Entrepreneur of the Year 2025: Oxygen8 founder James Dean is bringing clean air to the Pentagon—and beyond

For almost 25 years, serial entrepreneur James Dean has been spinning big ideas into Canadian technologies.

In 2001, Dean became co-CEO of GreenLight Power, which manufactures technology for sustainable energy solutions. Four years later, he created Vancouver-based dPoint Technologies (now Core Energy Recovery Solutions), specializing in advanced membrane technology that controls heat and humidity in energy recovery ventilation systems. Dean’s success with dPoint led to his selection as an EY Entrepreneur of the Year Pacific Region finalist in 2013.

In 2020, he was back at it with Oxygen8, a Vancouver-based company that’s working to improve the health of buildings with smart ventilation systems. It uses the same membrane-based heat- and humidity-control technology Dean worked on at dPoint, advanced through a strategic partnership with global HVAC giant Daikin.

At a time when an increasing number of buildings are becoming well-insulated and airtight (which is great for energy efficiency but bad for fresh air, according to Dean), Oxygen8 transforms indoor environments using low amounts of energy consumption—with zero greenhouse gas emissions. Its compact white boxes typically sit in ceilings or small mechanical rooms, with fans to draw fresh air in and exhaust stale air out.

Since the launch of the business, Oxygen8 systems have been installed in more than 2,000 buildings across Canada and the U.S. “One of our customers said, ‘What we love about Oxygen8 is we can fit them in the armpits of the building,’” shares Dean.

About 60 percent of the company’s projects today are retrofits for existing spaces that are upgrading their ventilation systems, like the Empire State Building in New York and a wing of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

In 2024, Deloitte Canada recognized Oxygen8 as the country’s fastest-growing clean-tech company, with 6,610 percent three-year revenue growth.

Today, it runs with 230 employees and three manufacturing sites in B.C.—two in Burnaby and one in East Vancouver—serving schools, retail businesses, offices and senior care facilities. That includes Apple stores, a student residence at the UBC Okanagan campus and the George Derby Centre in Burnaby.

“It’s been crazy when you think about it,” Dean says, reflecting on Oxygen8’s growth so far. He lists five challenges in five years: the COVID-19 pandemic, difficulty sourcing industrial space in Vancouver, a global supply chain crisis, shifts to new refrigerants in the HVAC industry and a trade war. “And oh, by the way, we’re growing 100 percent per year, and trying to manage through all of that.”

The fresh-air innovator is poised to reach $45–$50 million in revenue in 2025, notes Dean, with a U.S. factory on the horizon. Rising demand for data centres and affordable housing has Dean feeling optimistic about the future of Oxygen8, especially as the federal government aims to build 500,000 homes a year.

What’s the best leadership advice you’ve ever received?

Take extreme ownership of problems and challenges. 

After work, we can find you…

On Gambier Island, renovating an old cabin.