Simon Heppner

Simon Heppner is the Director and CEO of Food Made Good. After an early career managing restaurants in London, Simon became involved in offshore and remote location facilities management, deploying accommodation vessels to East Timor for the UN in 1999 and to West Africa for Total and Agip. Simon took responsibility for the increasingly demanding sustainability requirements under these contracts before joining Good Business, Europe’s leading corporate responsibility consultancy, in 2006 to pursue this aspect full time and co-founding the Sustainable Restaurant Association in 2010. Simon is a resident judge for the Mercury awards, chair of the advisory board for Unpackaged and a non-executive director for Farm Wilder and lives in Stroud with an unruly menagerie of children and animals

Ginger Brunner

Ginger is a Chartered Professional in Human Resources (CPHR) and trainer. She has close to 20 years of applied human resources and management experience within the tourism/hospitality industry. Joining go2HR in 2016, Ginger brings experience in developing, facilitating and supporting HR programs, as well as facilitating a range of college and university recruitment initiatives. Based in Kelowna, BC, she works with tourism operators and stakeholders in the regionalization of key recruitment, retention and training initiatives as outlined in the BC Tourism HR Strategy.

Cameron R. Wardell

Cameron Wardell is a partner at Mathews, Dinsdale & Clark LLP, where he practices labour and employment law. While focusing on litigation, Cam has assisted employers with a wide range of other matters, including the preparation of employment contracts and employment policies, collective bargaining and dispute resolution before labour, employment, human rights and other administrative tribunals. Cam has appeared before all levels of court in British Columbia, as well as various administrative tribunals and the Federal Court.

Cameron is one of the editors of CanLii’s new BC Litigation Practice Manual. Cam is also a past Chair of the Canadian Bar Association BC Branch Civil Litigation (Vancouver) Section, as well as the Employment Law Section. Cam’s legal education included a co-op term working in labour law, as well as a term studying at St. Peter’s College in Oxford. After law school, Cam was a judicial law clerk at the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Vancouver.

Dale Conway

Founder of Current Taxi and experienced entrepreneur with a demonstrated history of working in the hospitality, gaming & casinos industry. Current Taxi provides a high-level taxi service using luxury Tesla vehicles that are environmentally friendly, along with the ease of booking over an app or their website. Current Taxi wants to change the way people think about taxi services while helping the community reach its sustainability goals. Transportation can be responsibly current.

Chad Munchinsky

Chad Munchinsky is the Airport Business Development & Community Relations Manager at Kelowna International Airport. Kelowna International Airport (YLW) is the largest municipally owned airport in Canada. YLW has been operated by the City of Kelowna since its inception in 1946.

Teresa Ehman

Teresa Ehman is the Senior Director, Environmental Affairs at Air Canada. She is a talented senior leader who has been dedicated to creating and implementing strong environmental management systems at Air Canada. She also actively participates in industry associations as a respected thought leader.

Trisha Larsen

Trisha has been driving growth as a strategic marketing director since 1994 for independent businesses, multiple stakeholder cooperative marketing programs and destination marketing organizations. Always passionate and committed to results-based business strategies, Trisha’s marketing plans deliver positive return on investment for our clients and consistently exceed expectations.

Trisha’s comprehensive sales and marketing background enables her to define and develop marketing strategies that tap into new and exciting opportunities for businesses to build their brand, attract new audiences and enhance customer engagement.

Katt Stearns

Katt Stearns is the recipient of the 2015 Canadian Digital Marketer of the Year Award and was also nominated for the 2014 British Columbia Small Business Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year. Katt is a speaker, trainer and consultant for organizations, business owners and entrepreneurs that want to make sense of social media and digital marketing. She helps organizations focus on their primary platforms, tools and strategies in a manner that educates, empowers, entertains and engages audiences that help them effectively tell their story, build community, increase engagement and help meet their business objectives.

Jessica Fremlin

In Jessica’s current role as Marketing Director at Siwash Lake Wilderness Resort, she manages all aspects of the resort’s marketing efforts — conducting B2B and B2C marketing aimed at attracting both local and international clientele. Her role includes marketing directly to consumers and to travel trade; exhibiting at shows such as PURE, GoMedia, and RVC; hosting travel media and influencers; content creation and product development; initiating digital marketing campaigns; interpreting analytics; SEO; reputation management activities: and managing social media.

Dr. Paul Rogers

Paul Rogers is one of Asia-Pacific’s most experienced tourism for development practitioners. With 20 years’ experience as a senior tourism advisor to national and local tourism organizations, he has worked in more than a dozen countries in South and South-East Asia, Africa, and Australia. His focus has been on the policy and planning arena and using tourism as a vehicle for development. Building on this experience, he is co-founder of Planet Happiness, a non-profit measuring the happiness of residents living in World Heritage sites, and beyond.

Planet Happiness works to focus the attention of all tourism stakeholders on the well-being agenda; and use tourism as a vehicle for development that demonstrably strengthens destination sustainability and the quality of life of host communities.

Corrie Krehbiel

Growing up in the Okanagan Valley, Corrie Krehbiel developed a love of the land at an early age. As a 4th generation fruit farming family, her earliest memories were of the orchards she grew up in, where she was tasked with being the wildlife spotter and apple picker.

Corrie’s passion for winemaking began with a summer job in high school, when she worked in the cellar at CedarCreek Estate Winery in Kelowna, under the apprenticeship of then Winemaker, Ann Sperling. After graduating, Corrie enrolled at the University of British Columbia, earning a Bachelor’s of Science in Agriculture.

Corrie’s growing enthusiasm for wine brought her to the bourgeoning wine region of New Zealand, where she began a diploma in Viticulture and Enology. It was in New Zealand where Corrie first had the opportunity to put her education in practice as an apprentice at Helena Winery, near Christchurch.

Despite an incredible experience at Helena Winery, Corrie’s mind was always wandering back to the Okanagan, where she grew up, knew the land, and understood it’s potential for making world class wine. In 2000, Corrie decided it was time to return to her roots. After a few years as winemaker at wineries all across the Okanagan, Corrie joined Mission Hill Family Estate in 2015, with the intention of putting the Okanagan on the map as one of the very best wine regions in the world.

Geoffrey Lipman

Professor Geoffrey has occupied many pathfinding and pathmaking positions, including former Executive Director of International Air Transport Association (IATA); President of World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC); Assistant Secretary-General, UN World Tourism Organization. He is Co-Founder of SUNx Strong Universal Network; member of Club of Rome; Advocates Climate Resilience (Building global climate learning, innovation and resilience network; promoter of impact assessments. He advances tourism as a serious socio economic sector; drives airline liberalization agenda; pioneers new travel and tourism measurement systems, green certification, and China’s Tourism opening; devised UNWTO ST-EP Program, Davos Climate Summit, and G20/T20 program. Co-author of books on green growth, travelism, and EIU airline liberalization studies. Visiting Professor, Victoria University (Australia) and Hasselt University (Belgium).

Christina Beckmann

At the Adventure Travel Trade Association, a global organization with more than 1300 business, government and media members, Christina is the Vice President for Global Strategy and leads Climate Action. In her 20 years as a new business strategist and entrepreneur she has supported Fortune 500 companies, governments, foundations and non-profit organizations, leading diverse and globally distributed teams in more than 30 countries. Her teams’ strategies and products consistently have environmental sustainability, entrepreneurship, and community benefit at their core.

Christina earned a masters degree in Communication, Culture & Technology from Georgetown University and a masters in business administration focused on Entrepreneurship from American University. A frequent speaker as well as travel and technical writer, Christina also loves white water river rafting and has been perfecting her tele turns for many years. Originally from Alaska, Christina now lives with her family in San Francisco, California.

Jeremy Smith

Jeremy Smith is a writer, speaker and sustainable tourism consultant. He is co-founder of Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency, an initiative that supports tourism destinations, businesses and individuals in declaring a climate emergency and working together to reduce their carbon emissions in line with IPCC advice.

He is the author of Transforming Travel - realising the potential of sustainable tourism (2018), writes a fortnightly blog for World Travel Market, and is co-founder and editor of Travindy.com, the travel industry sustainable tourism website news site.

As a consultant, he advises on sustainable tourism strategy and communication, with recent clients including Bruges Ommeland, English National Parks, Tripadvisor, the Travel Foundation, and the European Travel Commission. He is a member of Travalyst’s Independent Advisory Board and was a member of Rotterdam’s International Advisory Board in 2019, helping develop a new vision for the city’s tourism.

Dawn Hancock

Dawn Hancock is the Director of Client Engagement at Offsetters and manages all aspects of Offsetters' voluntary client relationships. She is passionate about helping clients be more effective and productive in achieving their sustainability goals.

Offsetters is a leading provider of high quality carbon management solutions based in Vancouver, British Columbia, and is one of the largest, most experienced full-service carbon management teams in Canada. The scope of work at Offsetters includes carbon and water inventories, environmental footprints of products, and the development and sourcing of high-quality offset projects in Canada and around the world.

Dr. Susanne Etti

Susanne Etti (she/her) is the Environmental Impact Specialist at Intrepid Travel. Susanne leads Intrepid’s climate action work, including carbon performance, reporting and transitioning the business to the low-carbon economy. Intrepid has been a carbon neutral travel company since 2010 and in 2018 became the largest certified travel B globally. In 2020, Intrepid became the first global tour operator with verified Science Based Targets.

Susanne has extensive experience with over fifteen years in social and sustainability management. She previously worked in consultancy roles and supported clients in thought leadership, external disclosures, and building corporate sustainability programs. She has also assisted companies in developing GRI sustainability reports, become listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, develop Sustainability Strategy, and assess climate change risks and opportunities.

A passionate advocate for the environment and sustainability, Susanne is a mentor in the Climate Reality Project and spends much of her free time in nature bushwalking. Having lived and worked in six countries, she believes by empowering local people through sustainable travel experiences, we can make travel better for everyone and simultaneously take care of our planet.

Jeremy Sampson

Jeremy is the CEO of the Travel Foundation , a leading NGO in the travel and tourism sector. Under Jeremy's leadership the Travel Foundation is working with travel companies and destinations to better understand the impacts of tourism and maximise its benefits for local people and the environment. He has also been instrumental in spearheading the launch of the Future of Tourism Coalition. With experience in the tourism, conservation, and sustainability arenas, Jeremy has lived on three continents, and worked extensively in more than 30 countries with the public sector, SMEs, multinationals, and civil society.

Paloma Zapata

Paloma Zapata is a Tourism Economics consultant for the World Bank. She is also the CEO of Sustainable Travel International and leads the organization's global efforts to maximize tourism's contribution to conservation and development in order to protect destinations, preserve natural environments, and improve community well-being. With over 15 years of experience in sustainable tourism and economic development, Paloma has designed and implemented impactful initiatives and projects in 25 nations across the globe. Her work has ranged from addressing the shortcomings of the current tourism supply to deriving sustainable development strategies and formulating policies. Paloma has a postgraduate degree in Tourism Management and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. She holds an undergraduate degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Florida in the United States.

Paula Vlaming

For more than a decade, Paula Vlamings has worked at the intersection of tourism and sustainability, and she is the Chief Impact Officer at Tourism Cares. Her more than 10 years in politics prior to moving into the sustainability world provided her with a unique set of skills in diplomacy, fundraising, and cross-sector collaboration. Prior to Tourism Cares, Paula was the Executive Director of The Planeterra Foundation, the nonprofit foundation of the global travel company, G Adventures, where she pioneered incubating social enterprises supporting women, youth, and indigenous communities into the tourism supply chain. Paula’s sustainability work includes leading a national multi-stakeholder Food for the Parks initiative at the Institute at the Golden Gate, a program of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. That effort resulted in a national policy change to more sustainable practices in our nation’s parks, in collaboration with First Lady Michelle Obama’s Council on Environmental Equality.

Paula has traveled to over 75 countries on all 7 continents and is an international speaker on sustainable tourism. She has served on numerous nonprofit boards and is currently on the boards of Omprakash and the U.S. Travel Association.

Glenn Mandziuk

Glenn Mandziuk is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Region which has over a $3 million budget; involves over 4,200 industry stakeholders and 90 communities and hamlets; and undertakes consumer marketing, travel trade, media relations, research, industry and community services. Glenn has over 20 years’ experience in tourism marketing and community development, and has successfully administered and/or coordinated several community and product development projects, business retention programs, local, regional, and provincial partnership development, and marketing initiatives and assisted in attracting over $220 million in investment to the South Okanagan region.

Ben Liegey

Ben holds a Master of Engineering from AgroParisTech, which is among the top 10 universities in the world specializing in food & environmental sciences. He is now Director of Rethink2gether, based in Vancouver, B.C.He is the first accredited consultant “The PLEDGE on Food Waste” in Canada.

Ben's expertise lies in food sustainability. He has worked for multiple food retailers, including Ahold Delhaize in Europe and SPUD.CA in Vancouver (Canada). At Ahold Delhaize, an international food retailer based in 3 continents, he was the Sustainability Data & Innovation Coordinator. In this role, he was in charge of external sustainability reporting at the global level, and was leading a Zero Waste Working Group to share best practices among operating companies. He has also piloted the Food Loss & Waste Protocol, which is a standard released in 2017 to harmonize food waste measurements among companies, countries and cities all over the world.

Rochelle Turner

Rochelle is the Head of Research & Insight at MaCher , a sustainable design firm, a B Corp. and a signatory and participant in the United Nations Global Compact. In her role, she uses business and academic insights to understand the motivations and dynamics of people and organisations, applying research to help solve a client’s business and/or marketing challenges. Rochelle has spent her whole career conducting consumer, economic, market and policy research within the tourism sector. She has held senior roles at MORI (now Ipsos-MORI), TUI, Which?, the UK’s consumer organisation and most recently, as VP Research & Sustainability at the World Travel & Tourism Council.

Walt Judas

Walt has been involved in the tourism industry for more than 30 years, having worked at BC Pavco, Port Metro Vancouver and Tourism Vancouver prior to joining the Tourism Industry Association of British Columbia (TIABC) in May 2015. As CEO, Walt leads multiple advocacy/policy files, sets the strategic course for TIABC, builds relationships with members and industry stakeholders, and communicates the value of B.C.’s visitor economy to various constituents.

Before TIABC, Walt spent 15+ years at Tourism Vancouver as Vice President of Marketing Communications, Membership and Sport. Over the years, Walt has held dozens of board and committee positions. At present, he is on tourism program advisory committees for both Capilano University and Vancouver Community College. He also serves on the City of Vancouver’s Sport Hosting Grant Committee, and most recently was Treasurer of the Better Transit and Transportation Coalition. Walt has a Bachelor of Hospitality Management Degree from Vancouver Community College, as well as a Diploma in Broadcast Communications from the British Columbia Institute of Technology.

Richard Porges

Richard Porges is Destination BC’s Interim President and CEO, and previously served as the corporation’s Vice President of Corporate Development. Richard joined the corporation’s research department in 1999, and moved to progressively more senior roles within the provincial government and Destination BC. As Vice President of Corporate Development, Richard provided strategic leadership for Destination BC’s corporate communications, research and analytics, human resources, and corporate services departments. Before joining Destination BC, Richard taught in the Economics, MBA and MPA programs at the University of Victoria, and was a consultant for several government and non-profit organizations.

Marsha Walden

Marsha is the President and CEO of Destination Canada. Her career spans leadership roles in strategy and organizational renewal, marketing and communications, corporate social responsibility, operations management, and business innovation. Her corporate experience covers strategic planning and organisational renewal, marketing and communications, corporate social responsibility, operations management, government relations, capital project oversight, and business innovation. She joins Destination Canada from Destination British Columbia where she served as the President and CEO since 2013.

Paula Amos

Paula Amos is the Chief Marketing and Development Officer of Indigenous Tourism BC. She is of Hesquiaht and Squamish Nation descent, born and raised in the Nuu-chah-nulth territory on Vancouver Island. She has worked in leadership roles in the tourism industry for 20+ years. She has worked for the Indigenous Tourism Association of BC for the past 17 years and has been part of the industry's growth and success by driving results with strategies and marketing that work.

Her extensive business development experience includes business planning, market research and market plans for Indigenous communities and businesses in every corner of the province.She sat on the steering committee for the groundbreaking Blueprint Strategy for Aboriginal tourism in British Columbia. The Blueprint was the catalyst for developing Indigenous tourism in BC, and since its launch in 2006, the industry has grown by over 80 percent. Paula was also involved with the 2010 Aboriginal Tourism Working Group, in partnership with the 2010 Bid Corporation.

Paula is an alum of the 2017 Emerging Leaders for Sustainable Community Development program, was a co producer for the 2018 program and in 2019 delivered the alum speech to HRH, the Princess Royal, Princess Anne, in London, UK.

Lisanne Ballantyne

Lisanne Ballantyne is the President and CEO of Tourism Kelowna. Her 30 years of business experience includes public and private sectors: economic development; tourism; public venues management; print and broadcast media; major event production; government Indigenous relations; and working with sustainability, technology, arts, culture and non-profit sectors. Tourism Kelowna works on behalf of 400+ local businesses and regional stakeholders, Tourism Kelowna is the lead destination marketing organization for the Central Okanagan.

Tourism Kelowna supports a visitor economy that attracts 2 million visitors annually while generating 12,000 jobs and $1.2 billion in economic impact for Kelowna and its neighbouring communities. In 2018 Kelowna was named the best mid-size city in Canada for sports hosting and the BC Tourism Industry named Tourism Kelowna DMO of the year for outstanding professional excellence.

Stephanie Molina

Stephanie Molina is the Executive Director of Tourism Wells Gray and the Board Member of the Minister's Tourism Engagement Council. Ms. Molina has over a decade of combined tourism and public relations experience. Previously, Ms. Molina was a Public Affairs Officer for Alberta Ministry of Energy. She also specializes in media relations. Active in her community, Ms. Molina was a Board Member for The Advertising Club of Edmonton. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Oberlin College and a Certificate in Publicity and Public Relations from the University of Toronto.

Sydney Redpath

Sydney Redpath grew up in Prince George, BC and graduated with a double major in Finance & Marketing from the University of Northern British Columbia before joining the Cariboo Chilcotin Coast team. Sydney has pursued her passions for entrepreneurship, marketing and leadership through various roles in industries ranging from wine & spirit, restaurant & hospitality, beauty & self-care, fundraising, academic development and event hosting. As Director of Marketing & Executive Secretary for the Cariboo Chilcotin Coast Tourism Marketing Association (CCCTMA), Sydney provides strategic direction and internal program execution to the regional Marketing Committee and CEO to ensure all marketing priorities get the attention they deserve. In her hard-to-come-by personal time, she enjoys adventuring with her two rescue dogs: Bella and Roo.

Ingrid Jarett

Ingrid Jarett is the President and CEO of British Columbia Hotel Association. She has earned multiple awards for her contributions to tourism and business, including BCHA’s Hotelier of the Year Award (2017) and WXN’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada (2017). A highly respected and longstanding member of BC’s tourism and hospitality sector, Jarrett has built impactful partnerships across the province, working directly on behalf of industry with government and partner organizations and excelling at leadership roles in globally recognized companies such as Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, Boutique Hotels & Resorts of B.C., Watermark Beach Resort, Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association, Destination British Columbia and Canadian Vacation Ownership Association.

Passionate about mentoring the next generation of leaders, Jarrett has taught tourism and business courses at Camosun College, the University of Victoria and Royal Roads University and supports young entrepreneurs by helping with business plans, strategy and marketing. She’s established a well-earned reputation for inspirational leadership and tangible development of the hospitality industry in B.C.

Aaryn Secker

Aaryn Secker has ten years of experience in education and training. She is the Manager of Learning and Development at the Canadian Mental Health Association, Kelowna, where she assists businesses and organizations in growing psychologically safe and healthy workplace cultures. Aaryn has a master's degree in Education, is a CPHR Candidate, and is currently working toward a Doctorate in Educational Leadership.

Dylan Hrycyshen

Dylan is the Program Manager for Small Business Marketplace at Small Business BC. Dylan supports entrepreneurs with Business Planning & Strategy Advisory to grow and launch successful business ventures. His creativity and humour make for great one-on-one coaching sessions. Dylan is an engaging workshop facilitator who teaches creative business modelling, tips for financing and perfecting your startup pitch. Dylan's interest for innovation helps him stay on top of current trends and offer insight for any venture. Have a startup idea? Connect with Dylan to push it further.

Nancy Arsenault

Nancy is a builder! Not the bricks and mortar type, rather one who builds the skills, knowledge and confidence of tourism professionals so they can create new products, services and experiences for their visitors that contributes to the competitive appeal of tourism businesses and destination management organizations. An award-winning instructional designer, as a result of Covid-19, she is actively researching and developing new industry training online tools to support the pandemic recovery to add new digital training solutions for the long-term benefit of the tourism industry.

Known as the "Experience Gal", her mantra is "Do what you do best, partner for the rest.® A keen believer in collaborating to compete. As a managing partner of the Tourism Cafe, their company specializes in designing and delivering tourism training, visitor experience assessments, destination development research, case study research, business coaching and strategy development.

Described as “one of Canada’s tourism leading thought leaders and experts in experiential travel” by the former CEO of Destination Canada, Nancy thrives on helping others discover their potential, creating tools, tactics and strategies to help businesses and destinations enhance their visitor appeal, products and markets. She is frequently sought out to deliver keynote addresses and workshops and authors chapters, training tools and write articles for the tourism industry.

Michael Shellenberger

Michael Shellenberger is a global thinker on energy, technology and the environment. Michael is founder and president of Environmental Progress. He is a long-time advocate of clean energy innovation and environmental progress as part of a paradigm shift in how we think about and deal with environmental problems. He is co-founder and Senior Fellow at Breakthrough Institute, and on the Advisory Board of MIT's "Future of Nuclear Energy" task force. Michael is Time Magazine "Hero of the Environment" (2008) and coauthor of An Ecomodernist Manifesto (2015) and Nature Unbound (2105).

He writes for publications including Scientific American, The New York Times, & the Washington Post. His 2015 TEDx talk was on "How Humans Save Nature." He has appeared on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," in a feature-length documentary about pro-nuclear environmentalists, "Pandora's Promise," and has debated nuclear on CNN "Crossfire" & at UCLA (2016). His 2007 book with Ted Nordhaus, Break Through, was called "prescient" by Time and "the best thing to happen to environmentalism since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring" by Wired.

Dr. Laura Musikansky

Laura Musikanski is Executive Director of the Happiness Alliance, a nonprofit providing tools and resources for the Happiness and Well-being Movement including the Happiness Index, since 2010. Laura is also co-founder of Planet Happiness. She is the author of books including The Happiness Policy Handbook and Happiness, Well-being and Sustainability: A Course in Systems Change. Laura is a lawyer with an MBA and certificates in environmental law and regulation and environmental management, her version of an education in sustainability prior to the time when such was available.

Deirdre Campbell

President Beattie Tartan Integrated Communications and founder of The Tartan Group, Deirdre has been a communications professional in Canada for over 20 years, expanding her communications strategy firm into global markets since launching her own company in 2001. A respected communications strategist, Deirdre’s nickname alternates between the ‘connector’ to ‘ the communicator’.

Beattie Tartan has offices in Toronto, Calgary, Victoria and Vancouver, Canadian billings of $2.5 million and a team of 12 PR, digital, social and creative specialists. Beattie Tartan is chaired by Kevin Roberts, the former global CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi and former President and CEO of Pepsi-Cola Canada.Together with Beattie, Deirdre has created a formidable digital-led PR, marketing and creative team and is looking forward to expanding beyond Tartan's expertise in tourism to work with clients across various industry sectors including health, retail, education, real estate and technology. Deirdre's goal is to turn Beattie Tartan into the most admired creative communications company in Canada- guided by the team at Beattie Group, Laurna Woods and Gordon Beattie.

Deb Arnott

Debra has been the General Manager for the Corporation, since 1992. She is responsible for the overall operations including negotiating programs for the area. She has a passion and years of experience in community economic development and works hard to ensure that programs remain in the rural communities that are serviced by Community Futures. Debra has had the opportunity to participate and interact with all levels of government, cultivating relationships to enhance support in the region.

Michael Carroll

Delivering an exceptional customer experience is how I build my business, one client at a time. Educating clients as to what risk exposures are severe enough to cripple their business and which exposures may be managed without insurance builds a trusted relationship. I work with Business owners, Fishing Resort owners, Commercial property owners & Property Managers to offer comprehensive insurance for large industrial risks,commercial real estate, strata's, Director & Officers liability, and Errors & Omissions policies. By diligently marketing a commercial risk, I can obtain competitive terms and conditions delivered in a professional client binder outlining risk management strategies, and defining coverage in layman terms so my clients know what they are covered for and what they have decided to self insure.

A background in financial planning allows me to navigate complex financial statements to help my clients obtain bonding for their business, as well as accurate business interruption limits. Failure to adequately insure a businesses income stream is one of the largest causes of a successful business failing after a major loss. A trusted advisor works in conjunction with other advisors to maximize a business owners potential to grow their business. I work with my clients banker and accountant to get them ready to take their operations to the next level.

Roland Neave

Roland Neave has spent most of his life in British Columbia. His parents introduced him at an early age to the pleasures of hiking and mountain climbing, and these experiences often became the subject of high school essays. His first book, Hiking the High Points, was published at age 17. With the encouragement of his university instructors, Roland began gathering material for a book about Wells Gray Park which was first published in 1974. The 6th Edition was published in 2015 and the book has sold over 25,000 copies. Roland’s university summers were devoted to organizing bus tours of Wells Gray Park and, after graduation in 1975, he expanded this service into a year-round business called Wells Gray Tours.

Roland’s company is now one of British Columbia’s largest tour operators and arranges holidays throughout North America and around the world. Roland and his wife Anne live in Kamloops and have two adult children, Heather and Fraser. They enjoy frequent getaways to Wells Gray Park where they own historic Trophies Lodge, a rental guest cabin, and 300 acres beside the Park.

MJ Vigeant

MJ Vigeant and her husband Dennis purchased All-Ways Travel 3 years ago. Prior to purchasing the business, she worked in construction and logging for 21 years.

MJ's youngest daughter Tanya studied travel and tourism to become a travel agent and decided she really wanted to live back in the Cariboo. She applied at All-Ways Travel and they scooped her up. When the business came up for sale, it all fell into place and now they run the business as a family.

Barb Haynes

Barb Haynes is a consultant with a wide variety of experiences in her portfolio. She has had a long career in Marketing, Administration and Special Event Planning, and currently works with the Penticton.
Lakeside Resort and Conference Centre, which is located on the south shore of Okanagan Lake. Barb has also worked on many community committees and organizations including the Downtown Penticton Association as the Executive Director, many City Committees supporting Revitalization Advisory groups, Arts and Culture, and Economic Development.

Through her Event Planning experience, Barb has taken on the role of Operations Manager for the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association World and National Cups, established and organized the Penticton
Community Markets, directed telethons for OSNS, and worked at a variety of roles with triathlons…just to highlight a few!

Over the last 6 years, Barb has represented the Penticton Lakeside Resort with tourism. She was elected as the President of the Penticton Hospitality Association and was instrumental in bringing both that
association and Tourism Penticton back together. She is currently the Chair of Travel Penticton and has held that position for 4 years.

Choosing to retire…at least that was the thought…she purchased a vineyard and is the owner/chief farmer of Okanagan Hills Farm which is a commercial grower of grapes, offers short term vacation
rentals in their farmhouse, hosts weddings and special events, and sells farm-produced products through their store.

Dr. John Hull

John is an Associate Professor in the Tourism Management Programme at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. In 1998, John completed his Ph D. in tourism geography at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. His present research addresses sustainable tourism in peripheral regions with a specific focus on strategic planning and management as well as community-based tourism development. Additional research interests include: mountain tourism, health and wellness tourism, creative tourism, polar tourism, culinary tourism, cruise tourism, and nature-based tourism.

John has worked on tourism projects in North America, Europe, the Middle East, South America, Africa, and Asia. Past clients include the UNWTO, UNCBD, UNEP, UNESCO, World Bank, Nordic Council, European Tourism Research Institute, Commission on Environmental Cooperation, Canadian Tourism Commission, Tourism Atlantic, and Parks Canada.