Professional Execution Services.
Our number one goal at Kanopy Group is to ensure our clients safely deliver on their capital projects while maximizing their return on investment. Kanopy Group offers professional services to manage capital investment projects. We specialize in developing, planning and safely delivering complex projects in the most demanding and regulated environments. To be successful, we only hire organically within our own network. We have built a team of highly motivated experts who have the experience to meet our clientsʼcommercial, technical and quality requirements. Kanopy Group brings instant value to any project by deploying a team-first mentality and a performance-based approach. At a high level, the services we offer are:
Project Management
Schedule Management
Cost Control
Construction Administration
Project Engineering
Commissioning & Qualification
Automation
The name "Kanopy" derives from our founder’s passion for skydiving. Traditionally, the term canopy refers to the “parachute”, which is the device that safely delivers jumpers back to Earth. It is a rare combination of being able to take the extremely dangerous idea of jumping out of an airplane and being able to balance it with an equally high degree of risk management. It is a unique style of balance that can be mirrored in the professional landscape.
OUR SERVICES
Overview
We specialize as Owner’s Reps, bringing Professional Execution Services to very complex, highly regulated and fast paced capital investment projects in the Commercial GMP landscape. Leading small and large scale capital construction projects for Biopharma clients requires a great deal of risk management, technical understanding and managing change. It also requires 100% commitment to regulatory and commercial requirements. At Kanopy Group, we also have a passion for working with great teams because let’s face it, that is the most important factor to successfully delivering projects. Our team of professional Project and Construction Administrators understand that building highly performing teams is crucial to success, which is the reason we place such emphasis on superior talent and trustworthy partners. Whether it is for Procurement, Engineering, Design, Integration, Construction, Qualification or Regulatory filing, the team at Kanopy Group will develop cross-functional teams that work effectively with all stakeholders, including Finance, Sourcing, Operations, Engineering, Automation and Quality. As Owners and Client Reps, our professionals have enough industry experience to know that each new project schedule will be more aggressive than the previous one. Our clients have the most demanding timelines and we continue to meet their milestones and budgetary requirements. Our PM’s and CM’s quickly mobilize resources to prioritize immediate challenges while strategizing the mid and long range execution plan. We also coordinate all vendors and contractors around on-going manufacturing and production, ensuring that the work will be completed with minimal impact to Operations.
Overview
Kanopy Group prides itself as the premier project controls company in the Life Sciences industry, which is one fast paced capital project followed by an ever faster paced capital project – our timelines and milestones never ease up. We understand that speed-to-market or tight shutdown windows are not the exception, but the rule. The greatest tool we have as project leaders in this industry is a well-developed and detailed schedule. Kanopy Group was born out of a passion for excellent project management and the ability to deliver on our schedules, hence the reason we place tremendous emphasis on Project Controls and Scheduling. The partnership between Project Controls professionals and Project Managers needs to be very strong in order to successfully deliver complex capital projects. Our team of Schedulers and Cost Controllers understand the value and importance of strong relationships within each team as they develop their schedules and build their budgets.
Overview
Our team of Project Engineers and Automation Specialists understand Biopharma core competencies of bulk drug substance upstream and downstream processes, as well as drug product filling and packaging. Just as important as understanding bioprocesses, our technical team members also appreciate and lead Facility and Utility improvement projects. Our Project Engineers take the initiative to ensure a robust understanding of product quality attributes, utility and cleaning standards, and critical control parameters when developing user and functional requirements. These requirements are the bedrock for front end design and planning, and engaging with service providers and equipment vendors. A strong adherence to technical requirements carries through until qualification, when CQV teams challenge each system. Our Automation Leads will drive the design, testing and integration of the most intricate configurations and setups for process and building automation projects. Our team is able to continue to be successful due to their deep understanding of the industry’s controls landscape: every project is a commercial and mission-critical effort. As with any stakeholder, our technical leads rely on strong partnerships with project leadership, Operators, Maintenance, service providers, vendors, contractors and validation teams. Through these close collaborations our team is able to bridge the technical needs of the process within the commercial limitations of the project.
Overview
Simply designing and installing impressive equipment and production systems will never be enough to realize the return on your capital investment, which is the reason our team of CQV Leads take projects across the finish line. As the Life Sciences industry has evolved over the past few decades, so have the regulatory requirements. With each new requirement or government regulation, the industry has continued to slip in their Commissioning, Qualification and Validation execution. We know that in order to hit Qualification milestones, the planning starts up front during Engineering. Our team partners with our Scheduling specialists to build detailed, accurate and realistic execution plans. We also work very closely with our Quality partners to implement a robust C&Q Plan, and that CQV vendors develop protocols that meet client standards. We ensure that vendors are properly staffed with qualified resources to meet project milestones. As with design and construction, C&Q planning is done on a system-by-system basis so the team can stagger execution based on lead times and priorities.
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Our client list includes the world’s most successful and demanding Biopharmaceutical Manufacturers. It is not enough for us to simply provide our clients with staffing resources. To meet their expectations, we ensure that our team members provide a high degree of professional service. Our existing clients request most team members directly by name, which is a sign of mutual respect and great value. Kanopy Group’s repeat business is remarkable due to our continued track record of success in safely delivering projects on time and within budget.
CLIENT TESTIMONIALS
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JOIN OUR TEAM
Motivation
Kanopy Group was created as a result of our passion to successfully manage large and complex projects, while enjoying the dynamic and fun team environment. Our team developed organically through this shared passion as we recognize our individual strengths through close collaboration on all of our projects. We strive to find these strengths in all team members regardless of the client or project type. Kanopy Group is always looking for highly motivated professionals who are seeking their next big opportunity. Our project executions services include: Project Administration, Project Controls, Scheduling, Project Engineering, Automation and Validation.
Vision
Our founders started Kanopy Group with the intent of capturing an entrepreneurial spirit borne out of a desire to be free and do better. Too often top tier talent finds themselves hindered by frustration due to corporate bureaucracy and poor compensation models. A core tenant at Kanopy Group is to reward exceptional talent with equal compensation and respect. That translates directly to incentive-based compensation opportunities such as partnership, profit-sharing and commission. We set a high bar when it comes to hiring because we aim to employ staff for their entire career: a professional marriage. If our staff are not worried about compensation or management, then we enable them to focus on their work with their clients.
People
We want our team to be proud of Kanopy Group, so we treat everyone as equal partners and constantly seek feedback from the team. We check our egos at the “virtual door.” We will stick to our core principles and values as we continue to grow. Employing a team of highly respected professionals means that we can keep our overhead low by not micro-managing and adding unnecessary costs, and we are able to return that in the form of compensation and benefits.
Benefits
We offer full benefit packages, including healthcare and retirement plan options. We know that everyone’s personal and financial situation is different, so we allow everyone to choose their benefit options while pocketing the difference. The founders started Kanopy Group to give exceptional talent the best outlet for their professional efforts, and ultimately treat staff in the same way the founders wish to be treated.
Meet our founders
Kurt Voelker
Kurt is a dedicated business leader, project manager and engineer responsible for leading teams from feasibility through regulatory approval. For over 15 years his career has been exclusive to capital projects for manufacturing biopharmaceutical parenteral products. He has a proven success record driven by delivering results based on a firm understanding of technical and commercial requirements. Kurt couples this with his passion for recognizing and developing talented resources to support high performing project teams. Kurt is currently focusing on leading clients’ critical projects while mentoring and implementing best practices in order to increase execution performance.
Owen Searls
Owen Searls is a Senior Project Controls Specialist with an extensive background in scheduling & planning of large scale Commercial Construction and Bio-pharma Capital Projects. With over $503 Million worth of Bio-pharma work put in place and $2.1 Billion worth of commercial construction planning and scheduling. Owen has worked on a wide variety of projects from Fill Lines and Lyophilizes to Upstream Bulk production creating detailed resource loaded schedules from conceptual design to commissioning/qualification and regulator submission. He has developed several scheduling best practices site standards for clients and offers training in schedule structure creation and execution success.
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OUR LOCATions
Head Office
Regional Offices
