Under the Museums Act, the Museum’s Board of Trustees serves as its governing body and is accountable to Parliament for the stewardship of the Museum through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. The Board represents all regions of the country and is appointed by the Governor in Council.
Arni C. Thorsteinson, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Eric Hughes, CA, Calgary, Alberta
Lisa Pankratz, CA and CFA, Vancouver, British Columbia
Gail Asper, O.C., O.M., LL.D. (Hon.), Winnipeg,
Manitoba
Bill Barkley, Victoria, British Columbia
Ronald Corey, O.C., Westmount, Quebec
The Hon. Constance R. Glube, O.C., O.N.S., Q.C, Halifax, Nova Scotia .
The Hon. Vim Kochhar, O.Ont, O.M.C., Toronto, Ontario
Yves Laberge, Ph.D., Quebec City, Quebec
Dr. Wilton Littlechild, Hobbema, Alberta
Lindy Ledohowski, Ph.D., Ottawa, Ontario
Arni Thorsteinson is president of Shelter Canadian Properties Limited. He is a director or trustee on a number of private and not-for-profit boards, including Huntingdon REIT, Lanesborough REIT, Temple REIT, ONEX Corporation, Bird Construction, and The Banff Centre. He served as chair of the Advisory Committee on the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Mr. Thorsteinson received a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from the University of Manitoba and holds a Chartered Financial Analyst designation.
Mr. Hughes has held a number of senior financial executive level positions over the past 15 years and currently works as Chief Financial Officer of Coral Hill Energy Ltd. He also served as Chief Financial Officer of Wave Energy Ltd during its rapid growth and subsequent sale; Optimal Payments PLC, a global leader in internet money transfer; and Burnco Rock Products, Canada's largest independent miner of aggregate products. Mr. Hughes graduated with a bachelor of commerce degree from the University of Calgary and is a Designated Chartered Accountant with the Alberta Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Lisa Pankratz is a Chartered Accountant (CA) and a Chartered Financial Analyst charter holder (CFA).
She was President of Mackenzie Cundill Investment Management Ltd. in Vancouver, Canada from October 2006 until March 2010. Prior to October 2006, she was the President of Cundill Investment Research Ltd., a global investment counsel firm and Chief Compliance Officer for The Cundill Group (2002-2006); an independent Corporate Advisor and Consultant (2000-2002); Chief Financial Officer/Turnaround Specialist of Evans Forest Products Ltd., a BC-based forest products company (1997-1999); and an investment banker, specializing in public and private financings, mergers and acquisitions, strategic analyses and risk management advisory services for a variety of clients worldwide with Bankers Trust (BT Bank of Canada), Swiss Bank Corporation and Ernst & Young (1991-1996).
In 2009, Ms. Pankratz was appointed Trustee of the Board for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights; she currently chairs the Audit Committee. In 2005, she became an advisor to the investment committees of Pacific Blue Cross and BC Life & Casualty Company. Ms. Pankratz served as a member of the Board of CanWest Global Communications Corp. (2005 – 2010) and served on the Audit and Pension Committees (Chair of the Pension Committee since 2008). From 2001 to 2007, she was a member of the Board of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) and served as Chair of the Investment Committee (2004-2007), member since 2001, was a member of the Audit Committee (2001-2007) and served on the Governance Committee (2001-2004). Between 2002 and 2004, Ms. Pankratz was also a member of the Accounting Policy and Advisory Committee advising the Ministry of Finance for the Province of British Columbia.
Since 2007, Ms. Pankratz has been Co-Chair of the BC Fundraising Campaign for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
In 2007, Ms. Pankratz was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia. In 2008, Ms. Pankratz received the Women’s Executive Network Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award as well as an Influential Women in Business Award from Business in Vancouver. In 2005, she was awarded the Peak Award for Performance and Excellence from the Association of Women in Finance.
Ms. Pankratz attended the University of Western Ontario and achieved an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business. She is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accounts of British Columbia, the Institute of Chartered Accounts of Ontario, the Vancouver Society of Financial Analysts, and the CFA Institute.
Gail Asper graduated with a B.A. and LL.B. from the University of Manitoba in 1981 and 1984, respectively. After receiving her call to the Bar of Nova Scotia in 1985, Ms. Asper practiced corporate and commercial law with Goldberg and Thompson. In 1989, she joined CanWest Global Communications Corporation as corporate secretary and legal counsel. She served on the Board of Directors from 1992 to 2010. She also acts as the president of the CanWest Global Foundation.
Ms. Asper is president of the Asper Foundation, a private charitable foundation. She has served on the boards of numerous not-for-profit groups, including acting as co-chair of the Manitoba Theatre Centre Endowment Campaign, vice-chair of the Council for Business and the Arts and past vice-chair of the Advisory Committee on the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. In 2007, Ms. Asper was awarded the Order of Manitoba and was recently made an Officer of the Order of Canada, in recognition of her work as an arts advocate, fundraiser, and business and community leader.
Bill Barkley is currently working as an independent consultant, focusing on planning, management, and teaching for museums and related institutions. At the Royal British Columbia Museum, he served as assistant director from 1977 to 1984, then as chief executive officer from 1984 to 2001. In the latter capacity, he was responsible for the overall planning and direction of the Museum. Before that, he was employed by Environment Canada as the chief naturalist at the Wye Marsh Wildlife Centre. Mr. Barkley has served on a number of associations and boards, including the Advisory Committee on the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the Canadian Museums Association, the Virtual Museum of Canada and the Canadian Federation of Friends of Museums. He holds a Master of Arts in adult education and a Bachelor of Science (Honours Zoology) from the University of British Columbia.
As president and chief of operations of the Montréal Canadiens, Mr. Corey oversaw the construction of the team's new arena, The Molson Centre, and led the hockey team to win two Stanley Cup Championships. Prior to his experience with the Canadiens Hockey Club, Mr. Corey held senior management positions with a number of companies, including Carling O'Keefe, G. Lebeau Ltd., and Molson Brewery. As an active member of his community, Mr. Corey has organized successful fundraising campaigns for several organizations, including Concordia University, the United Way of the Greater Montréal Area and the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital Foundation. He has been involved on the boards of a number of organizations, including the Banque Laurentienne, the Transamerica Life Insurance Company, and the Old Port of Montréal Corporation Inc., for which he acted as chairperson. In 1991, Mr. Corey became a member of the Order of Canada and received the Vanier Medal.
Constance Glube is a retired Chief Justice of Nova Scotia (Court of Appeal) and became the first woman to be appointed Chief Justice in Canada when, in 1982, she was made Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. Before her appointment to the bench in 1977, she practised law with the firms Kitz, Matheson, then Fitzgerald and Glube, and later acted as a solicitor for the Legal Department of the City of Halifax. She served as city manager for the City of Halifax from 1974 to 1977.
Chief Justice Glube is a graduate of both McGill University and Dalhousie University and holds honorary doctorates in law from Dalhousie University, Mount Saint Vincent University, and St. Mary's University. She was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2006 and was appointed to the Order of Nova Scotia in 2005. She has played an active role on the boards of a number of organizations and associations, including the Advisory Committee on the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
Senator Vim Kochhar is president and founder of the Vimal Group of Companies in Toronto. Working for InterContinental Hotels and Howard Johnson Hotels, he was responsible for project management of major hotels around the world.
For the past 30 years, Senator Kochhar has played an active role in community work by creating the Canadian Foundation for Physically Disabled Persons. Through this foundation, Senator Kochhar has created the annual Great Valentine Galas, the Terry Fox Hall of Fame, Rolling Rampage for elite wheelchair athletes, The Canadian Helen Keller Centre, Rotary Cheshire Homes for the Deaf-Blind, and the WhyNot Marathon for the Paralympics. He has served as a member of the Advisory Committee on the Canadian Museum for Human rights. Born in India, he received his engineering degree at the University of Texas and immigrated to Canada in 1967, becoming a Canadian citizen in 1974.
Senator Kochhar was appointed to the Senate in January 2010.
Yves Laberge is a sociologist and film historian. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Ottawa, the Université de Provence in France, and the University of Iceland. During the last 15 years, Dr. Laberge worked as a consultant for museums and for UNESCO. His academic research focuses on American and Canadian studies, as well as the sociology of culture, media and film, and citizenship studies. He serves as the series editor for the book series L'espace public and Cinéma et société for the Presses de l'Université Laval, as well as a member of the editorial board of the journals Laval théologique et philosophique and Sociological Research Online. He currently acts as a member of the Canadian Association of Cultural Studies Advisory Board. Dr. Laberge graduated with a Ph.D. in sociology from Université Laval.
For more than 30 years, Dr. Littlechild has worked to build bridges between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people through athletics, politics, and law. An accomplished lawyer, he is the first Indigenous person appointed to Queen's Council by the Alberta Law Society. He brought Native issues to public attention while serving as one of the first Aboriginal Members of Parliament.
Dr. Littlechild has been active with a number of organizations both within Canada and abroad, including the Indigenous Parliament of the Americas, the United Nations, the National Indian Athletic Association, and the Canadian Council of International Law. He has given lectures on various occasions, including recently at the Human Rights Institute of the University of Hawaii.
For his participation in Aboriginal and athletic endeavours, Dr. Littlechild has been honoured with several awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award as an Aboriginal Role Model and the Order of Canada. He graduated from the University of Alberta with a Master's Degree in Physical Education, a Bachelor of Law Degree, and a Doctorate at Law.
Dr. Littlechild is serving as one of three Commissioners on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
Lindy Ledohowski completed her B.A. (Hons.) at the University of Manitoba, and her B.Ed., M.A., and Ph.D. at the University of Toronto. Her SSHRC-funded doctoral dissertation theorized Ukrainian Canadian identity politics in post-multicultural Canada using fifty years of English-language Ukrainian Canadian literature as her key case study. She then completed a SSHRC-funded postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Ottawa. After two years as an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at St. Jerome’s University in the University of Waterloo, she is now an Adjunct Research Faculty member of Carleton University.
She has published numerous academic articles on the notion on Ukrainian Canadian-ness in contemporary Canada and presented on her research in countless academic venues. Her most recent article, forthcoming in a University of Toronto Press anthology of scholarly essays theorizing redress movements in contemporary Canada, analyzes the politics of victimization in Ukrainian Canadian literature and culture. She presented this work at Carleton University in March 2010, and this presentation was co-hosted by the Department of Law’s Jurisprudence Centre and the Canadian Initiative in Law, Culture, and the Humanities. As well, currently she is collaborating with Dr. Lisa Grekul to co-edit an anthology of critical and creative pieces to commemorate the 120th anniversary of Ukrainian settlement in Canada. This publication will be launched in 2011.
[W.Z. It is my understanding that Ms. Ledohowski was appointed to the Board of Trustees only recently after the Ukrainian Canadian Congress complained that the Holodomor was being ignored in the CMHR.]