Damien Steel’s brief but impactful leadership at Deep Sky offers a revealing lens into the dynamic Canadian climate technology sector, where innovation and ambition meet the formidable task of combating climate change through carbon removal. Co-founded by Frederic Lalonde, known for his role as CEO of Hopper, Deep Sky has emerged swiftly as a key player within the direct air and ocean carbon capture industry. Its mission to commercialize technologies that actively reduce atmospheric CO2 concentrations situates the company at the fertile intersection between cutting-edge science, investment influx, and the urgent global drive toward sustainability.
Steel’s entry as CEO in 2023 was no coincidence. With over two decades of experience in venture capital and technology development, highlighted by his previous role as global head of OMERS Ventures—a Canadian pension fund’s venture investment arm managing billions in assets—his leadership signaled a deliberate effort to scale Deep Sky’s operations and accelerate its growth. This transition from venture capital to hands-on operational guidance embodies a broader trend in climate tech where seasoned investors take the helm of startups to hasten the journey from pilot projects to market-ready solutions.
One core thread in Steel’s tenure is Deep Sky’s pioneering work on Canada’s first commercial direct air capture (DAC) facility, located in Alberta. Designed with the capacity to capture up to 3,000 tons of CO2 annually, the pilot not only represents a tangible carbon removal installation but also functions as an innovation testbed, simultaneously trialing up to fourteen different DAC units. This ambitious setup underscores a strategic intent to streamline and optimize carbon capture technologies, aiming ultimately for gigaton-scale deployment. The company’s progress in locking down a 10-year carbon credit purchase agreement with industry heavyweights like RBC and Microsoft demonstrates both market confidence and the increasing appetite among corporations to back carbon removal financially, a crucial step for industry viability and investor attraction.
Navigating the nascent carbon removal industry presents numerous challenges, vividly illustrated through Steel’s experience. Shifting from a venture capitalist’s perspective to CEO of a startup on the front lines of climate innovation demanded a balancing act across technological uncertainty, capital-intensive project rollouts, and evolving regulatory frameworks. Steel openly acknowledged the “ultimate challenge” this represented, emphasizing the need for operational rigor and strategic foresight. Adding to the complexity were questions around potential conflicts of interest due to Steel’s simultaneous involvement with OMERS Ventures, Hopper, and Deep Sky—relationships that sparked scrutiny within the Canadian tech community. Nonetheless, his choice to maintain an advisory role at OMERS while leading Deep Sky was a deliberate strategy to sustain critical industry connections and facilitate ongoing capital and collaborative innovation flow.
Another layer of insight from Steel’s leadership concerns the essential role of collaboration and ecosystem building in scaling climate technologies. Success in this field extends beyond breakthrough technology alone; it hinges on cultivating robust partnerships spanning corporate sectors, investors, governmental bodies, and research networks. The intertwining of Deep Sky’s ambitions with backing from influential investors, including Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures, signals the growing recognition that meaningful carbon removal demands well-coordinated public-private cooperation and substantial financial commitments. Steel’s tenure, therefore, reflects not only a technological endeavor but also a strategic orchestration of alliances crucial for the industry’s maturation.
Personal resilience and adaptability are recurring themes when reflecting on Steel’s journey. Leading a company pioneering direct air capture in such a fledgling market tested his ability to manage uncertainty and pivot as necessary. His departure from the CEO role, cited as due to personal reasons, arrives at a pivotal juncture as Deep Sky transitions from piloting to expansion and commercialization phases. This shift spotlights the intense pressures that executive leaders face in climate ventures, where every decision partially shapes the potential for scalable environmental impact amid unpredictable technical and financial landscapes.
Yet the foundation laid under Steel’s guidance leaves Deep Sky well-positioned to forge ahead. His focus on sustained ambition and perseverance despite market volatility captures a vital truth in climate entrepreneurship: progress is often a marathon, not a sprint, requiring persistent dedication through difficult terrain. Deep Sky’s ongoing commitment to developing economically and environmentally sustainable carbon removal solutions stands as a testament to the company’s and Canada’s growing influence in the global climate technology sphere.
Ultimately, Steel’s chapter at Deep Sky encapsulates the broader evolution of climate tech startups as they strive to bridge the gap between early experiments and scalable industrial solutions. His tenure showcases how expertise from venture capital can translate effectively into operational leadership propelled by a mission-driven urgency. It also highlights the critical importance of multi-stakeholder collaboration and adaptive leadership in navigating an industry marked by high complexity and enormous potential impact. As Deep Sky moves forward under new leadership, the groundwork established offers a solid launching pad from which to tackle the substantial challenges ahead, striving to transform innovative carbon capture technologies into vital tools for climate mitigation on a meaningful scale.
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