THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE WORK
Solara is built on a simple premise: clients deserve senior expertise from day one, not after the introductory meetings are done. Every engagement is led personally by one of our partners. No hand-offs to junior staff. No managing from a distance.
That commitment starts here.
Michael Kim — Partner
Michael has spent over 20 years doing the kind of operational work that actually moves the needle, not theorizing about it. He's the person clients want in the room when the problem is real, the stakes are high, and the answer isn't obvious yet.
His focus is on building the systems, tools, and leadership behaviors that produce lasting performance improvement. No quick fixes. No dependency on outside expertise. Capability that stays in the organization after Solara leaves.
Michael holds a BA in Applied Economics and a BSc in Computer Science from Queen's University, and an International MBA from the Schulich School of Business.
Gregory Gonzalez — Partner
Greg brings 25 years of experience to the problems most organizations have been trying to solve for years: the persistent inefficiencies, the misaligned teams, the performance gaps that survive every previous attempt at improvement.
He's a builder of high-performing teams and a straight talker. Clients trust him because he tells them what he sees, not what's comfortable, and because his track record backs it up.
Greg holds a BA in Mathematics from York University and an MBA from IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Jenny Ridge
Jenny brings extensive consulting experience working with some of North America’s largest power utilities. She specializes in operational excellence and continuous improvement, helping clients identify inefficiencies, build lasting internal capability, and deliver measurable results at scale. Her recent engagements have supported $158.85M in productivity savings.
Jenny operates effectively at every level of an organization, advising executives on strategy and framework design while remaining close enough to operations to understand what works in the field. She is known for her ability to lead complex, cross-functional programs in unionized environments, and for building the people-side of change as rigorously as the process side.
A certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and Prosci Change Practitioner, Jenny combines deep operational expertise with the credentials and rigor that complex, regulated environments demand. She holds an M.Sc. in Geomatics from the University of Waterloo and B.Sc. in Environmental Science from McMaster University.
Luis Herrera
Luis brings over 20 years of experience in operations, organizational development, and process optimization to Solara's client engagements. He moves comfortably between strategy and execution — rigorous and data-driven, with a track record of building the cross-functional alignment that makes improvement stick.
His work spans enterprise transformation, P&L accountability, and operating-model design across North America, Latin America, and Europe, with engagements ranging from multi-site field operations to centralized shared-service build-outs. He holds a PMP, a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, and a Master's degree in International Development, and works fluently in English, French, and Spanish.