Upstanding Alumni

Class Notes

Find out what you and your fellow grads are doing now. You can share your news and updates by going to netcommunity.ucalgary.ca and clicking on “Class Notes.”

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1960s

Maurice Yacowar, BA’62, and the U of C’s 1986 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, has a new book out called The Great Bratby. Published by Middlesex University Press, it is a colourful and sometimes shocking study of Britain’s first modern celebrity artist John Bratby, who died in 1992. The book draws on exclusive access to the Bratby archive, in particular his intimate and revealing diaries. It is illustrated with Bratby’s major paintings and many unpublished works.

1970s

Kathleen Bulger, BEd’72, has been honoured for her 20 years of dedicated professionalism in the field of literacy by the Newell County Further Education Council. Kathy’s passion for literacy began when she obtained her teaching degree from the University of Calgary. Working in Calgary and then Bassano as an elementary school teacher, she taught primarily Grade 2. As her family grew, she chose to stay home and continued her teaching career as a substitute teacher. In 1988, she became the Newell ABLE Literacy Co-ordinator and has been in that position since. She is part of an elite group of individuals who are literacy specialists and is trained in family literacy. Kathy is a community activist working with the local Chamber of Commerce, the Historical Society and is also a member of the library board. She has been a county councillor, was involved as director with a community acting group and has run a successful bed and breakfast business.

Blake Chapman, BA’76, has been named the 2008 Chef of the Year by the Canadian Culinary Federation. Blake is the executive chef at Quincy Marie’s in Airdrie.

Elaine De Bock, BEd’75, retired at the end of June 2007 from her teaching position in Lougheed, Alberta. After enjoying several months of retirement, she moved to Funabashi, Japan, in February 2008 and is working as a teacher of conversational English in a private language school. 

Bruce K. Gibson, BComm’78, has been appointed a director of Enerchem International Inc. Bruce, who is also a chartered accountant, has more than 20 years experience, primarily in the oil and gas industry, as a senior financial officer in both the public and private sector. Most recently, he was the vice-president, finance and chief financial officer of Shiningbank Energy Income Fund.

Stephen Irish, BA’78, has been appointed vice-president of land at Triton Energy, a company engaged in the exploration and production of petroleum and natural gas. Stephen has more than 28 years of professional negotiation and general land and contract expertise. He began his career in 1978 as a district landman with Dome Petroleum and went on to hold positions of increasing responsibility with Rupertsland Resources, Westburne Petroleum and Anderson Exploration. From 1989 to 2002, he was land manager of deep basin exploration and production at Canadian Hunter Exploration, and from 2002 to 2004 he was land manager at Lightning Energy. Stephen co-founded Greenbank Energy in 2004 where he was vice-president of land until the company was sold to Rock Energy in 2007.

Larry Ness, BSc’78, has joined the management team of Petro-Reef Resources Ltd. Larry has over 30 years of oil and gas experience with several exploration and development companies including Petro-Canada, BP Resources Canada, PanCanadian, Prime West and most recently with Provident Energy Trust. He has extensive experience in exploitation, production optimization, facilities construction and design, and the drilling and completion of wells.

Mike Shaikh, BComm’77, has been named to the board of directors of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA). Mike is president of M.H. Shaikh Professional Corporation and has also been involved in numerous businesses and charitable organizations, such as the Calgary Police Commission, Alberta Securities Commission, Calgary Parking Authority, University of Calgary Senate and Education Matters for Calgary’s Public Education Trust. He is also an honourary investment counsellor for Pakistan.

Murray Smith, BA’71, has joined the board of directors of Stealth Ventures Ltd. Murray is a member of the energy advisory board of TD Securities Inc. He is also a member of the board of Shear Wind, a Canadian wind power electrical generation company. He also maintains a private consulting company, Murray Smith and Associates. Murray was appointed in 2005 as Alberta’s ambassador to Washington D.C. He represented the province in that city until his return to Canada in the fall of 2007. Prior to his diplomatic posting, Murray served for 12 years as an Alberta MLA, serving in four different cabinet portfolios including energy, gaming, labour, and economic development.

Renee Smithens, BFA’73, is working for six months in Cambodia as a funding advisor for MEDiCAM, an NGO working in the health sector with its headquarters in Phnom Penh. Renee has been based in the U.K. since she graduated from U of C, completing an MA there and, most recently, has been working as a management consultant with arts and cultural organizations. She has gone to Cambodia through VSO—Voluntary Services Overseas—an international development charity which recruits professional people in Canada as well as Britain and several European countries to work in more than 30 developing countries around the world.   

Walter Wakula, BComm’78, MBA’81, was recently named to the board of directors of Mart Resources Inc. With over 25 years of experience as a senior executive in the oil, gas, energy and banking industries, he has acted as a corporate CEO, CFO, director and board chair and as senior advisor to government ministries and to businesses in transition. He is currently the president, CEO and chair of Firesteel Resources Inc., a publicly traded junior mining company, chair of Blacksteel Oil Sands Inc., a junior oilsands company and chair of Foothills Global Capital Group Inc., a private equity group.

Showing strength through sport The irony isn’t lost on Rita Gore, BSW’74, MSW’85, that it was a diagnosis of breast cancer at age 48 that motivated her to take more responsibility for her health and healing. After undergoing treatment, she joined a dragon boat racing team called Calgary Sistership four years ago. Dragon boat racing for women with breast cancer was introduced in 1995 by Vancouver sports medicine physician Dr. Don McKenzie. He wanted to test whether the sport’s strenuous upper-body workout was reasonable training for woman in recovery. His experiment worked, and teams soon began to appear worldwide. “It is not only the fitness aspect of the sport that is significant to women who are learning to trust their bodies again, but the teamwork required to achieve a common goal,” says Gore. “As well, it is often significant for family members to see their mothers, sisters, partners and daughters taking a proactive role in fighting back against cancer and demonstrating their strength and determination through sport.” For Gore, dragon boat racing was just the start. In June, she completed her first sprint triathlon which included a swimming course at Foothills Pool, and a bicycle and running route on the U of C grounds. Gore is also developing her artistic side, by writing and doing photography. One of her pictures has been chosen to be part of a national photography exhibit which will be in Calgary in 2009. “For me, taking part in sports such as dragon boat racing and triathlon training has helped me to trust my body again, enabled me to be more emotionally resilient and willing to take risks in other areas of my life,” says Gore. — Beth Frank

1980s

John Budreski, MBA’86, has been elected to the board of directors of Cell-Loc Location Technologies Inc., a leading developer of network-based wireless location technology. Prior to this, John was the CEO of Orion Securities Inc. and Orion Financial Inc., one of Canada’s leading independent investment dealers. As CEO, John worked with Orion from 2005 until the successful sale of Orion to the Australia-based Macquarie Group in 2007. Prior to joining Orion, John worked for Scotia Capital Inc., RBC Dominion Securities Corp.’s New York office and Dome Petroleum Ltd.

Dennis Chong, MD’88, has been named as chief medical officer of the Regence Group. Dennis is now in charge of pharmacy services and the subsidiary RegenceRx, in addition to leading clinical policy and programs, and quality medical management for the Health Care Services division that serves all four Regence health plans. Dennis has been employed at Regence since 2006. Prior to that, he was the vice-president and senior market medical executive at Cigna HealthCare.

Mark Gow, BComm’81, was recently appointed VP and CFO of the Fording Canadian Coal Trust. Mark will also be appointed VP and CFO of the Elk Valley Coal Partnership by its managing partner, Teck Cominco. Mark has been with the trust and its predecessors for 11 years. He previously held the position of vice-president, finance, and prior to that held the position of controller.

Michael Kim, BMus’89, is returning to Canada to take the position of dean of Brandon University’s School of Music. For the past 12 years, Michael was teaching at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Wisconsin.

Gary Lobb, BComm’83, as been named vice-president, finance and CFO of Stetson Oil & Gas Ltd. He will concurrently be the vice-president, finance and CFO of Vast Exploration Inc. and Longford Energy Inc. Gary is a chartered accountant with over 22 years of petroleum industry financial and tax experience. Previously, he has held management positions in various financial capacities at C1 Energy Ltd., and Nycan Energy Corp.

Edward Mahoney, BSc’81, and Katherine Mahoney, BEd’85, have three children: Meghan who graduated from UBC with a BComm and is working in Vancouver; Andrew who is in third-year engineering at UBC, and Colleen who has been living at the Carmelite Monastery near Devon, AB, for the past two years. Ted is now chief geologist for Barrick Gold of North America, and provides technical support for all of the company’s goldmines in North America.

Ken McKinnon, BComm’80, was named the new president of the U of C Alumni Association.

Martin Price, MSc’81, is the director of the Centre for Mountain Studies at Perth College, U.K. Martin has conducted research in the mountains of North America, western and eastern Europe and Siberia, focusing on the interactions of resident and visiting people with environmental processes, with particular emphasis on forestry, tourism, conservation and the implementation of policies and interdisciplinary research.

Frank Raffin, BA’80, has recently joined Triton Energy Corp. as manager, geophysics. He has over 25 years experience in the oil and gas industry in Western Canada. Before joining Triton, Frank was at Rockyview Energy Inc. where he was responsible for all geophysical operations throughout the Peace River Arch as well as in western and central Alberta. Prior to that, he held positions with Gulf Canada, Equatorial Energy, Resolute Energy and Dunvegan Energy Ltd. Frank also has extensive seismic processing and well site experience and is a member of APEGGA, AAPG and the SEG.

Shelley Robinson, BEd’87, DipEd’97, MA’03, PhD’07, is assistant principal at the Calgary Science School and an associate to the Conservatory of Music at Mount Royal College.

Hemanta Sarma, MSc’84, the Reg Sprigg Chair in Petroleum Engineering at the University of Adelaide’s Australian School of Petroleum Engineering, is a recipient of the 2008 Australian Learning and Teaching Council’s Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. A national award, the citation recognizes and rewards the diverse contributions that individuals and teams make to the quality of student learning at the university level. In making the announcement, Australia’s Minister of Education, Hon. Julia Gillard, praised Hemanta “for initiating students into the profession of petroleum engineering while interacting with them to secure their welfare as individuals and success as scholars.”

Jim Stanford, BA’84, has just released a new book through the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Called Economics for Everyone: A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism, it aims to present a comprehensive introduction to economics in an entertaining, accessible and critical-thinking format. Jim is the economist for the Canadian Auto Workers union and a regular economics columnist for the Globe and Mail. His book is illustrated with humorous cartoons and easy-to-grasp “road maps” designed by renowned political cartoonist Tony Biddle. The book will be backed by a comprehensive set of web-based instructional materials—including a course outline, lecture notes, student exercises and a glossary—to support ready-made popular economics training by trade unions, community organizations and other grass-roots constituencies.

1990s

Dean Anderson, BSc’90, has joined Energy Navigator as vice-president of client management. In his new role, Dean will bring his extensive software experience to the executive team, providing additional perspective to support the company’s continued growth. Since his graduation, Dean has contributed to the success of a number of software and data companies providing solutions to the oil and gas industry, working for Digitech, Labrador Technologies, IHS Energy and Qbyte (a software division owned by P2 Energy).

Jorge Avilés, BA’92, is the new co-ordinator of corporate affairs at Arrow Energy Ltd. Jorge has more than 20 years experience in business development, corporate affairs and international project management; working with companies such as Lavalin/HMS Engineering, Quebecor and Northern Telecom, among others. As a project team leader, Jorge has delivered an array of training packages in English, as well as French and Spanish, in more than 22 countries; especially where superior trans-cultural skills are needed to ensure
the success of the project.

John Ballem, LLD’93, has just published the fourth edition of his well-known text The Oil and Gas Lease in Canada, with the University of Toronto Press. He is currently at work on a new novel, his 13th. John practices energy law with Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP in Calgary.

Bryce G. Bonneville, BComm’93, has joined the board of directors of Moneta. Bryce is a member of the Law Society of Alberta and since 1998 has practiced in the area of securities and corporate commercial law. He had his own firm from 2001 to 2006. Bryce has participated on a regular basis in the organization and finance of start-up and ongoing business ventures and negotiation of agreements in mergers and acquisitions. He is a founder of Andora Energy Corporation, Sentinel Rock Oil Corporation and Black Mountain Energy Corporation.

Peter Chouhan, BSc’91, is working as a land developer, planning the construction of hotels on a 61-hectare site in Pincher Creek. Under the name of Pinchme Corp. Development, Chouhan has concept plans approved for the site and is in discussion with some major retail operations. After graduating from U of C, Peter formed a digital billboard advertising company that he later sold and was involved in games programming before starting his land development business. He is currently heavily involved in alternative energy and holds a distributor’s licence for a major environmentally safe fuel.

Sandra Dame, BA’90, has been elected president of the Psychologist’s Association
of Alberta.

Derek Davies, BA’93, has joined Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. as a managing director and head of Canadian commodities within the firm’s global markets division. In his new role, Derek will lead the firm’s Canadian commodities operations, which provides clients with access to the bank’s global commodities business.

Brenda Dayton, BA’90, has been appointed as corporate secretary of Galena Capital Corp. in Vancouver. Brenda has worked extensively with public companies, with an emphasis on the resource sector. She has been involved with resource companies from grassroots exploration through to feasibility stage projects. Brenda is also a vice-president of Canadian Nexus Ventures, a venture capital group that focuses on public and private equity

Gwen Gades, BA’93, is running Dragon Moon Press in Red Deer, publishing 12 to 14 books of science fiction and fantasy every year. Several of her authors will attend a science fiction and fantasy convention in Calgary in October and she is making some of her authors’ work available online. Gwen has also branched out with a series of guides for authors of fantasy or science fiction. They are anthologies of advice from actual authors and have proved very popular. Now, she is set to branch into another area of fantasy fiction—paranormal romance.

Joanne Hruska, BComm’94, is president of Catapult Financial Management Inc. and is working with an award-winning portfolio management team. Based in Calgary, Joanne has broad investment expertise dating back to 1994, and has developed a specialty in Canadian junior oil and gas companies. She also holds a CFA designation.

David Jensen, LLB’97, is the new president of Skyline Gold Corp., based in Richmond, B.C. David recently served as VP corporate development with another junior mining company. David will direct the planning, engineering and development process at Skyline’s Bronson Slope mining property in northwestern British Columbia’s “Golden Triangle.”

Rita Wong, BA’90, received the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize for her book of poetry—forage (published by Nightwood Editions, 2007).

2000s

Kevin McPherson Eckhoff, MA’07, was one of the first artists-in-residence at Gallery Vertigo in Vernon, B.C., in partnership with the Okanagan College Kalamalka campus. Eckoff, who teaches at the campus, is also the editor of Skin of Me Teeth Books and Pine Beetle Press. He plans to introduce Vernon to something he calls typortraits—a combination of poems and portraits into one work.

Diane Guichon, MA’06, won this year’s City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize for her book Birch Split Bark, her first published book of poetry.

Ian Halliday, BKin’07, is the new head coach of the men’s volleyball program at The College of the Rockies. Ian says he knows he has some large shoes to fill but is anxious to rise to the challenge. After he transferred to the University of Calgary to complete his kinesiology degree, he developed his coaching talents, taking on a variety of positions including assistant coach with the U of C Dinos and the head coach of the Alberta provincial under-16 team. Ian is excited to be returning to COTR and to be involved once again with the Avalanche program.

Brenda Kenny, PhD’04, a metallurgical engineer whose resume includes a 20-year career with the National Energy Board, is the new president of the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association.

Kay Long, BSW’03, has published a book called The Widow’s Walk: A Survivor’s Handbook. Long, who graduated from the Social Work Extension program in Edmonton at age 65, wrote the book while going back to school after losing her husband to cancer. She is working as a program officer for the Lethbridge HIV Connection and has previously worked at St. Albert SAIF (Stop Abuse in Families) and for Meals on Wheels in Lethbridge. Her book is designed to help other women who suddenly find themselves alone in life.

Sharon McLeay, BA’01, MA’04, graduated with her master’s in life writing from the U of C in 2004. Since then she has set up a business near Sidney, B.C.—LifeTimes Books—that specializes in helping individuals prepare and publish their memoirs. She edited and published her first book Blue Waters—The Memoirs Of A Canadian Submariner, for Lieutenant-Commander D.T. Tudor in 2005. She is about to publish another book out of Calgary with Gordon Clarke entitled Full Steam Ahead, which interweaves the story of Calgary’s H.F. Clarke family with the history of its 100-year-old heating and ventilating business. She is also currently working on two other memoirs for clients in Victoria and Regina.

Tracie Stewart-O’Brien, BA’02, recently had her first solo show— Recovering Self—at the Gallery IS in Red Deer. The show depicts her personal struggle to recover her identity after experiencing a string of emotionally and physically painful events in the early ’90s. Layers—both of meaning as well as paint—are a common theme in the 15 works, old and new. The paintings, sculptures and photographs chart her journey as an artist, which has included stops in Paris and Mexico.