Former CBC broadcaster Jo-Ann Roberts has been tapped to join the board of the Victoria Foundation, which manages an endowment fund of more than $270 million and is most particular about who gets a say.
Because the board is the largest non-government funder in the capital region, dispensing more than $15 million last year, board members undergo close scrutiny, said communications manager Rob Janus.
According to the 1936 B.C. legislation that created the foundation, board members must meet the approval of a majority of appointers — a group that includes a Victoria justice of the B.C. Supreme Court, the mayor of Victoria, the presidents of the Victoria Chamber of Commerce and the Victoria Medical Society, and the board president of the United Way of Greater Victoria.
Roberts, who hosted All Points West on CBC Radio for 11 years, ran unsuccessfully for the Green Party in the 2015 federal election. She serves on the boards of Literacy Victoria and Mount St. Mary Hospital, as well as on the advisory council for the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at University of Victoria, and is a community relations consultant with Threshold Housing Society.
Joining the foundation’s investment committee is Zaman Velji. Velji, a portfolio manager with the B.C. Investment Management Corporation, has also worked with the Aga Khan Development Network and holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Lindsay Auld, with six years in finance at the Winnipeg Foundation, will replace Nathan Lapointe, who is on leave until April, in the finance department.
Continuing members of the board include chairman Patrick Kelly, Rasool Rayani, Kyman Chan, James Darke, Karen DeMeo, Mia Maki, Mary Mouat, Carey Newman, Ian Wong and Grace Wong Sneddon. Deirdre Roberts continues as honorary governors president.
The Victoria Foundation has distributed more than $175 million to people, projects and organizations in the past 80 years. “We have a great donor community here,” Janus said.
Donations are translated into permanent, income-earning funds, with the proceeds used for charitable or educational purposes.
