New Marine Centre Society Board of Directors

Peter B. Lloyd FCA (Board Chair)

Having grown up in England and after a 2-year stint in Nairobi, Kenya, Peter and his wife, Gwen, emigrated to Vancouver. From then on their lives seemed to always revolve around water. They became keen boaters, first sail and later power. When they moved to Vancouver Island, it was first to Shawnigan Lake. Their three children, Christopher, Alison & Penelope, all learned to swim there. Later, with some good friends, they built a house in Puerto Rico, which they owned for many years. Peter reports preferring the swimming in the warm Caribbean sea! It is no surprise, then, that he is enthusiastic to see our Marine Discovery Centre come to fruition. Currently, Peter and Gwen live in Sidney/North Saanich and all their children, as well as three young grandchildren, are currently in Victoria. In his professional career Peter was a partner in several accounting firms on Vancouver Island, both local and national. He has been the Chair of the Board of Queen Margaret’s School, Chair of the Board of Camosun College and the Treasurer of the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority. Currently, he is a Lay Bencher of the Law Society of BC. Although retired from full-time work, he consults on Governance and Strategic Planning.

Clive Tanner (Vice-Chair)

Clive Tanner is the owner/operator, with his wife Christine, of five of Sidney’s twelve bookstores. The Tanners are the creators of “Sidney – the Booktown,” modelled on Hay-on-Wye, Wales.  Sidney is one of 45 book towns around the world and the only one in Canada.

Clive was the founder of the Saanich Peninsula Foundation Society and continues as its President.  He is also a founding member of the New Marine Centre Society.  He is a past President of the Chamber of Commerce and has been active in promoting business in Sidney through numerous organizations, including the Sidney Business Association and its predecessor, the Sidney Association of Merchants. Clive has been active in the Liberal Party, both provincial (he served as M.L.A. for Saanich North and the Islands from 1991-96) and federal, holding practically every executive position in the Party, but mostly in a fundraising capacity.  His ability to raise money and his knowledge of the local business scene is his greatest asset to the community and the New Marine Centre Board.

Richard Flader CA (Treasurer)

Richard Flader is a partner of Flader Hale Hughesman, Chartered Accountants in Sidney. He has practised as a Chartered Accountant for 25 years on the Saanich Peninsula. Richard has always been near the ocean; growing up in Vancouver, he and his family spent much time on the water. Richard obtained a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of British Columbia and worked with a national CA firm in Vancouver prior to moving to the island. He is currently responsible for a number of audits of non-profit organizations. Richard’s passion is in providing business advice to small and medium sized businesses. He is also the partner responsible for fun in the office. When he is not organizing the weekly office barbeques, he can be found heading the committee for the Sidney Days’ parade float or planning the annual mini-golf tournament. Living in Sidney with his wife of 26 years and three children still at home, Richard enjoys getting out on the water at every opportunity. In his spare time, he is very involved as a volunteer with the Saanich Peninsula Power Squadron and the Saanich 4H Lamb Club.

Mike Walden (Secretary)

Mike Walden is a partner in the Sidney law firm of Henley & Walden.  He grew up in New Westminster and later in West Vancouver and obtained his law degree at the University of British Columbia.  He relocated to Sidney in 1980 and has practiced law on the Saanich Peninsula for almost 30 years.  Each summer during all his university years, he worked in the commercial salmon industry, mostly in remote areas of the BC coast.  It was during this time that he developed a love for all things marine, including a keen interest in commercial fishing.  In keeping with that interest, upon completion of his law studies and prior to moving to Sidney, he worked as in-house counsel for a major fish processing company in Vancouver.  His present practice involves both business and personal law, yet still retains a focus on fisheries and marine aspects of the law.  He lives in North Saanich with his wife, Wendy, and has two grown children, all of whom share Mike’s connection with the ocean and its fascination.  He enjoys both working and playing on the Saanich Peninsula and continues to enthusiastically explore BC’s magnificent coast.

Nancy Barbour

Nancy has been an outdoor enthusiast all of her life. She has enjoyed boating and water sport activities in the 1,000 Islands of Ontario as a child and continues those activities with her partner on the Shuswap lakes of BC.  Nancy has held a variety of senior management positions with emphasis in human resources management, business development and operations in the food services sector. She began her post secondary education in Vancouver attending B.C.I.T.  In late 1989 she made Victoria her home and is since a graduate of Camosun College and Royal Roads University where she earned her MBA in Executive Management. Nancy has been employed by Van Isle Marina in Sidney since 2005 as a senior manager primarily responsible for human resources, administration and IT. She is implementing a recognized environmental best practises program at the marina, meeting stringent criteria to receive their Clean Marine BC designation for 2010.

Patty Golumbia

Patty has been a teacher for the better part of her life. Since securing her first contract, in 1986, she has been actively involved in teaching over three provinces, five school districts and countless schools. Most recently, Patty obtained her MEd specializing in language and literacy acquisition. She teaches at Parkland Secondary School focusing her efforts on two programs; Special Needs and Learning Assistance. Having grown up on a prairie farm, Patty feels best when outdoors in wide open spaces. After working in Northern Saskatchewan, both as a teacher and biological interpreter, Patty and her husband moved to Haida Gwaii in 1993. It was there that they found a surrogate love replacing waving wheat fields with the roll of the sea. During the decade that she lived on Haida Gwaii Patty was a board member of the Gowgaia Institute, an organization that focuses community energy toward ensuring sustainability on the archipelago. Along with involvement in numerous community-based organizations and initiatives, Patty is a founding member of the Living and Learning School; an independent school with an outdoor education focus. When not working, Patty and her family can be found exploring the Gulf Islands in their Zodiac Hurricane.

Rhonda Reidy

Rhonda Reidy is a Master’s Candidate in the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University. There she studies fisheries science, focusing on marine mammal interactions with commercial fisheries. Her current research involves a quantitative analysis of the effects of sea otters on British Columbia’s high value geoduck clam industry. Since 1997, she has also been involved with marine mammal strandings and research. She participates in an ongoing cetacean monitoring program in British Columbia that acquires information regarding stranded animals via public reports to local organizations and Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Rhonda brings to the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre an enthusiasm for education in marine wildlife identification and preservation from 13 years’ experience guiding whale watching expeditions. She works professionally as a Marine Mammal Observer on survey vessels and is familiar with Canadian and US marine mammal regulatory regimes. She is also affiliated with the Centre for Whale Research on San Juan Island, WA, through her partner’s photo-identification research on whales in the trans-boundary regions of British Columbia and Washington State.

Dale Ryan (Chair, Marketing Committee)

With extensive experience at the senior management level in sales, marketing and public relations along with a strong background in business operations, Dale has held senior level marketing and operations positions with American Express, Westin Hotels and Marriott Hotels and Resorts, along with a tenure as Director of Marketing with the Calgary Flames organization. She held the position as Director of Corporate Marketing for BC Ferries, spearheading that launch of the (Super C) Coastal Class ferries along with the development of key consumer products and business partnerships.

Dale has an MBA from Royal Roads University in Executive Management and was an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Tourism and Hotel Management. She has served on many boards in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Victoria including the Calgary Health Trust and the Destination Marketing Committee for Tourism Victoria. Dale resides in Sidney with her husband, Currie Chapman, and their children Jordy and Christie.

Alastair (Peter) Tough, CMA

Born in Vancouver, Peter grew up on the English Bay waterfront in the City’s West End, and naturally developed an affinity for all things marine. Several boats, (always wood) came and went in the manner of boats, and family trips to the Gulf Islands, and especially to the beautiful and mystical Desolation Sound with son Cameron, (now living in Jakarta, Indonesia), and daughter Joanne, living in Vancouver, were part of the summer ritual. While still a member of Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, Peter is sadly currently boatless.

A Certified Management Accountant, Peter’s professional career started with the Bank of Montreal, and went on to include executive positions in the transportation industry and CEO of a Vancouver based manufacturing facility. Peter’s connection with Vancouver Island was initiated by the Bank transferring him to Esquimalt, and the appeal of the island life-style resulted in a permanent move, first to Victoria in 1986, and then to Sidney in 1991. From that time, Peter has been involved with Management Consulting Services to small business. At present, Peter is semi-retired, but continuing to offer services on a limited basis.

Dr. Verena Tunnicliffe

Verena Tunnicliffe is a Professor of Marine Biology at the University of Victoria where she holds a Canada Research Chair in Deep Oceans. Her research programs focus on life in extreme environments such as low oxygen, high currents, hot vents and subsea volcanoes. She has made over 120-manned submersible dives, developed deep-sea remotely operated technologies, and led or joined over 50 deep-sea exploration missions around the world.  Discoveries range from over 60 new species to novel subsea communities – some at our Sidney doorstep. She is also Director of the VENUS Project:  the Victoria Experimental Network Under the Sea. This cabled observatory is the first in the world to link both researchers and the public to the ocean through arrays of instruments on the seafloor. An important part of Verena’s work is to connect the Canadian public to its oceans through outreach and public education. Research and developments of her laboratory, students and the VENUS Team are frequent media topics. In particular, deep-sea visuals are highly compelling and her images have appeared in books, magazines, and visual media around the world.

Owen Redfern (Founding President and President Emeritus)

Owen Redfern, after schooling in England, then five years as Deck Officer in the Merchant Navy, earned an Honours engineering degree at the University of Waterloo. He has spent over 40 years in the construction industry as a Professional Engineer and a General Contractor, and has been involved in many related activities including Vice-Chair of the Canadian Construction Association and President of the Provincial Construction Association. He has operated his own company for many years. He has supported many community organizations as Chair of the National Gymnastics Championships, Rotary Club President, Chair of the Sidney Historical and Marine Mammal Museums, as well as Board Member of a Supported Housing project, a Children’s Hospital Hostel, and many Peninsula community committees. With a lifelong interest in things marine, he served as the Founding Chair of the New Marine Centre, and was active in the construction and design of the facility.

Past Board Members

Markus Griesser, and Terry Curran

Rick Hudson

Rick Hudson holds B.Sc. Engineering from the University of Cape Town, and M.A. and Ph.D. Engineering-Physics from the University of Cambridge. He worked in Canada’s Arctic as senior oceanographer for Dome Petroleum before starting his own company located on the Saanich Peninsula. Through a process of amalgamations, Applied Microsystems became Canada’s largest manufacturer of undersea scientific equipment by the early 1990’s. A prolific writer, Dr. Hudson has contributed to many scientific publications and trade magazines, and produced science documentary films. He is the author of four books and served as an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria. In the early 1990s, with his wife, he started Mineral World, a geological tourist attraction on Sidney’s waterfront, and taught thousands of students in natural science classes. He was also Chair of the Board of the Marine Ecology Centre located in Sidney. A committed environmentalist all his life, Rick has led or been a member of many mountaineering expeditions, making numerous first ascents of remote peaks in Greenland, Patagonia, the Himalayas and Canada.

Dr. John Harper

John Harper is President of Coastal and Ocean Resources Inc., a Sidney-based company that offers professional consulting services in geological and environmental sciences related to the marine environment from the coastline to the deep sea. John brought more than 25 years of coastal research experience to the company. He has published widely on coastal processes, arctic coastal and marine environments, oil spills, and coastal and seabed mapping techniques and protocols. Dr. Harper has formal training in geology (B.Sc., University of Massachusetts) and in marine sciences (M.Sc. and Ph.D., Louisiana State University). He is an adjunct professor in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria (British Columbia, Canada) and supervises graduate students in programs related to coastal and marine geology. He is routinely involved in training programs, including several on oil spill sensitivity mapping (Costa Rica and China). Dr. Harper has been deeply involved in many community-based environmental projects including his involvement in exploring the ‘clam gardens’ as told in the amazing DVD Ancient Sea Gardens.

Barbara Taylor

Barbara Taylor brought 40 years of volunteer and staff experience working in the not-for-profit sector. She takes great pride in her volunteer contributions to the financial development programs of the YMCA in Sudbury, St. John’s, and Montreal.

In 1986, she assumed a senior staff role with the West Mount, Montreal YMCA. In 1991, Barbara was appointed to the senior staff role with the Friends of the Royal BC Museum. In that capacity, her responsibilities included support to the Society’s Board of Directors and supervision of a staff and volunteer team of some 175 persons. Barbara was also responsible for the expansion of the Friends’ membership, which peaked at 18,000, the planning and ultimate responsibility for a retail budget that grew to $2.5 million and strengthening the Society’s role in its support of the Royal BC Museum. Barbara retired as Executive Director of the Friends’ organization in 2001.

Barbara’s strong background in the areas of board governance, voluntary sector management, voluntary sector retail operations, and financial development was a valued contribution to the Marine Centre Board of Directors.

David Bartley

David was educated in Great Britain where, in 1969, he graduated as a Town Planner. He was elected a Member of The Royal Town Planning Institute in 1973 and worked as a Chartered Town Planner in three communities rising to Principal Planner. David emigrated to Alberta in 1975 after being hired as a Planner by Red Deer Regional Planning Commission. In 1978, he was elected a member of The Canadian Institute of Planners. Subsequently, he moved into Municipal Administration where, as Municipal Manager, he oversaw all aspects of Municipal Management in rapidly growing communities. In 1984, David moved back into Planning as Executive Director of the South Peace Regional Planning Commission, Grande Prairie. In 1992, he was hired as Chief Administrative Officer of the Town of Sidney where he remained until retiring in 2007. As CAO, he specialized in negotiating innovative approaches to land acquisition and development. In 2005 and 2006 under the umbrella of The Federation of Canadian

Municipalities he undertook short-term contracts to assist in the enhancement of local government services in Banda Aceh following the tsunami devastation. David is now working as a Municipal Consultant specializing in land development.

Cliff McNeil-Smith

Cliff graduated from George Brown Community College in Toronto in 1979 and from the University of Calgary, BComm, in 1986. Cliff has held positions in customer service and regional management with corporations in Toronto and Western Canada.

Since the fall of 2001, Cliff has been the Owner & General Manager of Tanner’s Books and the Children’s Bookshop in Sidney.

Prior to election to Sidney Council in November 2008, Cliff served on the Board of Directors of six peninsula community organizations, including two years as a founding Director of the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre.

Cliff and his wife Daphne and their daughter Emily live in Sidney.

John Knappett

John Knappett is the Chief Executive Officer of the Knappett Group of Companies which manages construction projects including sewage treatment plants, concrete frame high rise buildings, numerous highway bridges, and commercial and institutional buildings throughout the Pacific Northwest since 1983. Previously, he was employed in the Construction and Engineering Consulting Fields on many Projects throughout British Columbia. Active in the community, he is a Director with B C Hydro and Power Authority, Victoria Civic Heritage Trust and the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre . Previously, Mr. Knappett served as a Director and Chairman of the Vancouver Island Construction Association, the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association, and a Director of the Canadian Construction Association and the Construction Safety Network. He holds his Bachelor of Applied Science in Civil Engineering from the University of British Columbia and his Diploma of Technology in Geomatics (Survey) Engineering from the BC Institute of Technology.

John comes from a pioneering family on Vancouver Island and was born in Comox and grew up in the Chemainus area . Coming from a Family active in all things outdoors on Vancouver Island John his wife Betty Ann, and 3 Children, James, Kristina and Daniel enjoy an active lifestyle on “ Trilogy” their trawler and a collection of Kayaks, Canoes, Windsurf boards and kite boards. All things wet are enthusiastically embraced in the Knappett household.