About us

Ross is a geologist and resource entrepreneur with over 45 years of experience in the international minerals and renewable energy industries. A graduate of the University of BC in geology and law and Imperial College in geology, Ross is an internationally recognized leader in both non-renewable and renewable resource development. He has founded and divested a number of companies and remains founder and chairman of Pan American Silver Corp., one of the world’s leading silver producers, and founder and chairman of Alterra Power Corp., a mid-sized renewable energy company with solar, wind, hydro and geothermal power operations in BC, Texas, Indiana and Iceland. Ross is also a well-known environmental philanthropist, primarily through The Sitka Foundation. He serves on the advisory board of the Nature Trust of BC, is a director of The Pacific Salmon Foundation, a director of Panthera, and is patron of the Beaty Biodiversity Center at the University of British Columbia.

Cynthia is a founding partner of Callison & Hanna Law Firm. She has been a leading negotiator in agreements between Indigenous peoples, governments, and resource developers. She is a graduate of the Sauder School of Business and the Allard School of Law at UBC and she received a Masters in Constitutional Law from Osgoode Hall Law School. She is a well regarded public speaker and an invited presenter at global dialogues on Indigenous peoples. She currently serves on a number of boards which provide leadership for revitalizing Indigenous well-being. Cynthia is a member of the Tahltan Nation whose territory is the Stikine River Watershed in northwestern BC.

Warren graduated from UBC in 1989 with a BA in Political Science and was a member of the Men’s Varsity Rowing Team throughout his time there. After graduating, he went on to earn his Chartered Accountant designation with Ernst and Young in Vancouver. His career has spanned a number of industries and he has served as CFO of Sierra Systems Group, TimberWest and Aritzia. He then went on to serve as CEO of Hold It All Inc., the holding company of Chip Wilson (founder of Lululemon) and as the President & CEO of Augusta Capital Corporation. He is currently the Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at Odlum Brown. Warren has completed executive education at Harvard University and has obtained the ICD.D designation for Corporate Board Governance at the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management. Warren is a member of the UBC Alumni Advisory Council, and he serves on the Finance & Audit Committee of Alumni UBC. He is a member of the UBC “Gold of Life” Committee supporting rowing at the University of British Columbia. Warren is also a member of the Cabinet of the Business Laureates of B.C. Hall of Fame and is a mentor/coach with the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs. Previously, Warren served for six years as Vice-Chair of the Board of the BC Woman’s Health Foundation. He served for over ten years as a Foundation Director of the Boys and Girls Clubs Foundation of Southcoast BC and served for seven years on the Cabinet of the United Way, including acting as Cabinet Co-Chair in 2011/12. In 2022, Warren was awarded the Fellow Chartered Accountant (FCPA, FCA) designation by his peers in recognition of his professional and community contributions. In 2024, Warren was inducted into the UBC Sports Hall of Fame in the “Builder” category along with his peers on the UBC Gold For Life Committee. Warren is a member of the Lotus Cycling Team based in Vancouver.

Barbara is a Member of the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia. She was the founder, chair, CEO and driving force behind the creation of Science World in Vancouver, and currently sits on the boards of Junior Achievement of BC and Architectural Institute of BC. She previously founded and chaired the West Vancouver Community Centres Society. Barbara also serves as co-chair of the Business Laureates of BC Hall of Fame Cabinet. Thanks to her leadership, the gala remains in the top three list of events in BC and has raised more than $10 million since its inception. Barbara has also chaired the VGH and UBC Hospital Foundation, was two-year chair of the United Way Campaign, founder of Leadership Vancouver, and vice chair of the Laurier Institution. She was on the board of Legal Services Society and the West Vancouver Police Board, and is a consultant in governance and in resource development. In 2014, Barbara received the Business in Vancouver Influential Women in Business Lifetime Achievement Award.

For over almost 50 years, Ric has been a passionate advocate for British Columbia’s world class parks and wilderness. During this time, he led citizen campaigns that have protected four million hectares across British Columbia including: the Spatsizi – Stikine, Purcell Mountains, Babine Mountains, Height of the Rockies, Tatshenshini, Chilcotin Mountains, Cathedral-Snowy and Nitinat Triangle in Pacific Rim National Park. Ric co-founded the Sierra Club of British Columbia in 1970, as well as the BC Wilderness Tourism Association in the 1990’s. Since 1989, he has served as the executive director of BC Spaces for Nature. Ric is the chair of the campaign for BC Parks, a multi-organizational alliance concerned with improving the resourcing of our province’s park system, and is also president of the BC Parks Elders Society. His consulting company, Ethos Environmental, has specialized on wilderness conservation and ecotourism policy formulation and strategy. For this lifetime of work, Ric has received numerous awards in Canada, the US and BC, where he is a recipient of the Order of British Columbia.

Linda Coady is a subject matter expert on corporate sustainability, with a track record of helping to develop new solutions to issues with complex social, environmental, and economic interdependencies. Linda is currently a Board member of Forest Trends and the BC Parks Foundation. She has held roles as the Chief Executive Officer of the BC Council of Forest Industries, Executive Director of the Pembina Institute (a climate policy think tank); Chief Sustainability Officer at Enbridge Inc.; Vice-President of Sustainability for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games; and Vice-President of Pacific Region for World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Canada. Ms. Coady’s work on sustainable development has been recognized with awards from Canadian Business for Social Responsibility, the Ecological Society of America, the YWCA, and the Globe Foundation for Business and Environment.

Jessica is a member of the Sekw’el’was community, which is part of the St’at’imc Nation. She is the General Manager at Splitrock Environmental Consulting. Jessica attended Nicola Valley Institute of Technology and Vancouver Island University, specializing in fisheries and aquaculture science. She also has a certificate in Environmental Monitoring. Jessica loves being an integral part of her community and when she is not working she can be found spending time with friends and family or planning her next exciting adventure.

A lawyer by profession, Dan is a conflict prevention and resolution specialist who deals with a wide range of complex, multi-party, aboriginal, commercial, environmental, land use and public policy issues. Examples of Dan’s mediation work include many of British Columbia’s CORE and LRMP land use processes, the Whitehorse Mining Initiative, the Canadian Roundtable on Corporate Social Responsibility and the Canadian Extractive Industries Operating in Developing Countries, the Great Bear Rainforest (over a seventeen year period), BC Hydro’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Committee, the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement, numerous issues associated with fin-fish aquaculture in BC, the British Columbia Climate Leadership Team, and the discussions between a number of oil sands companies and environmental organizations that led to their mutual support of the 2016 Alberta Climate Leadership Plan. He is also a founding member and director of the COCO Cafe, an award winning social enterprise established to create skills training, employment and socialization opportunities for persons with developmental disabilities, and a director of the Nanaimo Association for Community Living.

Rudy has more than three decades of experience in the investment industry. He was a fixed income portfolio manager for many years as well as a founding partner of Connor, Clark & Lunn Investment Management in 1982. Rudy helped start up CC&L Private Capital in 1997, serving on the company’s management committee and the board of directors for many years. A graduate of Concordia University with an MBA, he also served as a Western Canada’s ambassador for Concordia’s $250 million Capital Campaign. Rudy is a CFA charterholder and served as the President Vancouver Society of Financial Analysts. Rudy takes an active involvement in his community and in particular with United Way, holding many volunteer roles with the organization since 1997 including account Chair of Major Gifts, Co-Chair of the UWLM Annual Campaign and Board Member. In 2022, Rudy became Board Chair of United Way British Columbia and is currently Past Chair and member of the Governance Committee. In 2015 Rudy was proud to receive the Joseph and Rosalie Segal United Way Community Vision Award, which recognizes commitment to the betterment of the community through leadership and support of United Way. In 2023, he joined the Board of United Way Centraide and is a member of the Finance & Audit Committee.

Tamara brings 20+ years’ experience in corporate communications, public affairs and government relations to her clients, including eight years at Canada’s top two public relations and public affairs firms where she was a Director and Vice President. Before that she spent eleven years in public service advising Ministers and Mayors in B.C. municipal and provincial governments. Tamara’s main interest is how to bring an integrated set of solutions to help clients communicate with audiences and achieve broad support and build profile and reputation. She is an expert in issues management and crisis communications, in which she frequently trains clients. As a trained social scientist (Anthropologist), Tamara is committed to using research and insights on which to base programs. Tamara’s clients have included some of B.C.'s largest companies and organizations, including marine shippers, terminals and ports, business associations, regulated utilities, energy sector, including renewables, natural gas and LNG projects and associations, forestry and mining companies, associations, universities, transportation organizations, municipal governments, Indigenous Governments, not-for-profits and others. Tamara spent seven years in B.C. Government communications, in Manager and Director roles, leading all communications for the Ministries of Energy Mines and Petroleum Resources, Transportation and the Treaty Negotiations Office. She also served as communications, government relations and marketing director for Partnerships BC, the provincially-owned company responsible for public capital project procurement. Before that she ran a B.C.-wide consultation program for the Legislature on treaty negotiations, and spent four years advising Mayors and City Managers on Aboriginal relations and treaty negotiations. Tamara has honours Undergraduate and Master’s Degrees in Anthropology from UBC, focused on BC Indigenous Nations. Tamara grew up in small-town B.C. in Penticton, and lives in East Vancouver with her husband and son. She is an avid creator, including painting, sewing and calligraphy and loves to read. She has a passion for community volunteering and governance. She is the former Chair of the Kettle Friendship Society Board, a mental health care and housing organization; the former Chair of the Kitsilano Neighbourhood House as well as its Fundraising Committee; the former chair of the Public Affairs Association of Canada BC Chapter and is a member of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade. She is trained in public engagement and consultation through the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2).

Greg currently serves as a consultant and advisor to parks, public lands, and conservation efforts in the United States and globally. Recent consulting assignments include the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the Chesapeake Bay Conservancy, Amigos de los Parques in Patagonia, Chile, and the International Landscape Conservation Network (ILCN). Through the ILCN, he is advising landscape conservation projects in Europe, China, and Canada. Greg was the founder and longtime President & CEO of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. During his more than three decades of leadership, the Conservancy grew to become one of the most successful, innovative, and accomplished nonprofit support organizations to any national park in the United States. The Conservancy is recognized for its accomplishments in park design, cross sector partnerships, large scale conservation efforts, environmental philanthropy, community engagement, and public support. Under Greg’s leadership, the Conservancy provided more than $750 million in support to park projects and programs at the Golden Gate National Parks –and supported over 25,000 volunteers annually. During his tenure, the Conservancy received numerous awards for excellence in interpretation, conservation, youth programs, philanthropic and park improvement efforts. Greg has served as an advisor to national parks and public land efforts throughout the United States – including well-known locations such as Yosemite, Grand Canyon, and more. He has worked on international assignments as an advisor to conservation and park projects in in Australia, Chile, China, Italy, New Zealand, Canada, and South Africa. Greg holds a B.S. in Conservation of Natural Resources from U.C. Berkeley with a minor in Landscape Architecture and completed a Mid-career Fellowship in Environmental Planning at the University of Washington. He currently serves on the board of the Conservation Lands Foundation, on the Advisory Board of Amigos de los Parques in Patagonia, Chile and as an advisor to the BC Parks Foundation.

Jim was appointed the assistant deputy minister of BC Parks & Conservation Officer Service on October 14th, 2014. Previous to this, Jim was the assistant deputy minister of Environmental Protection Division for four years. Jim started his career in government as an auxiliary fisheries technician in Kamloops in 1992. Since then, he has held positions in environmental stewardship, planning and assessment, environmental protection, strategic policy and water management. Prior to becoming ADM, Jim was director of the Regional Operations Branch for the Environmental Protection Division and chair of the Coast Region Interagency Directors Committee. During his 25-year career with the Ministry of Environment, he has had the opportunity to develop a broad knowledge of the business of the ministry and expertise in strategic planning, financial management and legislation and policy development. Jim has a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of British Columbia, and studied accounting/business at UBC and Thompson Rivers University. Jim was a trustee on the Saanich Board of Education from 2005-2014. He was vice chair of the board from 2011 through 2014, and chaired the Finance and Facilities Committee, Policy Committee and Human Resources Committee at various times. Jim was also a member of the Capital Regional District Roundtable on the Environment and Economy from 2001- 2003. Jim shares a home in North Saanich with his wife, Penny, and kids Conor, Stephanie and Maddy.

Terry Teegee's ancestry is Dakelh, Gitxsan, and Sekani and he is a member of the Takla First Nation. He is the elected regional chief of the British Columbia Assembly of First Nations (AFN) serving his third term. He is passionate about nature and indigenous protected and conserved areas, serving as the AFN Representative on the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity. With a Bachelor of Science Degree in Natural Resources Management and a diploma in Natural Resources Technology, Terry has been deeply involved in natural resources and related policies throughout his career. Regional Chief Teegee also chairs the AFN's United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Implementation Committee and was instrumental in the development and historic passing of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act in BC.

Ivan evolved a passion for the people and places of British Columbia’s wild salmon ecosystem into his life’s primary work. By fortunate accident, in 1981 he came to live in the mighty Skeena watershed. Had he been able to find his first teaching job further south, he probably would have taken it. Instead, he moved to a village on the wilderness shores of Lake Babine. Over the next two decades, he fell more and more deeply in love with the area as he explored much of the Skeena, the Stikine and the North Coast while working as a teacher, outdoor instructor, counsellor, and college director. Ivan engaged with northern BC communities in the land use planning initiatives of the nineties that led to a doubling of the BC’s protected areas network, and later with North Coast indigenous communities in accessing conservation financing to enable their environmental and economic visions for the Great Bear Rainforest. For most of the past two decades, he has helped guide philanthropic foundations in investing in protection of healthy lands and waters as the heart of life and livelihoods in BC. Ivan worked as program officer with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation from 2007 to 2017 and then as senior advisor with MakeWay’s Pacific Salmon Watershed’s Fund until 2022. He continues to advise and facilitate relationships amongst philanthropic, government, indigenous and NGO leaders through his roles of practitioner fellow at the University of Victoria’s Centre for Global Studies and of trustee with the boards of the BC Parks Foundation and the Portland-based Wild Salmon Centre.

Gill grew up in South Africa where she graduated with a bachelor of science degree and then went on to become a Chartered Accountant. She is an avid outdoor enthusiast, often walking and biking in the local forests, kayaking and having outdoor picnics and barbeques. She has been a director of the Trans Canada Trail board since 2018, and is aiming to cycle the whole trail across the country. Gill worked initially in the auditing profession and in corporate finance in South Africa and London, UK. She spent 16 years with the mining company BHP Billiton in London, moving with them to Vancouver in 2009. Her 20 years in mining saw her involved with corporate and divisional strategy, mergers and acquisitions, divestments, exploration as well as project evaluation and development. Gill is a director of Pan American Silver Corp., West Fraser Timber Ltd and FLSmidth & Co. A/S.