Board Of Directors

• Board Of Directors
• Board Of Reference
• Science Advisory Committee

Stanley Martin: Chair

Stanley Martin is a lawyer with Fasken Martineau DuMoulin in Vancouver, in the commercial litigation group. His practice includes constitutional, trust and non-profit issues. His engagement with A Rocha grew out of his love of birding, but he is learning to appreciate lichen, fungi, invertebrates and everything else that contributes to the coastal ecology. In 2010 he helped his wife Ruth and other friends organize a bioblitz on Hunterston Farm, Galiano Island, a 24-hour species count. Stanley and Ruth have four adult children. They live in Vancouver and spend as much time as they can on Galiano.

 

 

Ledford Lilley: Treasurer

Ledford is a Chartered Accountant and retired partner from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC), Vancouver, BC, where he practiced for over 35 years in the audit and advisory function for a variety of public and private companies, credit unions, and not-for-profit entities. He has worked with a number of charitable organizations and served on the boards of The Canadian Red Cross, BC / Yukon Region, The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and The Britannia Mining Museum. He is the Treasurer of his church, St. Timothy’s (Anglican) in North Vancouver,BC. Ledford was introduced to A Rocha through his son Patrick, who was an early employee of A Rocha Canada, and joined the board in 2005 where he has acted as Board Treasurer and Chair of the Finance Committee.

 

 

John Diack

Born and raised in the Lower Mainland, John has been married to Maureen for 26 years, and they are both actively engaged in launching 3 children into adulthood.  John is a high tech executive who has been blessed to work with and lead some of the hottest Canadian and International tech companies.The Lord sent John to Africa in 2006 where his worldview was forever changed and his heart for service began.  John now mentors 5 to 7 young execs, sits on 3 boards (including A Rocha), co-leads Alpha in his church, and serves as a senior instructor for the Junior Achievement Stay-in-School program.John believes that one’s relationship with Christ cannot be truly fulfilled until we can relate to all of God’s creation, including the Earth.  He feels that A Rocha’s ‘creation care’ message is desperately needed both inside and outside the Christian community.

 

 

John Wiens

John Wiens has lived his whole life within 20 miles of the A Rocha Centre in the Pembina Valley.  Interested in doing more with less led him to pursue conservation design in his home. A Mennonite heritage brought about a connection with the Christian and  Conservation aspects of A Rocha. Civil engineering and accountancy degrees, along with local business experience have enabled him to serve the Pembina Valley on the national ARC board for the past 5 years. He is a strong supporter of Pembina Valley programs.

 

 

Sandra Manning

Sandra married Preston Manning in 1967. Following a year spent in the Los Angeles area, Preston being employed there by the AeroSpace industry, they decided to settle back in Edmonton. The next twenty-five years were spent raising a family of five children on an acreage north of the city. During those years, Sandra worked as the business manager of a competitive sport organization and in a real estate firm, and also sat on the national Board of Synchro Canada. Sandra and Preston now have an adult family, ages 41 to 30, in all walks of professional life around the world, and are the proud grandparents to ten grandchildren.

When leisure and pleasure is taken, Sandra always gravitates to the outdoor wonders of God’s Creation, whether to work or play. Preston and Sandra are the “hired hands” and “wranglers” at a ranch in Alberta’s Cypress Hills, co-owned with their son, love to play with grandchildren whether in Canada or Singapore, and take every opportunity to retreat to their cabin and kayak in the mountains west of Calgary.

 

 

Ken Marr

Ken Marr , Ph.D., Botany.  Ken grew up in a family of field biologists in the foothills of the Colorado Rocky Mountains, and has always enjoyed being outside.  He feels fortunate to be involved in learning about the natural world and by doing so contributing to conservation.  Ken values the integration of Christian faith, care of creation, conservation science and education in a cross-cultural and collaborative context, that are at the core of A Rocha.  Ken received his BA in Environmental Biology from the University of Colorado, MS in Botany from the University of Hawaii and PhD in Botany from the University of British Columbia. Currently Ken is Curator of Botany at the Royal British Columbia Museum.  His interests include the biogeography and floristics of British Columbia’s alpine vascular flora, classification of plants in the grass family, invasive plants, and crop domestication in Asia.

 

Barbara Wernick, MSc.

As a child, Barbara delighted in exploring the seashore along the West Coast of Canada and the streams and lakes in British Columbia’s Interior. Her interest in the water world was deepened during her post-secondary schooling at Trinity Western University, the Au Sable Institute for Environmental Studies and the University of British Columbia, and she is pleased to be living proof of advice she was given at Au Sable those many years ago: do what you love and eventually someone will pay you to do it. She now has 15 years of professional experience as an aquatic ecologist, first with the federal government and now with an engineering and environmental consulting company. In more recent years, she has been blessed with the opportunity to explore aquatic ecosystems further abroad through project work in Australia and the Middle East, and while teaching coral reef ecology in the South Pacific and stream ecology in Central America.

 

Bill Wong

Bill is a Professional Engineer with a business background.  He spent his early years working in operations in the mining and forest products industries, and later as a project manager with an engineering consulting firm, specializing in bulk materials handling systems and marine terminal projects.  After graduating from Regent College with a MCS degree in Marketplace Theology in 2005, Bill felt called to serve as a marketplace chaplain with City In Focus.  In this capacity, he provides a ministry of presence to people outside the walls of the local church – meeting them where they are, listening to their life situations, providing spiritual care, and praying for their specific needs, when the opportunity arises.  Bill’s other passion is mentoring a number of emerging leaders, helping them to live lives worth copying.  Bill and his wife, Linda, have two grown-up kids and a son-in-law. They worship at Vancouver Chinese Alliance Church, where Bill is ordained, commissioned, and supported as a local missionary.  Bill’s main hobbies include hockey, tennis, cycling, and reading good books.