Board of Directors and CEO

Piers McDonald

An officer of the Order of Canada, Piers is a founder of the Partnership and led the company as CEO from 2004 through 2009. Piers is past Minister of Education and Past Premier (1996-2000) of the Yukon Territory. He currently holds the position of Vice Chair of the Canada Games Council and was Chairman of the 2007 Canada Winter Games, the largest event ever organized and held in Canada north of the 60th parallel. Piers is currently the Chancellor of Yukon College and Chair of the Yukon Water Board. He has been Chairman of NVD since inception and has provided visionary guidance for the Partnership. He is a member of the Development and Governance Committees of the board.

Myron Tetreault

Myron is a Calgary-based lawyer and entrepreneur. After a law career at Bennett Jones, Myron has been a service officer and/or an active board member of a number of private and public companies including Fitzroy Developments, Echo Merchant Fund and Microplanet, for which he was Chairman of the Board. At NVD, Myron has acted as chair of both the Audit Committee and now the Governance Committee. Currently Myron serves as President and CEO of Petrolia Inc. He is also director of Webber Acadamy Foundation, a non profit company that operates a private school in Calgary. Myron is also an avid long distance runner, and recently established a Guinness World Book Record for a tethered marathon run with 9 other colleagues.

Hannes Kovac

Hannes chairs the Development Committee and has been a director since 2009.  As President and CEO for OPUS Corporation, Hannes Kovac has been influencing the real estate development market in Calgary for over fifteen years. An industry leader, he has developed a strong reputation by guiding his team to develop over twenty five million square feet of real estate. He was instrumental in landmark developments such as OPUS 8 downtown, the Golder Building and Interplex Business Park, Stampede Station, and the Stantec Centre.  Hannes has been awarded the Calgary Downtown Vitality Award as well as the 2008 Leader of Tomorrow Award. He is a member of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) as well as the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO). Committed to giving back to the community, he participates in the Easter Seals Rappel Challenge, Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation Calgary Tower Rappel, holds a board positon with Calgary Economic Development as well as supporting agencies such as the Special Olympics, Inn from the Cold, Meals on Wheels and Kids Cancer Care Foundation. A native of Austria, he graduated with a Masters of Law from the Karl-Franzens University of Graz, Austria, before going on to do post-graduate studies in International Law at the University of Antwerp, Belgium.

Ian McAuley

Ian McAuley is President of American Hotel Income Properties REIT LP, a TSX listed owner of more than 110 premium branded, select service hotels with more than 11,500 guest rooms located throughout the United States.  From 2011 to 2015, Ian was President and CEO of Continuum Health Care Holdings Ltd, a seniors housing owner and operator, where he led the transformation of the company by establishing a new strategic direction, improving operational performance, and enhancing shareholder value through a series of transactions which culminated in the final sale of the company’s assets in 2015 to Health Care REIT.  In 2000, Mr. McAuley was a co-founder of Superior Lodging Corp., one of Canada’s largest developers of limited and select-service hotel properties and served as its President and Chief Operating Officer until September 2011.

Mr. McAuley is a co-recipient of the Canadian Hotel Industry Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the Canadian Hotel Investment Conference. He has served or currently serves as a Director of the Hotel Association of Canada, Airline Hotels & Resorts Ltd., Northern Vision Development LP, Hallmark Properties Ltd., and Theatre Calgary.

Mr. McAuley is a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors, holds MBA and BA degrees along with a specialized diploma in Hospitality Administration, and has recently completed the ICD-Rotman Directors Education Program.

Lori Simcox

Lori Simcox, BBA, MBA, CMC

Lori Simcox has a Bachelor of Business Administration from Simon Fraser University and an MBA from Royal Roads University. She is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) with the Canadian Association of Management Consultants. Ms. Simcox’s graduate consulting work involved First Nation Administration strategic planning. An independent consultant, Ms. Simcox has led several consulting projects for the Federal government, worked on projects for small business and works as an internal management consultant in several sectors for the economic development department of the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation. She sat on the technical working board for the Four Host First Nation’s Olympic Secretariat, is on Executive Board for the Aboriginal Tourism Association of BC as Treasurer, and volunteers with Start-Up Canada. Ms. Simcox was involved in the development of Takaya Tours Inc., an award-winning tourism business and in teaching a course on Aboriginal Tourism at the Canadian Tourism College in Vancouver. Ms. Simcox also provides support and completed marketing contracts for Takaya Developments, a real estate development company, worked as operations manager for Alpha Ashpalt and currently operates Spal General Contructors Inc. as CEO, creating and developing partnerships in the construction industry and winning bid opportunities. In 2010, Ms. Simcox and her business partner, opened the successful Unity Clothing Inc, in Whitehorse, Yukon. Ms. Simcox has made several presentations at leadership and economic development conferences including the National Aboriginal Business Opportunities Conference in Osoyoos BC. Lori is a Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in Citizen who joined the NVD Board in November 2017.

Shirley Adamson

A Ta’an Kwäch’än citizen, Shirley is currently president of Little Berry Productions Inc. and Keyah Productions Inc. From 1999-2011 she was CEO of Northern Native Broadcasting Yukon as well as subsidiaries Keyah Productions Inc. and CHON Productions Inc. From 1996 through 1999, Shirley served as Grand Chief of the Council of Yukon First Nations. And before that as the Chairperson of the Ta’an Kwäch’än Council.  She is, or has, served as a Director or Trustee of a number of corporations and boards, including being a Director of the Yukon Hospital Corporation and a member of the Board of Governors of Yukon College.

Robert Savin

Robert is the Managing Director and co-founder of WealthBridge, an independent integrated wealth management firm. Prior to WealthBridge, Robert joined Canadian Wealth Management in 2000 as a Senior Financial Advisor and established CWM Funds Inc, in 2001. In 2002, he was made Partner in Canadian Wealth Management Group and was appointed President in 2005. Robert is a business economics graduate of the University of Regina and holds a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation. He is a member of the Calgary Estate Planning Counsel and the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (TEP).Robert was honored to receive a “Top 40 Under 40” award by Calgary Inc. magazine in recognition of his outstanding business and community contributions and is the past chair of the Calgary YMCA and has served on the Boards of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and St. John’s School of Alberta. Robert was a founding member of NVD LP and is a shareholder of NVD Corp, the General Partner. He has assisted with much of NVD’s financing activity since inception and joined the Board in May 2015 after spending many years as an active unit holder.

Rich Thompson

Rich is a founder and a past director of the Partnership and has served as its President & CEO since 2009. He is an Alberta-based entrepreneur who established one of the leading advertising agencies (Parallel) and Multimedia firms (Tiger Media) in western Canada in the 1980 to 2000 period. After selling those companies into the public market, Rich has branched out into a number of real estate, medical imaging and advertising businesses but focuses most of his time on NVD.  A longtime member of the Young Presidents Organization, Rich acted as the Canadian representative on the international board of that group from 2006 through 2009, eventually becoming International Vice-Chairman, Functional Committees. He has sat, and continues to sit, on a number of company boards, both private and public. As CEO, Rich provides executive support to the Development, Governance and Hotel Committees of the NVD board.