Board of Trustees
John R Cary, Founding Chair
Anne Koven, Secretary Treasurer
Don Pearson
Steve Hounsell Donald L. Macdonald, Q.C.
K. Joanne (Joey) Brown
To contact members of the Board of Trustees, click here.
John R Cary, Founding Chair
John Cary is a Registered Professional Forester. He graduated in 1973 as a member of the first class of foresters from Lakehead University and later worked as a Unit Forester for the Ministry of Natural Resources in Dryden and Thunder Bay. In 1978, he went to Guyana on a two-year Canadian International Development Agency assignment. Shortly after his return to Thunder Bay, he transferred to MNR’s Queen’s Park Head Office where he stayed until his early retirement from MNR in 1998. While at Queen’s Park, he managed provincial silivicultural and tree nursery programs and participated in the province's Environmental Assessment Hearings on Forest Management. As well, he did a great deal of forest policy and legislation work during a time of significant change in the provincial program. Over the years, he advised MNR’s senior management and a number of Ministers and Deputies on forestry matters. Since 1998, John has been consulting in forestry. His work has mainly involved forest policy matters, legislation, facilitation, environmental assessment and forest audits. He has been a Director of the Ontario Forestry Association, and a President of the Ontario Professional Foresters Association.
John received the ‘Ontario Professional Foresters 2007 Honoured Professional’ award, and the ‘2006 Forest Stewardship’ award. Read full details.
Anne Koven, Secretary Treasurer
Anne Koven is the owner and operator of HipGuard Canada Ltd. which manufactures hip protectors, worn by seniors to prevent hip fractures. Beginning in 1987 she served as Vice Chair of the Ontario Environmental Assessment Board where she conducted the Class Environmental Assessment Hearing for Timber Management on Crown Lands in Ontario. She also heard appeals related to development on the Niagara Escarpment. Previously, she directed research on health studies concerning landfill sites and occupational health and safety issues for the Ontario Ministry of Health and worked in Public Affairs for INCO Limited. Anne is presently a member of the Resources Development Committee of Community Living Toronto. She was a member of the Donor Recognition Committee at the Baycrest Centre Foundation and of the federal-provincial Great Lakes Innovation Committee. She represents Trees Ontario on the Natural Spaces Leadership Alliance. She is a public member of the Council of the Ontario Professional Foresters Association and is Past President of the Ontario Forestry Association. Anne is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Forestry with a research interest in forest policy.
Donald R. Pearson
Don Pearson joined Conservation Ontario as General Manager in May 2005. Conservation Ontario represents Ontario’s 36 Conservation Authorities, delivering programs and services and managing natural resources in partnership with all levels of government and local communities. He is a member of the Ontario Biodiversity Council, and recently Chaired the Natural Spaces Leadership Alliance.
Prior to joining Conservation Ontario Mr. Pearson spent two years as Chief Administrative Officer of the County of Perth, where he initiated the transformation and modernization of the County’s governance and administration structure and processes.
From 1981 until 2003, Mr. Pearson served as the General Manager of the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority, where under his leadership the Authority earned a reputation for excellence and innovation in environmental management with particular emphasis on water quality, soil conservation and community involvement programs. With the Conservation Authority’s support, the Thames was designated as a Canadian Heritage River in 2000.
Don earned a Masters Degree in Public Administration from the University of Western Ontario in 1998 and holds an Honours Science Degree from the University of Waterloo (1975). He has been an active community volunteer for the United Way of London and Middlesex (Vice-Chair, Board of Directors and Campaign Chair in 1999 and 2000), the 2001 Canada Summer Games, and has chaired the Southwestern Ontario Travel Association, the Grand Bend Harbour Committee, and the Board of the London and Middlesex Heritage Museum.
Steve Hounsell
Steve is a biologist with over thirty-three years of experience working with Ontario Power Generation (OPG) and the former Ontario Hydro. He is currently Senior Advisor, Sustainable Development at OPG. Steve's career path has included environmental policy development and implementation, environmental assessments, and applied environmental research where his work focused specifically on the effects of forest fragmentation on wildlife. He was responsible for the development and implementation of a biodiversity policy, the first of its kind in the electricity industry. He has made many contributions to woodland conservation in southern Ontario. Steve currently works in the Corporate Sustainable Development Group of Ontario Power Generation, where he manages OPG's biodiversity programs and its carbon sequestration and biodiversity management program.
Steve is also the Past President of Ontario Nature – the Federation of Ontario Naturalists - and is a founding member and past director of the Natural Step Canada, an organization dedicated to promoting sustainability across society
Donald L. Macdonald, Q.C.
Donald is a retired partner of the national law firm Borden Ladner Gervais LLP where, and at its legacy firm Borden & Elliot in Toronto, he spent his entire career as a civil litigator with the focus of his practice on insurance law cases before all levels of the courts of Ontario. Prior to entering law, he taught high school Latin for a year.
He and his wife Dorothy now reside in Orillia, Ontario where they also maintain their summer cottage. Donald has had a longtime interest in nature and the environment and has pursued this through involvement with the Orillia Naturalists’ Club where he has served as Treasurer for the past several years. He is past President of the Horseshoe Island Cottagers’ Association. His other interests include astronomy, chess and tennis.
K. Joanne (Joey) Brown
Prior to her retirement in 2003, Joanne Brown was head of the Canadian Investor Relations Institute (CIRI), a not-for-profit professional association dedicated to the education and professional development of investor relations executives with Canadian public companies. Joey was appointed president and chief executive officer and a voting member of the national board of directors.
For 17 years prior to founding CIRI, Joey managed the corporate communication and investor relations function for Coscan Development Corporation (formerly Costain Limited), a public real estate development company. Prior to this, she was with Foster Parents Plan Canada and Mclean’s Public Relations. She was a member of National Investor Relations Institute and served on the board of the Ontario chapter from 1987-1989. In 2000, she was the first recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award in Investor Relations.
Joey is a graduate from Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia with a B.A. in English, and remains involved with the Toronto Acadia Alumni organization that she chaired from 1987-1992. She was a member of a capital fund raising campaign team in 2005 to raise $50 million to develop a post-secondary education model based on community engagement in teaching and learning and by integrating environmental stewardship to all disciplines. Most recently, she was the recipient of the 2009 Exceptional Alumni Volunteer Award.
Joey also has a long-standing association with Glen Bernard Camp as a camper, counselor and member of its advisory board from 1980 to 2005. She is also a director and vice-president of the Muskoka Heritage Foundation (2006-2009).
