Aimée Ippersiel, Executive Director
Aimée Ippersiel has grown audiences and deepened audience engagement for major Canadian cultural institutions including the CBC, The Walrus, the parliament of Canada, the Canadian Museum of History, the Robert Bateman Centre, and the Canadian Canoe Museum. With a focus on programming, communications, fundraising, and strategic decision-making, Aimée helps cultural non-profits improve impact and build organizational resilience. She has an MBA, a diploma in Museum Management and Curatorship, and a BA in Cultural Anthropology. Current board positions include Harbourfront Centre, and the Chawkers Foundation.
Denise Achonu
Denise is a finance executive with diverse service sector business experience gained across the senior living and hospitality industry and a professional services firm.
She is the Chief Financial Officer of Verve Senior Living in Toronto and is responsible for instilling a financial approach and mindset throughout Verve in order to enhance performance and stewardship.
She has served in senior finance positions at a number of public companies. Before joining Verve, she most recently served as the Vice President Finance at one of the largest lodging real estate companies in Canada.
Denise is a CPA, CA and has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Toronto. She currently serves on the Board of the CEE Centre Toronto and on the Finance & Audit Committee of the Oakville Aquatic Club.
Bernard Amyot
Bernard graduated from McGill University’s Faculty of Law and is one of the founding members of LCM Attorneys Inc., a litigation boutique law firm in Montreal.
He is a past President of the Canadian Bar Association and a former Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Theatre School of Canada. He also served as Chairman of Brébeuf College and was a director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Amyot is the recipient of the Quebec Bar’s honorary title of Advocatus Emeritus and a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Diane Blake
Diane Blake, founder and lead sponsor of Myseum of Toronto, has been a proud Torontonian since 1986. Prior to becoming an archivist, she worked in information technology, and studied at University College London and the University of Toronto. Diane’s philanthropic interests include, Loran Scholars, Soulpepper Theatre, HotDocs and supporting the apprentices at the National Ballet. She is currently also serving on the boards of The Walrus and Necessary Angel Theatre.
Micheline Chevrier
For forty years, Micheline has had the good fortune of working across Canada and abroad as director, dramaturge, teacher and artistic director. She has directed at such theatres as the Shaw Festival, the National Arts Centre, Theatre Calgary, the Globe Theatre, Prairie Theatre Exchange, Canadian Stage, Young People’s Theatre, Theatre New Brunswick and BeMe Productions in Barcelona and Munich. In addition, she has been, over those same years, Associate Artistic Director at Theatre New Brunswick, Associate Dramaturge at Playwrights Workshop Montreal, Associate Artist at Canadian Stage in Toronto, Artistic Director of Ottawa’s Great Canadian Theatre Company and, from 2013 to 2022, Artistic and Executive Director of Imago Theatre in Montreal. She has also directed and taught at the National Theatre School, Concordia University, McGill University, York University, Dalhousie University and the University of Alberta.
Gillian Evans
Gillian is a Toronto-based philanthropist and a passionate advocate for mental health. She is a founding supporter of Jack.org., has served as the Chair of the Board, and is actively involved in many projects related to youth mental health in Canada.
She enjoys working with charitable organizations helping them develop professional strategy, governance, human capital and operational capacities with a bias to building and executing fundraising opportunities.
Gillian has extensive human resource experience with a focus on executive coaching, change management and organizational capacity building. She has recently become a Certified Professional Consultant on Aging. Current and past board positions include CAMH, Jack.org, Siminovitch Prize, Making Art Making Change, and the Badminton and Racquet Club of Toronto.
Briony Glassco (Vice-Chair)
Briony is an actor, writer, and executive coach. Having worked in theatre, radio, and television in both the UK and Canada she now coaches public speaking and communication skills in Toronto. She has served on the Boards of the Gordon Foundation, Playwrights Workshop Montreal, and with many committees and boards of the Toronto District School Board. Briony reads more plays than novels and is honoured to be a part of this remarkable Foundation.
Colin Jackson
Colin Jackson currently serves as Co-Chair of Calgary on Purpose, Senior Scholar at the University of Calgary Graduate College, Board Secretary and Advancement Chair of the National Theatre School of Canada, and is a member of the Arizona State University New American Council for Art and Design, and the National Access Arts Centre. He is the recipient of the Queen’s Golden and Diamond Jubilee medals and a Canada Council Senior Arts Award. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, holds a BA from the University of Manitoba and a MPA from Harvard Kennedy School. The Colin Jackson Theatre in Winnipeg is named for him.
His work history includes being the founding artistic director for Winnipeg’s Prairie Theater Exchange, a current affairs and drama producer for the CBC, on-air host for Global TV current affairs, Executive Director of the Confederation Centre of the Arts (Charlottetown), and President of The EPCOR Centre for the Performing Arts (Calgary).
Susan Lightstone
Susan works in three capacities – as an educator, lawyer and writer/editor. She served as the Education Director at the National Judicial Institute, the educational organization which serves the Canadian judiciary. In 2011, Susan began working with the Ontario Court of Justice in Toronto, advising the Court on the design, development and delivery of their educational programming for justices of the peace and judges. In 2019, she moved to the Office of the Assistant Deputy Attorney General – Criminal Law Division, where she serves as Counsel, Education and Diversity Lead. Susan worked as a part-time professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa. Her work has included co-authoring several books and has appeared in an array of publications. Her most recent publication is Public Inquiries in Canada: Law and Practice which she co-authored with Ronda Bessner. From 1994 to 2015, she was a lawyer member of Ontario’s Consent and Capacity Board. An active volunteer, she has served on a wide variety of boards of directors over the years, including the Writers’ Trust of Canada, Project Bookmark Canada and Ottawa Salus.
Duncan McIntosh
Duncan is a director of theatre, opera and special events. He has directed and produced more than 300 plays, operas, and musicals in the last thirty-five years. He has been the Artistic Director of three of Canada’s largest theatres and regularly travels to and works in China. He has written 12 produced plays.
Alexandra Montgomery
After a thirty-year career in the not-for-profit sector, Alexandra relocated to Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.
Alexandra is a collaborative strategic thinker and change agent. As Director and CEO of Vancouver’s Bill Reid Gallery, she worked with Indigenous and community leaders to develop the expanded programming vision and create the infrastructure required for operational resilience.
As Executive Director of Toronto’s Gardiner Museum, she worked with the Board and other stakeholders to broaden the collections mandate and transform the Museum’s facilities in order to diversity revenues.
As a consultant, Alexandra worked with numerous organizations to develop strategic plans and build fundraising capacity. Current and past Board positions include the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, the Banff Heritage Corporation, and PuSh International Performing Arts Festival.
Kathy Siminovitch (Treasurer)
Kathy is a physician scientist at Sinai Health System in Toronto, where she leads a translational research program aimed at identifying genes conferring risk for autoimmune disease and connecting new genetic knowledge to improved health outcomes. She also founded and directs the Fred Litwin and Family Centre for Genetic Medicine, a program that serves as the primary provider of genetics health services to adults in Ontario. She has served as chair or member of multiple program advisory committees and grant review panels for the Canadian Institute for Health Research, NIH and other major national and international organizations overseeing research policy and funding. She was the founding Chair and is now a member of the Board of Directors of the Siminovitch Prize for Theatre Foundation.
Margo Siminovitch
Margo is a partner of the boutique law firm of Fishman Flanz Meland Paquin LLP located in downtown Montreal. She mainly practices in the areas of litigation related to professional responsibility, bankruptcy and insolvency law and general commercial litigation. Prior to starting her litigation practice, she was an attorney with the Federal Department of Justice specialized in health care related issues. She was a senior lawyer representing individual and corporate plaintiffs throughout the 20-year litigation initiated in 1993/1994, which resulted, in 2014, in a final determination of professional negligence against the Canadian accounting firm and partners of Coopers & Lybrand. She has acted as counsel in matters involving both fraud and negligence and has assisted clients in resolving shareholder disputes in relation to a variety of industries. Most recently, she has been involved in class actions against three major tobacco companies (insolvency proceedings in Ontario) and against the manufacturers of opioids.
George Thomson (Chair)
George began his career as a law professor before becoming a judge of the Ontario Provincial Court. Subsequently, he was a Deputy Minister at four Ontario Ministries, including Deputy Attorney General, before becoming Deputy Minister of Justice for Canada. He was also Executive Director of the National Judicial Institute and chaired Ontario’s Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform.
Marcus Youssef
Marcus is a playwright, actor, educator and artistic director. His fifteen or so plays have been produced in more than 20 countries across North America, Europe and Asia. He is a recipient of the Siminovitch Prize for Theatre (Playwrighting), the Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award, Berlin Germany’s Ikarus Prize, the Alcan Performing Arts Award, and the Vancouver Critics Innovation award (three times). Marcus is Senior Artist at Neworld Theatre, International Associate Artist at Farnham Maltings (UK), and a Playwright in Residence at Tarragon Theatre. Marcus also co-founded the East Vancouver artist-run production studio PL1422, and was the inaugural chair of Vancouver’s Arts and Culture Policy Council.
