Our Board of Directors

Lists current members of the Board of Directors

Sierra Club of BC Foundation Board of Directors

Sierra Club of BC Foundation operates under the management and direction of an independent Board of Directors which ensures adequate resources for the charitable work of the Club. Our current Board members are:

Brian Pinch, Chair
Douglas McArthur, Vice Chair
Patricia Lane
Rahman Saleem
Tria Donaldson

Sierra Club BC Executive Committee

The Sierra Club BC Chapter is governed by a volunteer, democratically elected Executive Committee.

Governance and leadership are the core responsibilities of the Executive Committee. The Ex Comm develops the vision of the organisation and empowers and leads staff to ensure that there are adequate resources to realise that vision. Ex Comm members are also stewards of the organisation, fiscally and ethically.

The Executive Committee is elected by the membership on a two-year term with revolving terms ensuring continuity. The chair, vice-chair and secretary are elected by the Ex Comm members at the first meeting of each new fiscal year.

The Executive Committee strives to make decisions by consensus whenever possible.

2009 Executive Committee

Elected members:

Jamie Biggar (Chair)

Jamie Biggar strongly believes in the power of people coming together to educate, inspire and engage one another to create meaningful change. A graduate student in Environmental Studies, Jamie Biggar is passionate to create solutions to climate change that move institutions beyond climate-neutral. Working with the Common Energy network at the University of Victoria, Jamie sees his role as facilitating the self-organization of a committed network that will seed change in the wider community. "Moving beyond climate-neutral means that a person or institution does more to solve the problems of climate change than they do to cause them," says Jamie.

Patricia Lane (Treasurer)

Patricia practices law as a mediator, working with families,businesses, not-for-profits and all levels of government including First Nations. For nine years she has served on the Board of Coast Capital Savings and has worked as Director of Research for the BC Federation of Labour.

Stan Tomandl (Secretary)
Stan has worked up and down British Columbia for the last 40 years: in the north on the Stikine River as a commercial fisher; in the Cariboo as cattle rancher, logger, mill worker, and carpenter; on Vancouver Island as psychotherapist, counsellor, teacher, facilitator, and consultant. His environmental career began in 1987 standing on the beach of Meares Island with 200 First Nations and Tofino folks, waiting for RCMP and loggers to attempt to land. He has served on the boards of various environmental organisations over the past 10 years and is currently chair of the Friends of the Stikine Society. He and his wife Ann work with marginalised parts of human nature, society, and nature.

Kate Blomfield

Kate is a lawyer, practicing primarily in the field of Aboriginal law with Ratcliff & Co, a mid-sized North Vancouver law firm. She also practices environmental law, and has taken on cases through West Coast Environmental Law’s Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund. She is interested in building stronger ties between the Sierra Club and Aboriginal communities.

Lillian Rose Howard
Lillian is of Mowachaht ancestry and of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation, which is a member of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council on Vancouver Island. She is a Royal Roads University MA candidate in Environmental Education and Communication. Prior to attending Royal Roads, she sat on several committees/boards such as the Environmental Guardianship through Law & Education, BC Environmental Network, Canadian Environmental Network and BC Spaces for Nature. She has worked for various First Nation organizations including the NTC, the Assembly of First Nations and the Union of BC Indian Chiefs & the Vancouver School Board. She is an active community member in Vancouver East and her own First Nation.

Brian Pinch

Brian Brian’s membership in the Sierra Club has spanned more than 35 years and included many campaigns and numerous executive positions. Currently, in addition to being on the Sierra Club of BC Board, he is on the Board of the Sierra Club of Canada and is the Chair of the Sierra Club of BC Foundation Board.
Prior to retirement, Brian was a Financial Advisor for 22 years and was widely recognized as one of Canada’s leading experts in green and ethical investing. Earlier in his career, he worked on the social and environmental assessment of major natural resource projects for the Government of BC. He has a Master’s degree in Public Administration.
Brian’s passion for the Sierra Club stems from his love of nature and wilderness. He is an avid backpacker, skier and kayaker and has a keen interest in natural history. One of his greatest joys is introducing others to the profound beauty of our planet and he continues to lead Sierra outings.

Martin Golder

A graduate of the UBC School of Architecture, Martin has been a “green” builder since the mid 1970s when he worked with Shelter Construction on super-insulated houses in the North. After completing training in Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED), he designed the Cedar Corner building in Tofino according to LEED principles. Among the notable features of the building – which received acclaim during the Tofino water crisis – is rainwater recycling for toilet flushing. A member of the BC Mediation Roster Society (Civil), Martin also practices dispute resolution in construction and civil issues.

Appointed Members:

In addition to the elected members, the executive committee also includes three representatives from local groups. This term, the representives are from: