Our Board

Dave Angus is the President of Johnston Group Inc., one of Canada’s leading group benefit providers. He joined Johnston Group after 17 years as the President & CEO of The Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce.
Under his leadership, The Chamber has been instrumental in bringing World Trade Centre to Winnipeg; establishing Leadership Winnipeg; and initiating Yes! Winnipeg. Most recently, Dave was involved in the Winnipeg BOLD initiative. This is a grassroots public policy campaign that mobilizes the community in support of bold ideas to increase Winnipeg’s prosperity.

Recently, Dave co-chaired the Province of Manitoba Economic Growth Action Plan Initiative, which outlined a series of initiatives and actions based on extensive consultation with Manitoba business.

Dave is an avid supporter of United Way. He co-chaired the Winnipeg Poverty Reduction Council and lead an Employer Consortium initiative in support of TRC #92. . Dave has been a member of the Campaign Cabinet for a total of eight years (non-consecutively) and was the Campaign Chair in 2020.

In his current role with Johnston Group, Dave works with their 295 staff to continue to grow the business, be an employer of choice, and set a high bar for contribution back to the Winnipeg community. Johnston Group is a platinum member of Canada’s Best Managed Companies, having held the Best Managed distinction every year since 2001.

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Gail Asper is President of the Asper Foundation, a private charitable foundation, which spearheaded the creation of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

Ms. Asper graduated with a B.A. and LL.B. from the University of Manitoba in 1981 and 1984, respectively. After receiving her call to the Bar of Nova Scotia in 1985, Ms. Asper practiced corporate and commercial law with Goldberg and Thompson. In 1989, she joined CanWest Global Communications Corporation in Winnipeg, as corporate secretary and legal counsel. She served on the Board of Directors from 1992 to 2010.

Ms. Asper has also served on the boards of numerous other non-profit groups.  She is currently on the Board of Governors of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is Chair of the National Arts Centre Foundation. As well, she sits on the Board of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Ms. Asper has received numerous awards including being awarded the Order of Manitoba and appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, in recognition of her work as an arts advocate, fundraiser, and business and community leader.

In July 2011, Ms. Asper was appointed to the board as a Director of Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

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Tony Catanese is an Assurance Services partner in the Winnipeg office of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. He has extensive experience in assurance and accounting services, including the interpretation and application of Canadian, US and International accounting standards. His client base includes companies in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors and in a variety of industries.

Mr. Catanese has assisted the legal community in cases involving review of financial and accounting data, assessment of witness testimony and has appeared as an "expert witness" before the Court of Queen's Bench in Manitoba.

Mr. Catanese graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1983 with a BA (Honours). In 1986, he became a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Manitoba. In 1996, he became a member of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Business Valuators as well as a member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.

Mr. Catanese's community involvement activities have included work with the Health Sciences Centre Foundation, St. Paul's High School, United Way of Winnipeg, Villa Cabrini, Executive Committee of the Manitoba Chapter of the Institute of Corporate Directors, and the Manitoba Securities Commission Security Advisory Committee.

In March 2015, Mr. Catanese was appointed to the board as a Director of Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and Chair of its Audit & Finance Committee.

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Vim Kochhar is President and Founder of the Vimal Group of Companies in Toronto. Working for InterContinental Hotels and Howard Johnson Hotels, he was responsible for project management of major hotels around the world.

For the past 30 years, Mr. Kochhar has played an active role in community work by creating the Canadian Foundation for Physically Disabled Persons. Through this foundation, Mr. Kochhar has created the annual Great Valentine Galas, the Terry Fox Hall of Fame, Rolling Rampage for elite wheelchair athletes, the Canadian Helen Keller Centre, Rotary Cheshire Homes for the Deaf-Blind, and the WhyNot Marathon for the Paralympics. He has served as a member of the Advisory Committee of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

Born in India, he received his engineering degree at the University of Texas and immigrated to Canada in 1967, becoming a Canadian citizen in 1974. Mr. Kochhar was appointed to the Senate in January 2010.

In July 2011, Mr. Kochhar was appointed to the board as a Director of Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

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Since 2002, Anupam Kothari has been President of Kothari Group, a diversified company founded in 1996 by his father Norton Kothari, with investments in mortgage financing, equipment leasing, real estate development, and hotel management. He sits on the boards of family companies Mercury Mortgage Investment Corporation, Orchid Leasing, and Sargent Berry Hotels Inc. Winnipeg-based hotel projects have included the Hampton Inn by Hilton, Four Points by Sheraton, and the new Hyatt House hotel announced in 2018. They also built Winnipeg condo developments Crocus Gardens, Murano Gardens and Van Hull Place.

Prior to joining the family company, he worked in product marketing for Soma Networks. Anupam earned a BSc, Computer Engineering from University of Waterloo in 2000, and went on to York University’s Schulich School of Business and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management to complete his MBA in 2015.

Mr. Kothari recently joined the board of Concordia Foundation in Winnipeg. In October 2018, Mr. Kothari was appointed as a Director of the Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

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John MacAulay is the Regional President of Prairies Central with BMO Bank of Montreal. He is responsible for Personal Banking services across the Northwest Territories, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Northwestern Ontario.

John joined the Bank of Montreal in 1992 and throughout his tenure has held various senior leadership positions including District Vice President for Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario and District Vice President for the Greater Toronto West area. In 2013, he relocated to Winnipeg in the role of Senior Vice President and Division Head of Prairies Central Canada. In 2015, he was appointed as the acting Head of the Commercial Banking Business, a position he held for nine months. In the summer of 2018, John relocated to Calgary to assume his current role.

John is a member of the Manitoba Business Council, a unique group of Chief Executive Officers of leading Manitoba companies who demonstrate a commitment to Manitoba’s economic growth and community development.

He lends his experience to several charitable causes including as a volunteer with the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s leadership team since 2015; in 2017 he joined the Capital Campaign Executive for the Inuit Art Centre as Chair of Leadership Gifts. He’s also served as a Campaign Cabinet Member for the Manitoba Museum’s Bringing Our Stories Forward Capital Campaign.

John currently serves on the Boards of Heritage Park Society, Theatre Calgary, where he co- chairs the Development Committee, and Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. He also sits as a Director on the Manitoba Health Sciences Centre Foundation Board and as an Honorary Campaign Member of Manitoba Opera.

John has a Bachelor of Arts (Economics) degree and Master of Business Administration in International Business from the University of Manitoba.

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Ann McCaig is a leader in Canada’s charitable sector with a passion for education, health, culture and youth development. Born and raised in Tisdale, Saskatchewan, Ann received her Bachelor of Education from the University of Saskatchewan and undertook a career as a teacher. After moving to Calgary in 1970 with her husband and three children, Ann dedicated increasing amounts of her time to community service.

Over the years she has helped many charitable organizations by providing guidance as a board member and assistance with major fundraising campaigns. Ann is a member of the National Arts Centre Foundation and serves as Chancellor Emeritus at the University of Calgary where she is a former member of the Board of Governors. She is a Director Emeritus of the Gairdner Foundation, a former Trustee of the Killam Trusts and a former director of the Banff Centre Foundation. Ann is the Honourary Chair of the Alberta Bone and Joint Health Institute and Chair Emeritus of the Calgary Health Foundation and the Calgary Stampede Foundation. Ann has served on the boards of the Calgary & Area Child Advocacy Centre, the Calgary Foundation and the Alberta Adolescent Recovery Centre.

Ann has received an Honourary Doctor of Laws Degree from the University of Calgary, the University of Alberta and Mount Royal University. She was recognized by the U of S with an Alumni Humanitarian Award and received the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Award, the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Award, the Paul Harris Fellowship Rotary International Award, the YWCA Woman of Distinction Lifetime Achievement Award and the Generosity of Spirit Award for Outstanding Lifetime Philanthropist. Ann has been given the name ‘White Wolf Woman’ for her support of Alberta’s First Nations people.

In October 2018, Mrs. McCaig was appointed as a Director of the Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

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Howard Morry is a partner at Pitblado Law in Winnipeg. Mr. Morry has been awarded the prestigious “AV Preeminent” designation by LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell, the highest possible rating in legal ability and ethical standards. He is nationally recognized as a trusted advisor and community leader. He is sought out for his particular insight and innovation for structuring transactions for businesses, high net worth individuals and Aboriginal businesses and their partners.

Mr. Morry is widely recognized as a writer and speaker on taxation, estate planning, and business structuring. Mr. Morry deals in taxation law, estates, trusts & wealth management, corporate & commercial law, aboriginal law, charities and not-for-profits, gaming and mining and energy.

In 2011, Mr. Morry took on the role of Manitoba Campaign Chair. In March 2014, he was appointed to the board as a Director of Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

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Lisa Pankratz is a Corporate Director and Advisor with over 25 years of executive experience and 14 years of experience as a corporate director. She also serves as a director or trustee on a number of boards including the boards of Sherritt International Corporation, IA Clarington Investments Inc., the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, UBC Investment Management Trust Inc. and the Vancouver Foundation. She is also an advisor to the Joint Investment Committee of Pacific Blue Cross and BC Life & Casualty Company Ltd. and a member of the HSBC Global Asset Management (Canada) Limited Independent Review Committee.

Prior to 2011, she held senior executive roles most recently in the investment industry with Mackenzie Financial Corporation and Cundill Investment Research Ltd.

Previously, she served as a director on the boards of CanWest Global Communications Corp. and the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia. A graduate of the Ivey School of Business at Western, Ms. Pankratz is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA) and a Chartered Financial Analyst charter holder (CFA) and was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia (FCA) in 2007 (now the Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia).

In July 2011, Ms. Pankratz was appointed to the board as a Director of Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

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Pauline Rafferty is the former chief executive officer of the Royal British Columbia Museum (RBCM). Trained as an archaeologist, Pauline’s work first centred on archaeology, then on heritage interpretation. Throughout her career, Pauline held various high‐level positions in government, and was appointed assistant deputy minister at the Ministry of Women’s Equality in 1990. After retiring from the RBCM in March 2012, she has continued to be active on the boards of both national and provincial organizations. She serves on the board of the British Columbia Government House Foundation, and BC’s Provincial Health Services. She is a former board member of Simon Fraser University, Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce, as well as former president of the Alliance of Natural History Museums of Canada. Pauline has also been honoured for her work in 2014 with a Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Victoria. In 2016, she was honoured with the Order of British Columbia and also received the Queen Elizabeth II, Diamond Jubilee Medal.

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Me. Michèle Rivet is a member of the Barreau du Québec and an associate professor at the Université de Sherbrooke. She has been a member of the International Council of Museums Canada (ICOM Canada) Board of Directors since 2017 and Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights since January 2019. She studied law at the Université de Montréal and the Université de Paris, where she obtained a master's degree in private law. She also holds a master's degree in museology from the Université de Montréal, which focused on First Nations and museum issues. Michèle Rivet was the first President of the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal, established in 1990, a position she held until 2010. She had previously been a Commissioner of the Law Reform Commission of Canada and a judge for the Youth Court. She was also Vice-President of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) in Geneva from 2011 to 2017; she remains an honorary member. In 2005, Michèle received an honorary doctorate from the University of Ottawa for her involvement in human rights, both nationally and internationally. The Quebec Court awarded her a gold medal for her outstanding career in 2011, and in June 2015, the Barreau du Québec awarded her the title of Advocatus Emeritus. In December 2018, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Julie Payette, Governor General of Canada, appointed Michèle Rivet as a Member of the Order of Canada.

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Alex Robinson is currently employed as the Business Development Manager at Graham Construction and Engineering. He has over 25 years of diverse government and private sector senior project management experience gained through positions as the Vice President of Planning and Development at the Winnipeg Airport Authority and the Deputy Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Winnipeg.

Mr. Robinson’s educational background consists of degrees in Engingeering and City Planning from the University of Manitoba and he is also an alumnus of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. His political experiences ranges from being the senior political advisor to the Mayor of Winnipeg (he is a Fundraising Co-Chair for the Federal Liberal Party) as well as for President Barack Obama in the 2012 United States election.

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Arni Thorsteinson is President of Shelter Canadian Properties Limited. He is a Director or Trustee of a number of private and not-for-profit boards, including Lanesborough REIT, Temple REIT, ONEX Corporation, Bird Construction, Historica Canada, Michaelle Jean Foundation and Council on Canadian American Relations. He served as the first Chair of the Board for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in 2008.

Mr. Thorsteinson received a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) and L.L.D. from the University of Manitoba and holds a Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

In January 2017, Mr. Thorsteinson was named Vice-Chair and named Chair in December 2021. He was appointed to the board as a Director in July 2011.

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