Influential Leaders

Jason Sparaga

Co-Founder and Managing Operating Partner, Red Jar Energy Partners
Recognition Year(s): 2025
Area of Impact: Energy
School: Goodman School of Business, Brock University
Location: Canada

Summary

Originally trained as a professional accountant, Jason Sparaga has 30 years of experience as a skilled dealmaker and entrepreneur who excels in corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic leadership and planning. He is a co-founder and managing operating partner of Red Jar Energy Partners, focusing on tailored energy infrastructure projects that deliver cost-effective solutions for customers where traditional solutions fall short. His entrepreneurial success has garnered him several accolades, including induction into the AACSB Beta Gamma Sigma Honorary Chapter.

Entrepreneurial Impact

Sparaga’s entrepreneurial career has been defined by his ability to identify and take advantage of market gaps to create value through innovative business models and creative deal structures that focus on aligning interests.

As co-founder of Red Jar Energy Partners, Sparaga leads a team that develops tailored energy infrastructure projects that feature innovative deal structures, taking advantage of previously overlooked opportunities. A notable example was the construction, operation, and sale of a 140-megawatt noncritical data center in Ontario’s Niagara region. This project highlights his ability to act both innovatively—by optimizing electricity usage and pricing through curtailment strategies and reducing energy costs through participation in market programs—and opportunistically—by using low-cost, vacant industrial real estate with access to large amounts of power.

Sparaga has positioned Red Jar as a leader in addressing the growing challenge of meeting swelling demand in the energy sector. Sparaga is passionate about developing solutions to meet industrial power needs, which in turn supports broader community growth and economic development.

Prior to Red Jar, Sparaga founded the boutique investment and merchant bank Spara Capital Partners, through which he facilitated over 100 successful transactions valued in excess of 1 billion CAD (approximately 700 million USD). He co-founded his next venture, Spark Power Corp., in 2009.

This same year, Sparaga recognized a significant opportunity through Ontario’s Green Energy and Green Economy Act (GEA) to address a significant problem. A large number of farmers in southwestern Ontario had applied to put solar panels on their farms, but grid infrastructure constraints meant that most were not technically feasible. Spark Power partnered with AGRIS Co-op, one of Ontario’s largest agricultural cooperatives, to launch the AGRIS Solar Co-op. The company pioneered the concept of “solar gardens,” allowing all farmers to participate in community solar projects, which were physically placed wherever grid connections were feasible. By working to navigate the concerns of farmers, regulatory constraints, and the needs of government, Sparaga delivered a groundbreaking business model and solution that benefited all parties. Today, AGRIS Solar remains the largest renewable energy co-op in Canada, with 400-plus members and 800 projects across Ontario.

By 2012, seeing the fast pace of disruption in the power and energy sector in North America, Sparaga saw the opportunity to use his dealmaking skills to quickly consolidate the fragmented nonunion electrical service provider market in Ontario. Following five smaller acquisitions in the high-voltage service market, Spark Power acquired New Electric in 2017, nearly doubling the company to 500 employees and 100 million CAD (about 70 million USD) in revenue. This merger solidified Spark Power’s position as a leader in the energy sector, allowing the company to serve national customers across the country.

Sparaga next turned his attention to the rapid rise in renewables—and the need to service them—as a core part of the North American electrical services landscape. In 2019, the acquisition of One Wind expanded Spark Power’s offerings and added a significant (and growing) product line to its suite of services.

Through Sparaga’s entrepreneurial vision and leadership through 13 acquisitions, the company became a meaningful player across North America, growing to 1,400 employees and nearly 300 million CAD (about 209 million USD) in revenue. In 2023, the company was purchased by a private equity firm to serve as the foundation for a broader roll-up strategy.

Beyond his business achievements, Sparaga enjoys sharing his experience and encourages professional and personal growth in the next generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders. Sparaga is a founder and has served as a judge of Brock Innovation Group’s Monster Pitch event, where students present their entrepreneurial ideas to a panel of experts. He has been instrumental in elevating the profile of this annual event through his financial sponsorship and network, which have attracted notable celebrity judges each year, including Bruce Croxon, Jim Treliving, and David Chilton.

Sparaga also dedicates his time and financial resources to a number of causes of personal importance, serving as president of the board for Unity for Autism, as a primary sponsor for Racing with Autism, and on the board of 13th Round Fight for Life—a boxing-based community charity that focuses on supporting youth—and has raised significant funds for prostate cancer awareness through the Spark Power Play Challenge.

In recognition of his entrepreneurial success, Sparaga has received several accolades, including the 2016 Brock University Distinguished Graduate Award, induction into the AACSB Beta Gamma Sigma Honorary Chapter, the 2016 Canadian Business Excellence Award, and inclusion on the Ernst & Young 2017 Entrepreneur of the Year™ finalists list in the Power and Utilities and Environment category.

He holds a CPA designation and an Honours Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the Goodman School of Business, where he serves on the Senior Alumni Committee and formerly served on the Dean’s Advisory Council.

Additional Information