Pacific WildLife Foundation Directors, Fellows and Associates

Directors

Dr. Rob Butler, President

Educated at Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia, Dr. Butler has conducted research on marine ecosystems for over three decades. He was a senior scientist with Environment Canada’s Canadian Wildlife Service for nearly three decades. He is the Coordinator of the British Columbia Breeding Bird Atlas, and an adjunct Professor at Simon Fraser University. He is a Fellow of the American Ornithologists Union and The Explorers Club. Dr. Butler has held several executive positions with national and international scientific societies. Dr. Butler has been a regular broadcaster on radio and television, and an author of over 120 scientific and popular publications. He has been awarded many international, national and regional awards for research and public service. More

Dr. Jim Darling, Director

From his home base in Tofino, Dr. Darling travels the world to study whales. He has conducted pioneering research on gray whales since the early 1970s. He earned a doctoral degree from the University of California Santa Cruz in 1983 for his research on humpback whales. His research has appeared in numerous television programs and magazines including National Geographic.

Dr. Dan Esler, Director

Dr. Esler earned graduate degrees from Texas A&M and Oregon State Universities, and worked as a research biologist for the US government in Alaska for more than a decade. Currently, he is a Research Associate with the Centre for Wildlife Ecology at Simon Fraser University, where he leads a research group focusing on effects of habitat change in coastal environments on migratory bird populations. In particular, much of his work addresses sea duck populations in the north Pacific.  His work has appeared in a wide array of scientific journals, and also has been featured in newspaper, radio, and television outlets. More

Dr. Ron Ydenberg, Vice President

Dr. Ydenberg is a renowned behavioural ecologist educated at Simon Fraser University in Canada and at Oxford University in England. Dr. Ydenberg is a Professor and Director of the Centre for Wildlife Ecology at Simon Fraser University where he directs over 25 students in a wide range of ecological research. He is also Professor in Wildlife Management, at Wageningen University, in the Netherlands. More

Kate Keogh, Director

Kate Keogh is a co-administrator of North Vancouver Outdoor School with Bachelor degrees in Zoology and Education and a Master of Arts degree in science and environmental education from the University of Victoria. She brings an understanding of classroom curriculum and practical ways that information from researchers can be incorporated into curriculum and made relevant to school age children. Kate has been a research assistant on gray whale, humpback whale, harbour seal and basking shark research. She has a strong interest in wildlife, particularly marine ecosystems, and a desire to increase public awareness and appreciation of ecosystems.

Rod MacVicar, Director

Rod MacVicar is a retired high school teacher in Vancouver with three decades of experience teaching environmental education to students. He has established salmon hatcheries, created diploma programs for students, and worked alongside many researchers in the field. For his efforts, Rod has received numerous national and regional awards. He also is a Master Mariner and owner of an ecotour company in Vancouver. More

Gillian Darling Kovanic, Director

Gillian Darling Kovanic is an award-winning television documentary director and producer.  She has produced films for the Aga Khan (France and Switzerland) on health, education, agriculture and economic development in the developing world.  In 1989 she co-produced and executive produced the Gemini award-winning film, Island of Whales.  From 1991 she had her own independent film company and made several acclaimed documentaries. From 1997 to 2001, she was a Doc West Producer at the National Film Board of Canada where she developed and produced the critically acclaimed film Through A Blue Lens and ten other award winning documentaries. In 2002-2003, as an independent, Gillian produced the feature-length documentary SUSPINO - A Cry For Roma about the human rights crisis of the Roma (Gypsies) of Eastern Europe.

Rudi Kovanic, Director

Rudi Kovanic was born in Prague, the Czech Republic, and educated in England and South Africa.  From 1964 to 1995 he worked as the cinematographer for the highly acclaimed science series, The Nature of Things with David Suzuki. During his 36 years of film and video documentary experience, Rudi has specialized in scientific subjects—including natural history, the humanities, anthropology, medicine, technology and the environment. In 1995, Rudi founded Tamarin Productions and now works as an independent cinematographer in worldwide locations including the arctic, deserts, rain forests and urban jungles. He has been nominated for Emmy, Actra and Gemini Awards.  He has won numerous national and international awards at scientific, environmental and natural history film festivals, including two Wilderness Awards and a Prix Anik for his work on the Nature Of Things.  In 1983, he was the recipient of the prestigious President's Award for outstanding cinematic contributions to the CBC. In 1998, for Tamarin Productions, Rudi filmed the award-winning one-hour wildlife special Baboon Tales shot in Kenya with the acclaimed primatologist, Dr. Shirley Strum.  This program, broadcast on Wild Discovery, won two Golden Plaques at the Chicago International Film Festival, Best of Festival at the 1999 Outdoor Writers Association of America, six awards at the 1999 International Wildlife Film Festival in Missoula, Montana, four British Columbia Leo Awards and was nominated for three Geminis. National Geographic International through Canal+/Docstar/Explore International is distributing Baboon Tales.

Tom Middleton, Director

Tom Middleton is an award winning wildlife photographer with a keen interest in science and conservation. His nature photos have appeared in a wide variety of newspapers, online articles, magazines, posters, books and other publications. Tom's photos are widely used by the local scientific community as a descriptive enhancement for talks, papers and publications. He also owns and runs a popular conservation website, one of the very first of such websites to appear online. The site aims to educate and promote various environmental concerns from eco-living to aiding the worlds critically endangered species. More…

Ian de W. Semple, Secretary Treasurer

Ian has spent more than forty years as a mineral exploration geologist in the field, a mining investment analyst in the financial business, and in small mining exploration company management. To those ends he has lived and worked in, as well as visited many parts of the world in both hemispheres. He brings a strong understanding of the bridges needed between business, the sciences and the environment. His philosophy in this regard has been to emphasize science over empty polemic and rational balance over extremism. Ian is also an artist and author. His work may be viewed on his website. 

Financial Advisor

Rudy North

Rudy North is one of three founding partners of Phillips, Hager and North Investment Management, and the President of North Growth Management Ltd. Rudy is one of British Columbia’s significant participants and generous donors to social and environmental causes. He envisions a society in which people collaborate to bring about significant change. The Rudy and Patricia North Foundation sponsored research conducted by the Fraser River Sturgeon Conservation Society, the Inner Coast Natural Resource Centre, and Nature Trust (BC). At the Vancouver Aquarium where is a patron, he provided funding to launch a new research facility known as the Rudy North Marine Research Centre. He also offered up a significant contribution to secure the Great Bear Rain Forest on the central and north coast of British Columbia. He has contributed to British Columbia Children's Hospital, the St. James Community Service Society, and the Vancouver Foundation. In 1998, he founded North Growth Management Ltd., specifically to pass on his philosophy and expertise to younger managers. In 2006, Rudy North was conferred with a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa by Simon Fraser University.

 Fellows

John Reynolds, Fellow

John Reynolds is the Tom Buell BC Leadership Chair in Salmon Conservation and a professor of Biological Sciences at Simon Fraser University in Canada. His interests are in the conservation and ecology of Pacific salmon and their ecosystems. More…

Associates

Ruth Foster, Associate

Ruth is a nationally recognized environmental education specialist. In 2006 she won the prestigious Canadian Environmental Award Gold Medal for Environmental Learning. Ruth spent three decades teaching high school students about nature. She and PWLF Director Rod MacVicar established a stream rehabilitation project that became a living classroom for thousands of students. Today the creek is alive with salmon. Ruth played a key role in establishing innovative courses in fisheries and wildlife and many of her students have gone on to complete graduate degrees in biology.  Now retired from the school, Ruth continues to teach through Simon Fraser University’s Department of Education and to mentor students at the fish hatchery.  More...

 Iain M. Jones, Associate

Iain holds a Master of Science degree from Simon Fraser University and is a biologist with Golder and Associates. His research on the behavioural interactions between great blue herons and bald eagles was completed in 2009.  Iain holds a diploma in Fish and Wildlife Management from the British Columbia Institute of Technology.  His past experience includes implementing field studies and management activities for a variety of organizations including Fisheries and Oceans Canada.  Iain spent nearly a decade working as a mate and naturalist on board the Island Roamer as it sailed the remote coasts of the British Columbia and Alaska.  He brings to the PWLF a wealth of experience of the North Coast, its wildlife and a host of logistical talent.

Sean Boyd, Associate

Sean Boyd is a research scientist with Environment Canada in Vancouver and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Simon Fraser University where he serves on graduate student committees at the Centre for Wildlife Ecology. He has worked with colleagues and graduate students on a variety of migratory waterfowl projects including snow geese, brant, swans, several diving ducks, grebes and auklets. Many of his projects are long-term and involve radio-telemetry. Sean’s research is necessarily multidisciplinary and international in-scope. The objective is to provide scientific advice necessary to conserve migratory bird populations and their habitats in North America. More…

Holly Middleton, Associate

Holly is a PhD candidate at Simon Fraser University under the supervision of Ron Ydenberg. She is an ornithologist who was born and raised in Metro Vancouver. She has been a life-long naturalist. Holly holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. from Simon Fraser University. Her Master’s thesis researched post-fledging behaviour and dispersal of the American dipper.  She also has experience in projects researching shorebirds and herons, seabirds, grassland and cavity-nesting birds and freshwater birds. Holly is working on a PWLF project for her doctoral work on the effects of intensive agriculture on migratory birds on the Fraser River delta.

Todd Golumbia, Associate

Todd has been the Park Ecologist for Gulf Islands National Park Reserve in Canada since the park was established in 2003. He is an ongoing collaborator with the Pacific WildLife Foundation Black Oystercatcher Project and the Marine Bird and Mammal Atlas. Todd holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Saskatchewan and a Master of Science degree from the University of British Columbia in Forest Ecology. He has worked at several National Parks in western Canada as an Ecologist and a Park Warden since 1982. The varied work as a Park Ecologist ranged across disciplines of natural and social sciences and freshwater, marine and terrestrial ecosystems. From 1993 to 2003, Todd worked as an ecologist in Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site in Canada.   

Wendy Szaniszlo, Associate

Wendy is a marine mammalogist who has worked on a variety of sea lion, gray whale and humpback whale research projects in collaboration with government, academic and not-for-profit organizations. Wendy holds a B.A. and MSc. from the University of Victoria. Her graduate work researched sea lion behavioural ecology and evaluated the sea lion viewing guidelines in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. Wendy has worked with Parks Canada for 14 years in various capacities, most recently focussing on species-at-risk. She has also worked as a marine naturalist with Parks Canada, BC Parks, and local eco-tour companies. Wendy is collaborating with the PWLF to investigate the seasonal abundance and distribution of sea lions in Clayoquot and Barkley Sounds. This work involves characterizing haulout use by sex and age class. Wendy is working with Parks Canada to expand this project to Gwaii Haanas and the Gulf Islands National Park Reserves.

Mike McKinlay, Associate

Mike McKinlay was born in North Vancouver and raised in the Okanagan Valley. During his ten years as a cameraman, Mike's film subjects have varied from skateboarding to wildlife to West Coast culture. He has had the opportunity to work within the genres of both the corporate and documentary world. When not behind the camera recording an event, you will find Mike riding his skateboard. More 

(December 2009)