Announcement

Board Members:

The Right Honourable Joe Clark was elected eight times to the House of Commons of Canada, and served in Parliament for 25 years, retiring in June 2004.  He was Prime Minister of Canada in 1979-80, Secretary of State for External Affairs (Foreign Minister) from 1984-1991, Minister of Constitutional Affairs from 1991-1993, and Acting Minister of both National Defence and Justice.  He served twice as Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, and as National Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.  Mr. Clark is president of Joe Clark and Associates, an international consulting firm based in Canada, and Executive Chairman of Clark Sustainable Resource Developments Ltd, a Canadian company operating in Ghana.  He is also Professor of Practice for Private-Public Sector Partnerships in the Centre for Developing-Area Studies at McGill University in Montreal.   He is active in international affairs, most recently (2006) as leader of the Carter Center Election Observation team in the first elections in 42 years in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and (since 2004) as co-chair of a joint committee of the Commonwealth of Nations and the Government of Cameroon preparing an independent electoral commission for Cameroon.  Among other organizations, Mr. Clark serves on the board of the Canadian Council for Africa, the Canadian Foundation for Latin America (FOCAL), and the International Advisory Board of Governors of the Canadian Institute of Governance Innovation (CIGI).  He is a member of the Global Leadership Foundation head-quartered in London, the Inter-American Dialogue head-quartered in Washington, the Council of Presidents and Prime Ministers of the Americas head-quartered at the Carter Center in Atlanta, and the Panel of Senior Advisors to the Auditor General of Canada.

Charles Bassett was formerly Canadian Executive Director of the Inter-American Development Bank. As a member of the Executive Board, Mr Bassett was involved in overseeing the policy and programming of the Bank. He also represented a broad spectrum of Canada’s interests: coordinating foreign policy issues, overseeing international development objectives, and providing support and information to the Canadian private sector. Prior to his appointment to IDB in 2003, Mr. Bassett had an illustrious 27 year career at the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) where he occupied many strategic positions including that of Senior Vice-President. Among his other responsibilities, Mr Bassett was President, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.

Robert Blackburn is a senior executive with 42 years of experience in government and business, actively involved in foreign affairs, international institutions and negotiations, energy and resource policy and taxation, policy development and organization management.  After thirty years in the federal government including 15 years in the foreign service followed by senior management positions in economic departments and the Cabinet office, in 1997 he became Senior Vice President of SNC-Lavalin International for Government and International Development Institutions and in 2007 added responsibility for SNC-Lavalin International’s activities in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Fiona Eberts is chair of the board of Camfed International, an international organization dedicated to eradicating poverty in Africa through the education of girls and the empowerment of young women..  She was born in the UK in 1946 but spent much of her childhood in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Hong Kong. During that time she gained a deep awareness of the problems faced by people in developing countries – particularly women and children.  In addition to her work with Camfed International, Fiona is on the board of the National Foundation of Alternative Medicine, based in Washington, DC. Her interest in the field of complementary and alternative medicine has a particular focus on solutions and therapies that could be useful in countries with limited access to expensive Western drugs.  Fiona has been married to Hollywood film producer Jake Eberts for the last 37 years. She divides her time between Paris and Montreal, and has three adult children.

Phil Fontaine has been instrumental in facilitating change and advancement for First Nations people from the time he was first elected to public office as Chief, at the young age of 28. He is a proud member of the Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba and still plays an active role in the support of his community.  Phil’s political vision began to take shape while he was a youth activist with the Canadian Indian Youth Council and a member of the Company of Young Canadians. He realized that self determination and the implementation of treaty and land rights were crucial to alleviating poverty for First Nations peoples and became an early advocate for these rights. When he became Chief in his own community, he put his thoughts into action by establishing the first Indian controlled education system in Canada; a locally controlled Child & Family Services agency; and the first on-reserve Alcohol and Addictions Treatment Centre in the country.  In the early 1980’s he was elected to the position of Manitoba Regional Chief for the Assembly of First Nations. When his term expired in 1991, he was elected Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs where he served for three consecutive terms. He negotiated the first comprehensive self government plan for Manitoba First Nations and signed historic employment equity agreements which resulted in thousands of job opportunities for First Nations citizens. In June 2007, he negotiated a fair and just process for the settlement of Specific land claims, drawing on his experience as the Chief Commissioner of the Land Claims Commission, where he served for three years.  In 1997 he stepped onto the national stage where he was elected to the highest elected position in First Nations politics, that of National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. He completed his final term in August 2009. The crowning achievement of his career to date, however, is leading the successful resolution and settlement of claims arising out of the 150 year Indian residential school tragedy.

George Haynal, Vice-President, Government Affairs, for Bombardier Inc., is a former Canadian diplomat and public servant.   Prior to his retirement from the Canadian Foreign Service in 2002, Haynal was Assistant Deputy Minister for the Americas in the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. He last served abroad as Consul General in New York, with concurrent accreditation as Commissioner to Bermuda (1995-1998). He had earlier served as Deputy Permanent Representative to the OECD and Representative to the International Energy Agency in Paris. Prior postings include Lima and London.  Among earlier DFAIT headquarters assignments he had been Head of the Departmental Policy Staff and Director General of Economic Policy. Mr. Haynal had also served as First Officer of the Priorities and Planning Secretariat in the Privy Council Office and, on Executive Exchange, as Acting Vice President (Corporate Banking) at the Head Office of the Royal Bank of Canada in Toronto. Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Norman Patterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University, he is a member of the Boards of the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the Canada-China Business Council, the Canada- India Business Council and the Canadian Standards Association. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Tefler School of Management at the University of Ottawa.   An Alumnus Fellow of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, he is a Fellow of the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute and an Associate Member and past President of the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers.

David Morley is President and CEO of Save the Children Canada. His extensive experience in international cooperation began when he volunteered to work with street children in Central America in the 1970s Since then he has worked in community development and humanitarian projects in Congo, Zambia, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Mexico, Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Brazil. From 1998-2005 Mr. Morley was Executive Director of the Canadian section of Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors without Borders and under his guidance the organization grew from an annual budget of $5 million to $20 million and the number of overseas volunteers tripled. In 2005 he was chosen by the Right Hon. Adrienne Clarkson and John Ralston Saul to serve as the founding Executive Director of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation, as President of the Ontario Council for International Cooperation, and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Stephen Lewis Foundation and a Mentor with the Trudeau Foundation.   David Morley's writing on international issues has appeared in the International Herald Tribune, the Globe and Mail, the National Post, La Presse and the Toronto Star, and he is a frequent commentator on radio and television. He co-authored the Canadian bestseller Under the Tree: Creative Alternatives to a Consumer Christmas, a book about environmental and global issues. His 2007 book Healing Our World: Inside Doctors without Borders has been released in Canada, South Korea, and the United States, where it has been the recipient of a number of awards.

Gordon Shirley was appointed to the Board in May 2009. He is currently serving his first term, which will expire in May 2013. Presently, he is Principal of the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, in Kingston, Jamaica. Other positions he has held include: Carleton Alexander Professor of Management and Head of the Department of Management Studies at the University; Director of the Mona School of Business in 2001, and he also served concurrently as Executive Chairman of the Jamaica Public Service Company Limited, and was seconded as Jamaica`s Ambassador to the United States of America and Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States (OAS). Professor Shirley has published widely in the areas of Manufacturing and Operations Management and Computer-Based Management Information Systems.

Samy Watson was nominated as Canada's representative to the World Bank Group in 2006.  Prior to his nomination, Mr. Watson most recently worked briefly as a Special Advisor to the Privy Council office. Before that, he was the Canadian Deputy Minister of the Environment and the Deputy Minister of Agriculture from 2000-2004.   His career in the Canadian federal public service began in 1980 in the Administrative Trainee Program where he went on to assume the position of Senior Project Manager for Revenue Canada in Customs and Excise. From 1982-1987 Mr. Watson was a part of various assignments and acted as a Senior Advisor for serveral positions with Transport Canada. He then became a Policy Advisor to the Deputy Minister of Transport Canada from 1987-1990. From 1990-1996, Mr. Watson held several Director positions in the Department of Finance, specifically relating to tax policy. In 1996, he shifted to the position of Assistant Secretary to the Cabinet (Priorities and Planning) at the Privy Council Office where he was then promoted to Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet in 1997.   Mr. Watson received a B.A. in Political Science and a Ph.D in Leadership from Andrews University in Michigan in addition to a M.A. in Political Science from the University of Toronto and a M.P.A. from Dalhousie University.