He worked in strategic planning with the Sabre Corporation, a travel technology company, and from there moved to a project manager role with American Express.
By 2007, he returned to the place that felt most like home in Alberta, Canada, where he joined the Community Futures (CF) program. After a short stint as a business analyst in Pincher Creek, Roger became a rural diversification Project Officer in Cochrane.
“It was here I managed the Rural Diversification Initiative grant program funded through what is now known as PrairiesCan, to support CF offices in leading rural economic development projects. One of the projects we were able to fund enabled Community Futures Entre-Corp to develop a technology strategy for Southeast Alberta,” says Haessel.
In 2011, Community Futures Entre-Corp was selected by Alberta Innovates to lead the Regional Innovation Network (RIN) for Southeast Alberta, and Haessel was recruited to manage the RIN, now known as APEX Alberta.
“I accepted the position and moved to Medicine Hat. This was the project I helped get off the ground and fund through the Rural Diversification Initiative grant program,” says Haessel.
The focus of Community Futures Entre-Corp and APEX Alberta is to help rural-based tech-innovative entrepreneurs and small businesses, “It’s so fulfilling to help an entrepreneur get their business off the ground, grow, or help them tear down barriers and find funding for their idea or initiative.”
During this time, Haessel also worked with the Canadian Centre for Unmanned Vehicle Systems (CCUVS) as their executive director in Medicine Hat. But, in 2015 the organization decided to transition its assets to the Village of Foremost, to establish the Foremost UAS Test Range.
For the next few years after, he volunteered overseas and took on various management consulting projects.
By 2022, Haessel was recruited once again to join APEX Alberta to help grow the Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (“RPAS” also commonly known as drones) sector in Southeast Alberta and across the province.
“Alberta over-indexes in the types of industries that can benefit from the application of RPAS. We have a significant commercial footprint in agriculture, forestry, mining, oil and gas — there are a lot of areas where Alberta can be a prime beneficiary of this technology.”
As the APEX Alberta RPAS project ended in 2024, Haessel launched the Community Futures Rural Aerospace Development (RAD) project and is the rural aerospace development manager. Building on the prior RPAS work, RAD is somewhat broader in scope and includes any rural Alberta businesses within the aerospace supply chain.
A key component of RAD is a partnership with the Calgary Aerospace Innovation Hub (AIH) which is managed by Innovate Calgary (University of Calgary’s technology transfer organization).
“One of our main objectives in RAD is to help rural aerospace businesses access similar AIH support and services as their urban counterparts,” says Haessel.
In addition, the RAD project includes key initiatives in partnership with the Foremost UAS Test Range.
“As a critical infrastructure asset, the Test Range is a key attraction for RPAS businesses to establish and grow operations in Southeast Alberta and across the province.”
