GREATER VANCOUVER FOOD BANK - Key Persons
Alexandra is a banking and risk management professional with extensive experience in providing working capital, term loans, payment services and international trade facilitation for both domestic and international businesses. Alexandra established her career in banking shortly after earning her Bachelor of Commerce degree in Finance from the University of British Columbia.
Growing up in Indonesia, Alexandra was no stranger to the impact of food insecurity due to pervasive inequality and an ineffective social support system. This experience during her formative years solidified her commitment to giving back to the community, and has inspired her to volunteer in various roles including an educator and promoter for financial literacy, diversity, and inclusion.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Vice President and General Manager of Hudson Bay
Brahm is the Vice President and General Manager of Hudson Bay's flagship Vancouver Downtown store, leading a large team of associates and managers focused on service and sales and serving our community. Prior to his dozen years with Hudson's Bay, he held leadership positions with Holt Renfrew, Smtihbooks / Chapters, and John Fluevog Shoes. Brahm studied history at McGill University and journalism at Concordia University (both in his home city of Montreal). He now resides in Delta with his husband and their dogs.
Prior to joining the GVFB board, Brahm served on non-profit boards for the Art Gallery of Alberta and the Edmonton Humane Society. He is excited and honoured to serve on the GVFB board, in support of providing healthy food to those in need in our community.
Job Titles:
- Secretary
- Chief Strategy Officer at Thrive Health
Currently, Ed Ratnarajah is the Chief Strategy Officer at Thrive Health. Ed's expertise is in strategic and operational planning, public policy, project and change management and building capacity through partnerships.
Ed has worked in healthcare for 35 years. He holds a BSc in Microbiology from the University of British Columbia and completed the leadership development program at the Centre for Creative Leadership focusing on human-centred, transformational leadership producing lasting change. He has served in various senior healthcare administrative roles in both the public and private sectors.
Ed is honoured to volunteer on the GVFB Board and is strongly committed to the Food Bank's mission and vision of providing healthy food to those in need to create healthy communities through fair and effective food systems.
Fiona is an experienced director with particular expertise in governance and human resources. She is a director of The Royal Canadian Mint, where she chairs the Human Resources and Workplace Health and Safety Committee. Fiona's past board experience includes: Director of a publicly traded financial services company, RF Capital, where she was Chair of the Management Resources and Compensation Committee, a Member of Audit and Governance and Special Committees; Director of the BC Ferry Authority; and Chair of the BC Chapter of the Institute of Corporate Directors. Fiona has a BA and MBA, both from UBC, and has the ICD.D designation.
What Fiona brings in particular to the Food Bank board is: business/financial acumen, which will help with meeting today's pressing needs while also ensuring the long-term sustainability of the Food Bank; governance best practices, which will help ensure effective stewardship and oversight of what is a very large and complex organization, that provides essential support to many people in our communities; and a deep background in human resource management to ensure we attract, retain and develop our people so that they too can grow and contribute to the Food Bank's mission of providing healthy food to those in need.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Associate Vice - President, Facilities at the University of British Columbia
John Metras is Associate Vice-President, Facilities at the University of British Columbia. John and his team are responsible for the planning, development and operation of institutional facilities at UBC, collaborating with campus stakeholders to provide an inspiring and sustainable physical environment for learning, research and campus life. John is a professional engineer with a Bachelor of Engineering Science from the University of Western Ontario and an MBA from UBC.
John is strongly committed to the GVFBS vision of healthy communities through fair and effective food systems. This aligns with his own work in building a healthy, resilient and sustainable community at UBC. He feels privileged to volunteer as a Director on the GVFBS Board and share his experience in management, planning, projects and operations to help support the GVFBS in its mission of providing healthy food to those in need.
Jonathan Coté is a passionate urbanist who has dedicated his career to building better cities. Jonathan has recently finished serving two terms as the mayor of New Westminster and has spent the past 17 years in local government. In his role as mayor, Jonathan has served as the Chair of the Mayor's Council for regional transportation and was the Chair of Regional Planning in Metro Vancouver. Jonathan also has extensive board experience serving on the Translink Board of Directors and Chairing the New Westminster Police Board. Prior to being elected, Jonathan completed his Master's Degree in Urban Studies at Simon Fraser University. Jonathan's work in local government has focused on some of the most challenging social issues facing our communities and he is looking forward to joining the board at the Greater Vancouver Food Bank to help tackle food security issues in our region.
Kathryn is a strategic and outcomes focused leader, with 20 years of experience leading complex transformation initiatives and operations. Currently she is the Director of Real Estate, Facilities and Procurement with Vancity, leading the real estate strategy, capital program, facilities operations and procurement teams. Previously, she was Chief License Inspector for the City of Vancouver, where she led licensing, by-law enforcement and animal services, developing and implementing public policy and regulations for short term rentals, liquor, cannabis and ride hailing services. Kathryn's expertise is in strategic and operational planning, policy development, project and change management, business process improvement, building capacity through partnerships, and team building.
Her commitment to building community has led her to serve on several non-profit boards, including Board Chair and Director for Minerva BC, and Board Director for the Vancouver Society of Children's Centers (VSOCC). She is currently a member of the Board Nominations Committee for Engineers and Geoscientists of BC. Kathryn is honoured to volunteer on the GVFB Board, in support of providing healthy food to those in need in her community.
Kathryn holds an MSc in Business Administration from the University of British Columbia, and a BSc in Industrial Engineering from the University of Manitoba. She is a registered Professional Engineer (P.Eng.) in British Columbia and a Project Management Professional (PMP).
Keith Martin is a Partner based in McKinsey & Company's Vancouver office and a founder of McKinsey Transformation. He has more than a decade of experience counselling and advising the CEOs, executive teams and Boards of major international companies on how to dramatically improve their organizations' operations, income, capabilities and organizational health.
Before joining McKinsey, Keith worked in the non-profit sector for Concern Worldwide, an international development organization, in Afghanistan, Central Africa, and on the emergency response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. He also has extensive experience with policy and politics, having worked in Irish and EU politics for 5 years.
Keith has an MBA from the University of British Columbia and a BSc in Applied Computing from the Waterford Institute of Technology in Ireland.
Lisa is committed to helping mentor and develop the next generation of leaders. She is a strategic and thoughtful leader, a seasoned Board Director and a former senior executive. Lisa is currently on the Board of the Rick Hansen Foundation. She has served as the Chair of the Board of the YWCA-Metro Vancouver and Chair of the Finance Committees of the Canadian Sport Institute-Pacific and the Vancouver Community College Boards. Lisa was formerly the CFO and then the SVP of Enterprise Services at Vancity. Prior to that, she was the Executive Director of Powersmart and Customer Care for BC Hydro. Lisa has earned the CPA.CA and ICD.D designations as well as a BBA from Simon Fraser University.
Lisa's current area of focus is using her governance, financial and business expertise to support not-for-profit organizations that are serving the needs of the community. She has long been interested in health and nutrition and is committed to leveraging her broad experience to help advance providing healthy food to those in need.
Robin has had an extensive career in the agriculture, food processing and seafood industries across Canada and internationally. Currently, he provides consulting services to governments and the food industry through his own firm, Foodwest Resources Ltd., which he has owned for 30 years. Past experience includes: CEO of the BC Dairy Foundation; Chair of BC Chicken Marketing Board; Chair/CEO of NuFood Pet Inc. and President of Protein Foods International, where he spent 11 years involved in the food business in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. He also headed the national agri-food consulting practice of Price Waterhouse for four years.
Robin's other board experience includes: 15 years on the board of the BC Food & Beverage Association (including chair), Alliance Freeze Dry and chair of CFP Marketing Corp. He obtained a Bachelor of Science Agriculture from the University of British Columbia specializing in food science and an MBA from Simon Fraser University.