Who we are

BC Parks Foundation Reports

Click here to download the report.
Click here to download the report.

Board

  • Warren Beach
    Warren Beach
    Board Treasurer, Chair of Finance and Audit Committee

    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.

  • Ross Beaty
    Ross Beaty
    Board Chair, Chair of Executive and Strategy Committee

    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.

  • Barbara Brink
    Barbara Brink
    Board Member

    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.

  • Cynthia Callison
    Cynthia Callison
    Board Vice Chair and Chair of Conservation Fund Committee

    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.

  • Ric Careless
    Ric Careless
    Emeritus

    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.

  • Jessica Hopkins
    Jessica Hopkins
    Chair of Protected Areas Committee

    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.

  • Daniel Johnston
    Daniel Johnston
    Board Secretary, Chair of Governance and Human Resources Committee

    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 Kerklaan
    Rudy Kerklaan
    Board Member

    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.

    Rudy is also an active member of the United Church Community serving as Chair of Finance and on the Board of Trustees of his congregation. He is currently a Co-Chair of the Forward First Capital Campaign, a major re-development project that will serve the Indigenous and Downtown Eastside communities. In 2023, Rudy joined the Board of the Vancouver School of Theology Foundation and is a member of the Investment Advisory Committee.

    After celebrating his 40th wedding anniversary with his wife Elizabeth, 2 daughters Emily, Heather and their partners, and grandkids; Rudy recently retired from Connor, Clark & Lunn Private Capital Ltd. as Vice Chairman. Both Emily and Heather are also active supporters of the United Way with Heather currently serving on the United Way Gen-X committee.

  • Tamara Little
    Tamara Little
    Board Member

    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 Moore
    Greg Moore
    Special Advisor

    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 Standen
    Jim Standen
    Board Member

    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
    Terry Teegee
    Board Member

    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 Thompson
    Ivan Thompson
    Chair of Fundraising and Communications Committee

    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 Winckler
    Gill Winckler
    Board Member

    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. 

Track Record

The BC Parks Foundation was founded in 2017 and started operations in 2018. Since that time, it has:

  • Protected 28 beautiful places covering over 35,000 hectares of land. In addition to protecting wildlife and their habitat, these areas store carbon, help prevent drought and flooding, and provide human health, recreation and cultural benefits
  • Launched Canada's first National Park Prescription program with nearly 12,000 healthcare professionals registered across Canada. The program is the recipient of the Canadian Medical Association's prestigious Joule Innovation Award and was featured by the United Nations World Health Organization in its COP26 Report
  • Launched a Park Ambassador program providing youth-led programming and engagement activities to over 250,000 park visitors in BC's parks
  • Inspired British Columbians to make over 25 million observations of nature
  • Created a WildCAM network with over 270 researchers utilizing remote wildlife cameras to monitor wildlife and biodiversity in BC and Alberta

In addition to these results, the combined track record of board members and staff includes creating and running companies valued at over $5 billion; experience at senior levels in government agencies; mediating significant conservation initiatives including the Great Bear Rainforest Agreement, the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement, Wild Salmon Policy, and the BC Climate Leadership Team; and leading campaigns to create over four million hectares of parks in BC.

The Foundation's Annual Report can be downloaded here. For copies of previous reports, please email info@bcparksfoundation.ca. The Foundation retains an auditor for its financial statements.

Robert Bateman
Robert Bateman
Founding Member & Champion

In many ways parks have made me who I am. As an Ontario boy, I thought of Algonquin Park as a kind of Nirvana. It denoted wilderness and nature in a pure form. Wolves roamed there. When I landed a job, ages 17-19, doing “chores” at the research station, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. It also became apparent that the people who worked in parks, the rangers and naturalists, were an important part of the scene. They appreciate and protect nature for others to enjoy. These people became my role models.

BC parks are among the most spectacular in the world because this province is blessed with a great variety of natural habitats from mountains to marine. We need to use them or lose them but at the same time we must not love them to death with too many amenities. It will take vigilance and budgets to guarantee that our parks will be as beneficial to future generations as they are to us.

Wade Davis
Wade Davis

My life took a turn at 15 when I spent a summer in Manning Park, working as a member of the Youth Crew, building trails, fighting fires, maintaining the campgrounds. Splitting firewood in the sun, with room and board and three dollars a day the only financial reward, taught me that work is not about money; it's about pride, strength, perseverance and grit, values that would forge the foundation of my professional life. Altogether, I worked eight seasons for BC Parks, culminating in a much coveted position as the first park ranger in the Spatsizi Plateau, British Columbia's largest wilderness park. My job description was deliciously vague; public relations and wilderness assessment. In two four month seasons my partner and I encountered not a dozen visitors, leaving us free to wander, as we mapped the trails, surveyed the wildlife, ran the rivers, and established routes up all the major peaks. This prolonged apprenticeship with the Parks, all that I learned in E.C. Manning and Naikoon, Mount Assiniboine, Atlin Mountain, Mount Edziza, and Spatsizi Plateau, left me with both a deep appreciation of nature, and a profound sense of belonging, a spirit of place that is the essence of Canadian patriotism. In good measure, I owe my life and career to BC Parks. Surely the opportunities that I had in my youth, the chance to unburden an adolescent mind and reward the body with hard physical work, to experience for the first time the true miracle of nature, to seek the promise of transformation, even transcendence, as found only in the wild heart of the world, ought to be part of the birthright of every new generation of British Columbians.

Ben Haggar
Ben Haggar
Freelance photographer, writer, and content creator

Spending time recreating in nature was a keystone of my upbringing and set me on a path to appreciate and help to protect wild places. Connecting with nature allows me to feel centred and balanced within myself. When I moved to BC from Ontario at age 19, I was overwhelmed at the scale of the fog cloaked mountains, old growth cedars, and cold green waves rolling in towards pristine beaches. With so much incredible diversity, I couldn’t believe that the entire province wasn’t one huge provincial park!

I feel incredibly lucky for the recreational opportunities here in BC. From surfing Naikoon in Haida Gwaii, bikepacking the South Chilcotins, ski touring at Kokanee, and climbing the Squamish Chief and Garibaldi from my front door. It gives me real peace of mind knowing that these special areas are protected and that there is an endless supply of new discoveries and experiences to be had right here at home in BC.
 

Greg Hill
Greg Hill
Skier, film maker, climber, and sustainable adventurer

Many of my most memorable moments were in the parks in British Columbia. I have savored my freedom moving through the mountains, contemplated life surrounded by giant cedars and finished days watching the sun set into the Pacific Ocean. These parks are the identity of BC and need to be protected and preserved for our kids and theirs, while also enjoyed by us. 

John Montalbano
John Montalbano

My family did not have very many luxuries. Growing up as a child in East Vancouver, our weekend family time was exploring the numerous parks to the north and east of Vancouver. Free access to parks was essential for my parents to entertain and educate my sister and me. I love our parks to this day.

Dr. Sally Otto
Dr. Sally Otto

From Ruckle Provincial Park in the Garry oak ecosystem to the glacier-fed lakes of Mount Assiniboine, the parks of British Columbia are truly majestic. Camping in these parks allows families, like mine, to experience nature directly and to pass along to our children a love of wildlife. The parks are also a critical refuge for the most endangered animals and plants. BC is home to the most species diversity of any province in Canada but also home to the most species at risk. Without well managed parks, we are likely to lose dozens, if not hundreds, of the animal and plant species that make BC so special.

Eric Peterson
Eric Peterson
Founding Member and Champion

I was born in Port Alberni and grew up on Vancouver Island. That was the era when family vacations meant packing the camping gear into the trunk of the Buick and heading off down one BC's brand new highways. It was pure exploration and discovery - the Cariboo, the Slocan Valley, the Big Bend highway, the Chilcotin - exploring the wonders of the province by day, and pulling in for the night at a BC Parks campground. Those experiences kindled my love of exploration and new vistas, which took me around the world as a scientist (biology PhD) then later as a technology entrepreneur. I founded the BC-based Tula Foundation in 2002 and set up Tula’s Hakai Institute in 2010. Hakai develops the tools, systems, people and insights we need to understand our coastal ecosystems in the context of climate change, and to deal with the consequences that are coming. We operate field stations at remote locations on the BC coast. We have our own scientific staff plus a large network that includes university researchers, government scientists and First Nations. For the past eight years we have enjoyed a very close and productive partnership with BC Parks via our Calvert Island field station, which is located in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest.

  • Miro Ceretnig
    Miro Ceretnig
  • Yee Chan
    Yee Chan
  • Bob Kronbauer
    Bob Kronbauer
  • Garry Mancell
    Garry Mancell
  • Roy Millen
    Roy Millen