Incorporation study application and selection process has been completed in accordance with the instructions received from the ministry and the committee has been appointed. The names of the committee are:

Mark Aston

As partner and co-owner of Spark+Co, an independent B.C.-based eLearning development firm, Mark brings a wealth of experience related to small and medium-size corporate and public sector business. Prior to Spark+Co., Mark spent more than 10 years in senior executive roles with the Rick Hansen Institute and the Rick Hansen Foundation. Earlier in his career, Mark managed environmental programs and affairs at the University of British Columbia.

In addition to holding a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of British Columbia Mark also has a master’s degree in business administration from Heriot-Watt University in Scotland.

With more than 15 years of board experience, Mark joined the Island Savings Credit Union board in April 2011, serving on the Conduct Review, Governance, Compensation, and Audit and Risk committees. On January 1, 2015 Mark was appointed to the First West Credit Union board where he currently serves on the Audit and Risk Management, and the Investment and Loan committees, and is also the Chair of the Island Savings Regional Council.

Mark brings a strategic perspective and, as a father of 2 daughters and full time resident of the island for 8 years, is interested in ensuring that Salt Spring thrives as a resilient community by balancing its social, environmental, and economic development.

The elected officials have strived to provide balance on the committee to represent the demographics and range of interests of our island. The incorporation study includes an outreach component to the community and there will be considerable opportunity for island residents to input other than by representation on the community. We thank all those who submitted applications.

Greg Clayton

On Salt Spring Island, Greg is the driving force behind the Salt Spring Island Wellness Centre and a permaculture-based organic farm – Aloha Aina Farms. He moved to Salt Spring from Calgary in 2014 with his young family. He is a commercial and residential land owner and has a background in management, finance and governance. He has a Bachelor of Commerce degree and a Masters of Business Administration. He currently sits on the board of the Chamber of Commerce and has served on numerous committees and not-for-profit boards in the past decade. He is also a licensed commercial mortgage broker in Calgary and Alberta and works out of his office in Calgary and on the farm.

Jean Elwell

Jean was admitted to the institute of Chartered Accountants in March 1991. She articled with Deloitte Haskins & Sells in Vancouver, BC where she audited such clients as Bentall, BC Hydro and the Heart & Stroke Foundation. From 1990 to 1993 Jean worked for Coopers & Lybrand in London, England where she was part of the team assigned to develop the Firm’s international auditing software. Upon her return to Canada in 1993, Jean accepted the position of Internal Audit Manager, Western Canada for Canada Trust. In 1997 Jean moved to Salt Spring where she ran a successful business (the Home Design Centre) before opening her own practice in March, 2002. During her time on Salt Spring, Jean has sat on the board of the Lady Minto Hospital Society, Stagecoach Theatre and the Parent’s Advisory Council for Salt Spring Island Middle School and Gulf Islands Secondary School.

Elizabeth FitzZaland

Elizabeth moved with her family to Salt Spring 2 years ago to be closer to the coastline and to raise her kids in a small, conscientious community. She is a professional community planner and designer, with over 10 years of experience working on long range community plans, land use and transportation policy, community engagement, public space design, downtown revitalization, affordable housing and private development. On Salt Spring, she has worked with the SSI Agricultural Alliance on agricultural infrastructure projects and with SSI Community Services on affordable housing and social enterprise initiatives. She spent a year on the local Advisory Planning Commission and is the past president of the Salt Spring Cooperative Preschool Society.

Elizabeth owns Green City Builders with her husband Sam. She is also a passionate volunteer, and loves to garden, ride her bike, trail run, hike, and spend as much time as possible time with her curious, creative kids, Dean (age 3) and Maeve (age 5).

Dr Kelly Hyslop

Dr Hyslop first came to Saltspring in 1972 and bought the Property on Mt Belcher shortly after. He started to build a home in 1999.

He was educated at the Dragon School Oxford and subsequently at Stowe School. He came to Canada in 1962 and graduated from Dalhousie University 1969. He was in General Practice for 25 years, and is a Retired Professor of Clinical Medicine; Faculty of Medicine; UBC. In more recent years he has been involved in multiple start-up companies in the fields of Earth Science, Computer technology and Biotech; and has served on the Boards of many public and private companies generally in the interphase of the science and finance.

He worked at Langley Memorial Hospital where he served as Chief of Staff and Chaired many Hospital Committees. He was medical officer of The House of Concord, the Salvation Army remand home and sat on their Board for a decade and then Chairman for three years.

Dr Hyslop and his wife Sandra have particular interest in Natural History and conservation and so enjoy the Fauna & Flora of Saltspring Island and the BC Costal areas. He is a Life Member of BC Waterfowl Association since 1970.

Stanley Shapiro

A long retired (since 1999) Professor of Marketing and twice a former Dean of Business Administration McGill (1973-78) and Simon Fraser University (1987-1997), Stan was also an elected member of the Burnaby School Board between 1987 and 1993. Since moving to Salt Spring, his off Island public service includes the Province of British Columbia’s Budget Review Committee (1999), the Academic Council of the BC Open University (1998-2004) and the BC

Ministry of Advanced Education’s Degree Quality Assessment Board (2003-2009).

Closer to home, Stan Shapiro was a Board Member of the SSI Public Library during the period when the Library’s new home was built. His related-to-government appointments include membership on the Fulford Advisory Committee which compiled and presented that community’s views on the 2008 revision of Salt Spring’s Official Community plan, service on PARC, the SSI Parks and Recreation Commission (2009-2014), and an appointment (and subsequent election as Vice-Chair) of the SSI Governance Committee (2013). Most recently, he began in June 2014 a two year term on the Local Trust Committee’s Advisory Planning Commission.

Drew Stotesbury

Drew has been a Gulf Islander for ten years – and recently “upgraded” to Salt Spring Island where he lives with his wife, Kim MacKay, and their Mexican rescue dog, Luna. Naturally curious, Drew was intrigued by the question of incorporation and felt he had a strong combination of education and experience to offer the committee. With a Commerce degree and a Chartered Accountant designation, Drew has a solid financial foundation. However his entire career has been in the hotel, and resort industry – including four years working at the most senior levels of a municipality (Whistler) where he gained invaluable understanding and insights into the workings of local government. More recently he led the real estate group of Intrawest and currently oversees a major Hawaiian resort where public outreach and consultation are critically important to success.

Uli Temmel

Uli Temmel grew up and raised a family on Salt Spring Island, and retired as the CRD Senior Building Inspector for Salt Spring Island at the end of 2011.

Ruth Waldick

Ruth grew up in Winnipeg, but has lived in BC off and on since she left Manitoba in 1990. She chose island life two years ago, drawn by its strong and deeply rooted spirit of community and volunteerism. Currently, she is drawing on her studies of ecology (BSc, University of Manitoba) population biology (MSc, Dalhousie University; PhD, McMaster University), and current work on agricultural systems (Carleton University) to develop analytical models for assessing risk and adaptation to climate change. She has practical experience working with multi-disciplinary regional teams and in identifying and characterizing obstacles to cross-scale governance, having worked in several different regions of Canada.

On island, Ruth tries to spend as much time as possible helping her mom out, pursuing her art, cycling, paddling, hiking, and volunteering with The Conservancy. She also sits as a water commissioner.

Karen Wright

First arriving on Salt Spring in 2012, Karen was struck by the spirit of the island and community she’s now honoured to call home. She and her husband moved from Nanoose Bay, a rural community on Vancouver Island.

Karen’s journey to the west coast followed a 25-year business consulting career in Calgary, the last sixteen as a partner of her own 50-person firm helping companies to improve their business systems. Karen participated in numerous project initiatives, as team member, project manager, facilitator and coach; and taught courses in project management and communication skills.

After retiring in 2007, Karen moved to the west coast, becoming a wellness practitioner and running her own practice until early last year. She has now turned her focus to our community, to help it move forward in whatever manner serves its best interest. As such, she is looking forward to facilitating an open, impartial, thorough and respectful sharing of the information uncovered in this governance study initiative.

George Grams, Peter Grove and Wayne McIntyre