Innovate BC’s new board of directors

Innovate BC, British Columbia’s primary technology agency, has a new Board of Directors, whose members were announced last week at the #BCTECH Summit. The board will become the province’s new innovation commission, chaired by Thompson Rivers Univ president and vice-chancellor, Alan Shaver. He will be assisted by 11 members and one ex-officio member, Alan Winter, BC’s innovation commissioner who was named last February. Shortly after his appointment was announced, Innovate BC was created in March 2018 following the passing of the British Columbia Innovation Council Amendment Act, which expanded the mandate of the BC Innovation Council, and renamed it Innovate BC. The innovation commissioner and Innovate BC are different entities, though they are expected to work closely. The board members have backgrounds in regional economic development, research and innovation, academia and entrepreneurship. They are expected to review the province’s technology and innovation programs and make recommendations to help grow the sector. The other members of the new board are: Lesley Esford, president of Life Sciences BC and PhD holder in microbiology and immunology from Univ of BC (UBC); Michael Fergusson, CEO and founder, Ayogo and named Ernst & Young’s Social Entrepreneur of the Year; Suzanne Gill, executive director for corporate development of Genome BC and holds an MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York Univ; Joy Johnson, vice-president for research and international at Simon Fraser Univ (SFU); Dave Krysko, co-founder of Club Penguin, which is a company bought by The Walt Disney Company and entrepreneur-in-residence of Okanagan College; Gail Murphy, professor and VP of research at UBC and fellow of the Royal Society of Canada; Peter Nunoda, president of Vancouver Community College; Jennifer Ouano, co-founder and executive producer of Pacific Content; Tom Roemer, VP academic of BC Institute of Technology and adjunct professor in SFU’s faculty of education; Benjamin Sparrow, co-founder and CEO of desalination company Saltworks; and Don Stuckert, a technology executive and principal of dstuckert & Associates. The innovation commission is part of the Confidence and Supply Agreement with the BC Green Party caucus.