Board of Directors

Annalisa King is one of Canada’s most respected business executives, and serves on three TSX Boards in addition to YVR. She serves as Audit Committee Chair for two of these Boards, and Chair of Governance for the third. Prior to her board career, Annalisa was Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President, at Best Buy Canada Ltd., where she led the Finance, Information Technology, real estate and legal functions. Before Best Buy, she was Senior Vice President of Business Transformation at Maple Leaf Foods, where she led critical strategies for one of Canada’s largest food companies.

Haydn Acheson has extensive senior leadership experience in the transportation sector, most recently as President and General Manager of Coast Mountain Bus Company. Prior to that he held senior executive roles in the Canadian airline industry in the areas of operations, customer service and flight operations. Haydn also has an extensive labour relations background. He is an accomplished airline captain with thousands of hours of flight time.

Nominated by Greater Vancouver Board of Trade
Mary Anne Davidson has 30 years of senior executive experience, beginning in the Crown Corporation sector in Saskatchewan, transitioning into environmental stewardship leadership and then leading the KPMG Management consulting practice in the prairies region. In BC, she served as CEO of an industry lead apprenticeship agency and as Vice President of ACCIONA Canada Inc. In addition, she served as the Chair of the YMCA of Greater Vancouver during its merger and evolution to YMCA of BC.

Heather Deal brings decades of experience as a scientist, environmental educator, researcher, elected official and literacy promoter to the YVR Board. She was elected in the City of Vancouver five times and served many years as a board member of Metro Vancouver and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, as well as being a member of, and chairing, multiple committees of those Boards.

Frances Fiorillo brings extensive airline industry experience in the areas of human resource management, operational strategy, and customer service. She has previously served in a number of high-ranking positions at Virgin America, the BC Provincial Health Services Authority, Canadian Airlines International and Air Canada ZIP.

Kevin Howlett brings 40 years of experience in the aviation industry with expertise in human resources and operational management and corporate and government affairs. Kevin was most recently Senior Vice President Regional Markets & Government Relations at Air Canada and also held senior positions at Jazz Aviation and Canadian Airlines.

Jill Leversage is a corporate director with over 30 years of experience in the corporate finance and investment banking sectors. In her former roles, Ms. Leversage was the Managing Director of Corporate and Investment Banking at TD Securities as well as RBC Capital Markets. More recently, she has focused on serving as an independent board member for a portfolio of companies. Ms. Leversage is a Fellow of the Chartered Professional Accountants of BC and is a retired member of the Chartered Business Valuators Institute.

Dan Nomura is an Executive Advisor for the Canadian Fishing Company (Canfisco), which operates a fully integrated, sustainable seafood business including fishing, processing and sales.  In addition to his extensive leadership experience in the industry, he is active in the community serving on the Board of the Richmond Olympic Oval, previously on the Board of the Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre and on several cultural, educational and sport committees.     

Juggy Sihota is Chief Growth Officer at TELUS Health where she leads the national strategy, execution and operation of the Consumer Health business. Ms. Sihota has more than 25 years of telecom leadership experience including leading several emerging technology businesses and operations across TELUS.

Kevin Smith is the President, Northland Living - the real estate development division of Northland Properties Corporation. Previously, Kevin was the Executive Vice President and CFO at Northland Properties Corporation. He brings extensive experience to the Board in areas including operations, capital markets, debt and equity financing, acquisitions and divestitures, and general business management. He has expertise in the operations, resort and real estate industries. Mr. Smith holds the Fellow designation from the Chartered Professional Accountants of BC.

Tamara Vrooman is an award-winning leader, known for her exemplary track record leading large, complex institutions in both the private and public sectors and her bold positions on sustainability and inclusion.

Prior to joining YVR as President & CEO, she served for nine years on YVR’s Board and for 13 years as the President & CEO of Vancity, Canada’s largest community credit union, transforming the business into a global reference point for values-based banking.

She currently serves as Simon Fraser University’s 12th Chancellor, chairs the board of the Rick Hansen Foundation and is the recipient of the Order of British Columbia (2019), Peter Lougheed Award for Leadership in Public Policy (2016) and BC CEO of the Year Award – Major Private Company, Business in Vancouver (2015), among many other citations.

Sany Zein is a Professional Engineer and senior executive with a specialization in transportation. He is the President and General Manager of the British Columbia Rapid Transit Company (BCRTC). Over a career spanning more than 30 years, Sany has worked in the private and public sectors and on transportation projects across Canada and in the United States. Previously, he was Vice President, Transit and Transportation (Canada) with Jacobs; and Vice President, Engineering at TransLink. He has also served as a Director on the Board of Coast Mountain Bus Company. Sany has experience on multiple mega projects; various project procurement methods; capital program planning, management, and delivery; strategic asset management programs; and transportation decarbonization initiatives.