, dedication and commitment mean to success and he brings them with him to all Emerald projects.
Paul keeps Emerald’s team on the leading edge with integrations, conversion utilities, add-ons, enhancements and automations for all Oracle Primavera tools and Oracle Red Stack products. With experience working with over 60 systems to date with more being added to the count on a daily basis, you want Paul on your team to ensure success.
Some highlights from Paul’s experience with integrations include INDUS PassPort for Ontario Power Generation and Bruce Power, JDE for Encana and WillBros, Maximo and SAP for Suncor, Oracle Financials for Capital Health, Lawson Financials for Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District and Storms and Cascade for Connecticut Light & Power. His Conversion experience includes over 500 schedules into Primavera from Immpower, CASP, Artemis Open Plan, P3 and P6. Document management and cost control experience includes Livelink, Sharepoint and Prism.