Finance
Michael Fox has been appointed vice-president of sales at Coast Travelers Group (CTG), the commercial financing and leasing division of Coast Capital Savings. Fox has close to 30 years of experience in the equipment finance industry, primarily in the transportation and construction sectors. He has previously held senior sales roles with GE Capital, Canadian Western Bank and most recently with CIT Canada. CTG has also appointed former directors of the Bank of Montreal’s corporate and equipment finance divisions, Gregg Coad and Mark Aylward, as regional vice-presidents for CTG’s western and eastern sales teams, respectively.
Human Resources
Cheryl Johnston has been appointed executive director at Community Futures British Columbia, a community and economic development agency focused on creating jobs outside major urban centres. Prior to joining Community Futures, Johnston was director of operations at the BC Wildlife Federation.
Legal
Bavia Bisetty has joined Clark Wilson LLP as a partner in its commercial real estate group. Bisetty has practised at major national firms in Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary. She is also actively involved in local communities, such as the Calgary Bridge Foundation for Youth, and received a Lexpert Zenith Award for pro bono work for the Vancouver Hospice Society.
Ellen Kief, counsel, has joined Dentons’ immigration group in the firm’s Vancouver office. Kief, a dual U.S. and Canadian national, practises U.S. immigration law with a focus on business immigration for corporate clients and businesses in Canada, the U.S. and worldwide. Her practice involves U.S. cross-border travel, business visas, investor visas, family visas, permanent residence and citizenship.
Peter Mennie and Rachyl Myara were recently called to the bar and have joined Singleton Urquhart as associates after articling at the firm. Mennie and Myara’s practices are focused on general civil litigation.
Media
Jorden Hutchison and Alexandra Sewell have been appointed senior account manager and account manager, respectively, at Citizen Relations Vancouver. Hutchison has more than 13 years of experience in the communications and tourism industries and most recently spent the last two years as an account director at Avenue PR. Sewell has experience with communications and government relations across both the public and private sectors, having served as a key adviser to Canada’s minister of international trade and a publicly traded mining company. Most recently, Sewell worked as a consultant with the BC Chamber of Commerce.
Natalie Burgwin has been appointed senior account manager at Talk Shop Media. Burgwin has more than 10 years of communications and public relations experience and most recently served as director of communications at Bench. Prior to that, Burgwin held the role of senior manager, public relations, at O2E Brands.
Public
Michael Potter and Phil Sevensma have been appointed chief pilot, rotary wing, and assistant chief pilot, rotary wing, respectively, at Helijet International Inc. Potter has 25 years of flying experience and has flown with Helijet from 1993 to 2003 and throughout 2010. For the past year and a half, he has also served as a captain while continuing to work with Calgary-based STARS Air Ambulance, which he joined in 2006. Sevensma has more than 20 years of experience as a captain in air ambulance, offshore and other multi-engine, multi-crew operations. In addition to serving Helijet as a company pilot, training captain and safety officer, he has also served as a pilot and instructor for CHC Global, Chinook Helicopter and Thai Aviation Services.
Greg Cote, Roman Doroniuk and John Dubel have been appointed to the board of directors of Old PSG Wind-down Ltd., formerly Performance Sports Group Ltd. All have experience and expertise in bankruptcy and restructuring-related matters. Joan Dea, Matthew Mannelly and Bernard McDonell have resigned from the board. Michael J. Wall, formerly executive vice-president, general counsel and corporate secretary, and who has been acting in the capacity of president since the completion of the sale of the assets of the company and its North American subsidiaries, has resigned. Wall has joined the firm of Foley & Lardner LLP as counsel in that firm’s sports industry team.
Resources
Gordon Neal has been appointed president at New Pacific Metals Corp. Neal most recently served as vice-president, corporate development, for Silvercorp Metals Inc., New Pacific’s largest shareholder. Prior to that role he held the same position at Mag Silver Corp. Hongen Ma, New Pacific’s previous president, will assume the role of vice-president. Terry Salman, president and CEO of Salman Capital Inc., has been appointed as an adviser. Salman has helped to raise $20 billion for more than 400 companies over the past 35 years.
Hats Off
Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation Canada donated $20,000 to Richmond Hospital Foundation. The funds will support the purchase of a vein viewer, which provides instant visualization of a patient’s veins, helping Richmond Hospital’s medical teams safely provide IV treatments and improving patient care. To date, the Tzu Chi Foundation Canada has contributed more than $370,000 in support of local health care at Richmond Hospital.
The City of Burnaby donated $5,000 to Big Sisters of BC Lower Mainland. These funds will help the organization match at-risk girls with a supportive mentor through their one-to-one mentoring program.
Darwin Properties is celebrating its 30th year on the North Shore and recently held its 17th annual golf tournament at Seymour Golf & Country Club. More than $60,000 was raised with all proceeds going to Team Finn, a volunteer-based organization dedicated to raising awareness of and funds for pediatric cancer research, and to the Make a Wish Foundation for BC & Yukon.
Pizza Hut customers, managers and team members across B.C. donated $87,167 to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). Funds were raised through the purchase of paper sneakers and other fundraising events leading up to the 2017 JDRF Telus Walk to Cure Diabetes in June. PH Restaurants LP was awarded the 2017 Steppin’ Up Corporate Achievement award as Pizza Hut restaurants had a 47% increase in fundraising from last year. Vancouver locations raised $11,074 of the total. •
