Directors and Staff

Executive

Newton Grey

Northview Fund

President

Newton Grey

Newton M. Grey was born in the friendly city of Montego Bay on the beautiful island of Jamaica and holds a Master of Science Degree in Hotel and Tourism Management. This sports enthusiast has devoted most of his life to the hotel industry which has taken him to several cities throughout the Caribbean and Canada. He has been involved with the Chamber movement in most of the cities he has lived in, including for two terms as President of the chamber in Inuvik.

Jeremy Dixon

McLennan Ross LLP

1st Vice-President

Jeremy Dixon

Before joining the banking industry 16 years ago, Yanik was in IT, telecom & call centre management, sales, and consulting for 14 years for various Fortune 500 companies and government agencies at the municipal, provincial and federal level. In banking, Yanik has had held several roles, including Account Manager, Regional Sales Coach, Branch Manager and is now the NWT Community General Manager for CIBC, which currently includes the Fort Simpson, Norman Wells, Inuvik, Yellowknife and Hay River branches. Yanik has recently served on various boards such as Vice President for three years for the Chamber of Commerce in High Prairie, Alta., and two years as a Director for the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce.

Yanik is currently a Technical Chair for the public speaking competition and a Director for Skills Canada NWT, a past-president of the Rotary Club of Yellowknife, a Director for the United Way NWT and also a Director for the NWT Disabilities Council. Yanik recently completed his MBA in Innovation Leadership with the University of Fredericton in March 2016, holds a Personal Financial Planning (PFP) designation, and is fully bilingual in French and English. Yanik, his spouse Tammy, and his family have now made Yellowknife home for over a decade and love every moment of being in and advocating for the North.

Cynthia Mufandaedza

Best Movers

2nd Vice-President

COMING SOON

Director's biography is being crafted!

Alan Vaughan

Nexus Investments

Treasurer

COMING SOON

Director's biography is being crafted!

Lee Cawson

Aurora Group

Secretary

Paul Gillard

Paul has spent his entire 23-year career in Telecommunications. The last 13 have been spent in the North with Northwestel. His career path has included stops in a broad range on functions. These include Customer Service, Finance, Marketing, Sales, Partnerships & Acquisitions, Project Management, Field Operations, Outside Plant Construction and Government Relations. In his time in the North Paul has managed Northwestel’s relationships with its largest customers and been part of Northwestel’s largest projects. Located in Yellowknife, Paul is an active participant in the local community. He also sits on the board of the local United Way, Stanton Territorial Hospital Foundation, and is organizer for youth sports in the NWT.

Yanik D’Aigle

CIBC

Past-President

Yanik D’Aigle

Directors

Mark Brajer

Tłı̨chǫ Investment Group

Director at Large

Mark Brajer

Mark Brajer is Chief Executive Officer for the Tłı̨chǫ Investment Corporation (TIC) and has been with the organization since December 2017. The group of companies consists of many wholly-owned companies in construction, retail operations, property management, engineering & environmental services, equipment leasing, site services and labour management. TIC also has several joint ventures with companies ranging from electrical services, blasting, underground mining support, air transport, and road construction.

Mark's career has been largely in the operations, supply chain, and engineering areas over a 25-plus year career. He has worked with E.D. Smith in Winona, Ontario and Byhalia, Mississippi; Alberto Culver in Toronto and Melrose Park, Illinois; Unilever in Toronto and Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey; before making his way to Epicure in Victoria, BC and then to TIC. He has undergraduate degrees in Chemistry (B.SC) and Chemical Engineering (B.Eng) from McMaster University, and MBA from Heriot-Watt University in Scotland. He is currently working toward a Doctorate in Management (Organizational Development) at the University of Phoenix. He is a licensed engineer in Ontario, BC, NWT, and Nunavut.

Tiffany Robinson

BMO

Director at Large

Coming soon

Director's biography is being crafted!

Mike Scott

6143 NWT Ltd.

Director at Large

Mike Scott

Mike Scott is a life long Northerner who is passionate about entrepreneurship. Mike was born in Hay River, lived in Yellowknife for many years and has owned successful businesses that operate throughout the North.

Mike worked in the printing and publishing industry for 40 plus years in sales and management with newspaper publishing companies in Alberta and the Northwest Territories. He was co-owner, Vice President and General Manager of Northern News Services and Canarctic Graphics for 36 years where he collaborated with many Northerners, helping to develop their businesses with advertising and marketing services.

Currently, he is President of 6143 NWT and continues to invest, mentor and develop business in the North. He has always been an entrepreneur: from when he sold News of the North newspapers as a paper carrier on the streets of Yellowknife in 1967, to when he sold his interest in that publishing company 50 years later.

He is a past and present board member of the NWT Chamber of Commerce and serves on the board of the Great Slave Sailing Club as Race Coordinator.

Wally Schumann

Arctic Canadian Diamond

Director at Large

Wally Schumann,

South Slave region entrepreneur Wally Schumann is a former MLA for Hay River South who served in cabinet as Minister of Industry Tourism and Investment. During his time in government, Wally led the way for some major projects for the NWT, such as the all-season road to Whati and the development of a state-of-the-art fish processing facility in Hay River.

While major industries such as resource development drive the NWT’s economy — closely supported by secondary industries servicing major mining operations — Wally is keenly aware of the importance of having a thriving small and independent businesses sector.

Wally put years of effort to make Poison Graphics in Hay River a success, the thriving small business employing people in the community to this day. In recent times, Wally has been serving as senior adviser on Indigenous and Northern affairs for Arctic Canadian Diamond Company Ltd., the new owners of Ekati Mine, the largest diamond producer in the NWT. Wally is deeply rooted in the community of Hay River and is a passionate about what he envisions to be a very promising future for the town.

Paul Gillard

NorthwesTel

Director at Large

Paul Gillard

Mike Bryant

NNSL Media

Director at Large

Coming soon

Director's biography is being crafted!

Adrian Bell

Century 21 Realtors
Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce Representative

Adrian Bell

Adrian was elected President of the YK Chamber at its February AGM. He previously served as Yellowknife’s Deputy Mayor and was a city councillor from 2012-2018. Adrian is also a director, of the Northwest Territories Association of Realtors, and was the Founding President of the Long John Jamboree Society.

Bill Kellett

Kellett Communications
Canadian Chamber of Commerce Representative

Bill Kellett,

Bill is the President at Kellett Communications, a consultancy with offices in Yellowknife and Whitehorse (established in 1998). KC provides clients with strategic marketing communications and focuses on helping northern businesses thrive. The team of writers, designers, developers and planners bring experience gained from all around the world to the North.

Bill is also the chief strategist responsible for the top-level marketing direction and providing clients with general consultation on topics ranging from branding to corporate philosophy. As agency president, Bill is involved with every client, including the North’s leading NGOs, regulatory boards, crown corporations, private businesses and governments at all levels. William’s project experience is extremely diverse, with strategic planning, branding, marketing campaigns and building websites representing the tip of the iceberg. This immense experience affords him the ability to listen to a client’s challenges and help steer them toward the best solution efficiently and effectively.

Bill has a BA with a Major in Economics from the University of Western Ontario. As well as Master Advertising Practitioner, Trans-Canada Advertising Agency Network. In addition to being on the NWT Chamber of Commerce Bill is a director with the Stanton Territorial Foundation and is a Director with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

Staff

James O’Connor

Executive Director

James O’Connor

Decades spent in media as a reporter, editor, manager and political columnist provides James with the research abilities and analytical skills critical to being the NWT Chamber’s Executive Director.

As the sole employee of the organization, his experience running his own small business providing writing, photography, website and graphics services also provides effective external and internal communications to media, government, members and prospective members respectively.

James was raised in Montreal, where he went to junior college, and moved to Toronto to attend university. His first media job was part-time at the Toronto Sun, which provided him the experience to be hired full-time at the Brandon Sun. In the ensuing 15 years, James worked at media outlets in Winnipeg in various capacities. Taking a break from politics, James worked in cabinet-level government communications in Manitoba, before starting his own small business.

In 2016, James moved to Yellowknife looking for a new adventure and worked in media at Northern News Services — where he won awards for opinion writing and page design — and Cabin Radio prior to going the NWT Chamber. He volunteers extensively, including with Rotary and the Salvation Army.

You can reach James at: admin@nwtchamber.com