Calgary Opera Board of Directors

Evan J. Hazell

Chair

Evan Hazell is a Managing Director within HSBC’s global investment bank. He has been involved in Calgary’s oil and gas industry since 1980. For the first decade of his career Mr. Hazell practiced as a petroleum engineer. Since 1992 he has worked as an energy investment banker serving a wide range of Canadian and international clients. In addition to Calgary Opera, Mr. Hazell has been actively involved with a number of other non-profit organizations, including the Calgary Homeless Foundation and CAWST.

Beverley Foy
Past Chair, Chair, Nominating

Immediate Past Chair Beverley Foy is a Chartered Accountant, and a partner of Collins Barrow Calgary LLP. As Treasurer of Calgary Opera from 1999 to 2003, she championed the establishment of an endowment fund for the organization. During her
three years as Chair, her focus was to expand Calgary Opera’s connection with the community. Ms. Foy is also on the board of The Calgary Foundation and the Calgary Airport Authority. She has held board and committee positions with the S.A. Opera Development Foundation, YWCA of Calgary, YMCA of Calgary, and Soroptimist International.

Leo le Nobel
Secretary

Born in Vancouver, Leo le Nobel entered the civil service of the general insurance business “right out of high school” on July 2, 1949. Now an account executive with the International Risk Management and Insurance Broking firm of Jardine Lloyd Thompson Canada Inc., he hopes that retirement is a long, long time away. His first opera, in 1945, was Rigoletto, performed at Vancouver’s Strand Theatre by the touring San Carlo Opera Company. It was the only source of live opera in the hinterlands long before the emergence of the regional companies. The Kirov's production of the Ring, in New York, was the 15th time that Mr. le Nobel has attended the tetralogy performed under festival conditions. His desert island opera would probably be Tristan und Isolde but he admits that he really would miss Tosca.

Dick Cooper
Co-Chair, Corporate Campaign

Richard (Dick) Cooper is currently Deloitte's National Industry leader for its Energy & Resources practice in Canada. He has held many roles within the firm, including Energy Industry Leader for the U.S. West region for Deloitte Consulting, Global Oil & Gas Industry leader for Deloitte Consulting and has been a member of Deloitte Canada’s Board of Directors. Mr. Cooper consults in the areas of value-based management, finance operations and information management. A Chartered Accountant and Certified Management Consultant, Mr. Cooper has presented on a variety of performance improvement and information management topics.

Donald C. Edie, QC
Director

Born in Edmonton and raised in Calgary, Don Edie attended the University of Calgary, followed by law school at the University of Alberta. He has been a solicitor practicing in the Canadian and international energy industries, with a large focus on regulatory tribunals and commercial transactions, for more than 30 years. Mr. Edie has been a partner in the law firm Carscallen Leitch LLP for the past 17 years, where he continues a full-time legal practice, while finding time to perform in many of Calgary Opera’s mainstage productions as a chorister. Mr. Edie also sings with Scarboro United Church Choir.

David H. Field, QC
Director

David Field has resided in Calgary since 1971. He is a Partner of Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP where he carries on a banking and corporate finance law practice. Mr. Field has been active in Calgary’s performing arts community for many years, having been a director and secretary of the Calgary Philharmonic Society, a trustee of the Calgary Philharmonic Foundation, a director of Theatre Calgary, and a founder and board member of the EPCOR CENTRE for the Performing Arts.

Richard Herbert
Director

Richard Herbert is the Executive Vice President, International Exploration with Talisman Energy and is responsible for Talisman’s global exploration program.  He moved to Calgary in March, 2009 after spending six years living in Moscow, working in the Russian oil and gas industry.  He is a geologist by training and has lived and worked in many different parts of the world.  Opera has been a passion for him for the past 30 years.

Christel Johansson
Co-Chair, Corporate Campaign

Christel Johansson has 36 years of experience in the banking industry, seven years in the international division of Union Bank of Finland and 29 years of commercial banking with The Bank of Nova Scotia in Calgary. She grew up in an environment with a strong focus on the arts and music which became a passion at an early age. Ms. Johansson’s intent is to take an active part in the effort to widen the interest in opera in Calgary and especially to reach young audiences and people who have not been exposed to opera.

Verne Johnson
Chair, Major Gifts

Graduating in Engineering from the University of Manitoba in 1966, Verne Johnson has 40 years of involvement in the oil and gas industry. Initially he worked with Imperial Oil in Canada and EXXON in New York until 1981 when he left to join the independent sector where he ran a number of junior and intermediate energy companies ending with the sale of ELAN Energy in 1997. Since then he has undertaken a number of advisory roles and Board directorships associated with private investments. He is presently an advisor to Statoil ASA and is a director of Fort Chicago Energy Partners, Harvest Energy Trust, Builders Energy Services Trust, Gran Tierra Energy and Suroco Energy as well as some private energy companies.

Sian Matthews
Director

Sian Mathews practices as a lawyer, specializing in private client matters.  She serves as a director of Canada Post Corporation, Calgary Municipal Lands Corporation and Heritage Park Society.  Sian is a regular speaker at national conferences  and contributor to legal journals on tax, trust and charity law topics.  Sian and her husband Gerry are avid music lovers, as are their children, Maggie, Owen, Jennifer and Jake.

Lachlin McKinnon
Director

Lachlin McKinnon is a Senior Consultant at Conroy Ross Partners, where he leads the firm's executive search practice in the public and not-for-profit sectors.  After an early unsuccessful audition for the World Opera Company's production of Aida, Lachlin went to law school.  He subsequently served as Special Advisor to Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, and practised civil litigation in Calgary. Lachlin holds an ARCT in Piano Performance.  Active in the community, Lachlin also serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of The Doorway, a not-for-profit organization that assists young people transition from street to mainstream living.

Peter Menzies
Co-Chair, Advocacy

Peter Menzies has been involved in all aspects of Calgary’s commercial and cultural development for more than 25 years. Now a part-time national Commissioner with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission and President of Menzies Strategies, a consulting company involved in civic and journalism education programs, Mr. Menzies spent 23 years serving Calgarians in the newspaper industry through the Calgary Sun and then 16 years at the Calgary Herald where he served as Editor in Chief and Publisher. A winner of national and international awards for journalism and writing, he works and volunteers his time with a number of arts-related organizations and is a member of the board of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce and the EPCOR CENTRE for the Performing Arts.

Marilyn Milavsky
Co-Chair, Advocacy

Marilyn Milavsky is a designer of women’s fashions and currently owns her own company known as Designs by Marilyn. Ms. Milavsky is involved with a number of community endeavors involving the arts, health, and sports. She has helped create events for non-profit organizations such as Hospice Calgary, Stars Air Ambulance, the Glenbow Museum, Esther Honens Competition, Alberta Ballet, and Calgary Opera. Along with being on the board of Calgary Opera, Ms. Milavsky is currently involved with The Banff Centre Campaign Cabinet, the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, the Banff Music and Film Festival, the TELUS Community Board, and will also be an ambassador in Calgary for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

Jim Reader
Director

A native of Ontario, Jim Reader has had a 30-plus-year career in banking in a variety of Canadian communities. Currently a Director with ATB Corporate Financial Services, Mr. Reader and his family came to Calgary in 1993 via Winnipeg. Mr. Reader is a strong believer in contributing to the community and currently has sub-committee involvement with the Calgary Homeless Foundation. Past board involvements include the Calgary Land Trust, the Winnipeg council for Business Economics, and the North Bay YMCA. IN 2005 Mr. Reader received an Alberta Centennial Medal for outstanding contributions to the province of Alberta.

Kathy Sendall
Director

Senior Vice-President, North American Natural Gas for Petro-Canada, Kathy Sendall has been inducted into Canada’s Most Powerful Women – Top 100 Hall of Fame, was recognized as a Woman of Vision and received the Women Who Make a Difference award from the International Women’s Forum in 2007. A Governor of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), Ms. Sendall became the first woman to be Chair of the CAPP in March 2006. She is Director of the Public Policy Forum, the Canadian Centre for Energy Information and the Canadian Council of Academies. Ms. Sendall sits on the Board of Governors of the University of Calgary and is a Past President of the Calgary Chapter of the International Women’s Forum.

Monica Sloan
Chair, Endowment

Monica Sloan is the Managing Director and CEO of Intervera Data Solutions, a firm that specializes in strategic information management and data quality products and services across the energy sector. Much of Ms. Sloan’s career has been in helping to build and sustain innovation within existing and new business and community ventures. Ms. Sloan is a member of a number of public, private and not-for profit boards, including past Chair of Calgary Opera. Ms. Sloan has a BSc in Applied Earth Sciences, a BA in Economics, an MSc Engineering all from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard University. In her next life Ms. Sloan welcomes the opportunity to come back as an Italian mezzo-soprano.

Arlene Strom
Director

Arlene Strom is Director Legal Affairs, Corporate at Suncor Energy and a public member of the council for The Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta. Prior to 2003, she practiced securities law at Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer, and from 2002 through 2004, Ms. Strom was a sessional instructor in securities law at the University of Calgary. She currently serves on the boards of a provincial constituency association and federal electoral district association. Ms. Strom has a BA in business administration from Trinity Western University and a MA in political science and LLB from the University of British Columbia.

Sheila K. Wappel-McLean
Chair, Special Events

Sheila Wappel-McLean graduated from the Bachelor of Interior Design program at the University of Manitoba. Since 1980, she has been actively involved in the design & arts community in Calgary. Sheila is recognized in the design community as a leader in the design & management of resources, timelines, budgets and personnel. Many of her large commercial projects have received Provincial and National Design Excellence Awards. Sheila has been directly involved in fundraising for Calgary Opera as a co-chair and committee member for several projects and she believes that as an organization, Calgary Opera is a fundamental mentor and leader in the Canadian arts community.