About us:

John Cooke, LakeSaver Captain and co-founder

 After a building an award-winning Home and Building Inspection Business in Caledon Ontario, John, along with a partner, founded an engineering company specializing in Building Conditions Inspections, Energy Audits and Phase 1 Environmental Assessments. The company was awarded the AmeriSpec of Canada franchisee licenses in Brampton, Caledon, Guelph, Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge, ON. In 2000, John joined ServiceMaster of Canada as Business Leader for AmeriSpec of Canada where he led the franchise network made up of 70 franchised locations across Canada to five consecutive years of record growth.  In 2006 John and his wife, Nadine and their two kids, Chloe and Elliott, moved to Ottawa where John purchased ServiceMaster of Ottawa, a company that has now provided Emergency Restoration Services to over 40,000 customers in the Nation’s Capital.  In 2008, ServiceMaster of Ottawa was named the Mid-Market Business of the Year by the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce. 

In August of 2009, John became a partner in AusCan Developments Inc. with his brother in law Ian Eckersley. Aside from completing Infill projects, AusCan was awarded the Franchise license for Bin There Dump That, a waste disposal services company offering waste removal services that take away most anything that the municipal trash handler at the curb will not.  Being environmentally responsible is high on the list of priorities at Auscan Developments Inc. In 2018, Bin There Dump That of Ottawa was honored to be the recipient of The Award of Excellence by the companies Franchisor. 

In April 2013, John, Nadine, Chloe and Elliott had the opportunity to spend an evening with Dr. Jane Goodall in their home in Kanata Ontario.  Alongside a team of amazing people, they helped raise almost $40,000 for the Jane Goodall Institute.  Dr. Goodall challenged the small group that evening to do the right thing every single day and that every single person doing one good thing every day can make a difference.   Inspired and challenged directly  by  Dr. Goodall to do more, John set out to find a project that would make a difference. Developing and building Blockaid and the Blockaid LakeSaver   is the right thing to do and we will make a difference in our effort to save lakes affected by Eurasian Milfoil.

Rob Perrins, Lake Saver designer and co-founder

 Rob Perrins provides the leadership to AbstractSys. He is a Professional Engineer with over 30 years’ experience in;

• product design and commercialization
• project management
• strategic business analysis
• process improvement
• quality system development
• manufacturing engineering

 AbstractSys Inc. is an engineering firm with extensive experience in development, project management and product commercialization. They will be involved with the research, development activities and commercialization of the LakeSaver.

Rob has 2 patents related to the nuclear industry and 2 other pending patents, one for the LakeSaver (shared with John and Ian).  Some of his past projects include;

• an allergen challenge facility in Ottawa, used for allergen drug testing for large groups up to 100 participants. This leading-edge technology included the design and fabrication of a computer controlled allergen dispensing unit. The unit utilizes laser particle counters to measure and control the room allergen density to within tight tolerances.
• manufacturing equipment and industrial equipment
• a number of industrial gamma sterilization facilitates installed in various global locations
• cobalt/gamma radiation cancer therapy equipment
• a fire rescue vehicle for the city of Ottawa
• a number of military prototypes for the old LETE facility

IAN ECKERSLEY 1ST MATE

It is with great sadness to announce that shortly after the inaugural voyage of the BlockAid LakeSaver, Ian Eckersley passed away. His enthusiasm, work ethic and humour will always be part of us. Ian was passionate about his family, rugby, enjoyed cottage life, golfing, and revelled in a good bargain (Eckernomics). In recent years his lifelong love of the water led him to scuba diving with his mates and that was how he spent his last hours.  Ian was a significant contributor to Block Aid and was instrumental in the company’s award of an IRAP grant from the National Research Council to design, develop and build the LakeSaver and Burlap deployment systems.