The Team
Joy Schmidt
Joy is the president of Xero Flor. While working for Xero Flor at the German headquarters, Joy oversaw many international projects and was instrumental in realizing the largest green roof in the world – a 10.4-acre extensive green roof on Ford Motor Company’s Rouge Assembly Plant in Dearborn, Michigan in 2002.
Under Joy’s leadership, Xero Flor Canada has successfully installed a great number of green roofs in varied climate zones, in five provinces across Canada. Joy is active in the green roof industry as she frequently volunteers to make presentations to organizations to provide education and promote public awareness of green roofs. She was involved in green roof workshops at the City of Toronto in 2005- 2006, which eventually led to the City of Toronto’s green roof incentive pilot program.
Karen Liu, Ph.D Research and Development, North America
Dr. Karen K. Y. Liu is the director of research and development in North America for Xero Flor International.
Karen has been conducting green roof research since 2000 when she was a research officer at the National Research Council’s (NRC) Institute for Research in Construction in Ottawa, Canada. She has established the field facility dedicated to green roof research at the NRC and conducted several green roof research field studies across Canada to study the climate sensitivity of the technology. Karen has also led the green roof research team at British Columbia Institute of Technology’s (BCIT) Centre for the Advancement of Green Roof Technology to improve the engineering performance of green roofs in B.C. Karen obtained her Ph.D. from the Department of Chemicall Engineering and Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto.
Sasha Aguilera, Operations Manager
A graduate of the University of Toronto with an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies, Sasha has established herself as a leading consultant successfully working with engineers, architects, developers and contractors across Canada providing green roof specifications for retrofits and new construction.
Sasha has appeared in features in the Toronto Star, on the HGTV Green Force, in the Mississauga News, Toronto Community News and on Breakfast Television.
Steven Hernandez, Irrigation Consultant
With over 12 years of extensive irrigation experience in industrial, commercial and residential design and installations, Steven is one of Canada's leading green roof irrigation consultants.
Steven has earned his designations through the Irrigation Association as a Certified Irrigation Contractor, also Certified Irrigation Technician from Landscape Ontario.
Currently, Steven is a faculty member at Humber College in Horticultural Studies teaching Irrigation Design.
Doug van Alphen, Production Supervisor
Doug runs the field operations at Xero Flor's Ontario production site and assists in green roof installations across Canada.
Jean-Jacques Laplace, Distributeur Quebec
Working from his Montreal headquarters, Jean-Jacques oversees Xero Flor’s green roof field production in Quebec, and provides installation and distribution services for all of the province of Quebec in both French and English.
Peter Schmidt, Administration
Cristina Senjug, Communications Director
