ActiveCITY Working Groups

Thank you to the wonderful Working Groups that supported the transition of ActiveCITY from Playbook to implementation!

GOVERNANCE

Jason Ribeiro

Jason is a corporate leader, community advocate, and one of Canada’s most awarded social science graduate students. As Director of Strategy at Calgary Economic Development, Jason was responsible for setting and implementing corporate and community vision through the city’s economic strategy, “Calgary in the New Economy.” His current Ph.D. research, which is funded by the prestigious SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship at the University of Calgary, aims to assist organizational leaders in shaping, leading, and sustaining innovation efforts in education cross-sector partnerships. He also holds a Master’s degree from Brock University and undergraduate degrees from both McMaster University and York University. Jason is committed to improving the lives and well-being of Calgarians, Albertans, and Canadians across the country and has represented Canada at the World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings, United Nations Peacekeeping Defence Ministerial, and Young Leaders Program of Atlantik-Brücke. He recently served as Curator of the World Economic Forum Global Shapers Calgary Hub where his work earned him a Finalist nomination as Calgary’s ‘Best Civic Activist’ at the 2020 Best of Calgary Awards. A passionate leader, Jason currently sits on boards and standing committees within Sport Calgary, SAIT, and the Calgary Public Library. He is a regular fixture in local and national media providing public affairs commentary on policy and politics.

Dale Henwood

Dale has devoted his life to sport development, the pursuit of excellence in Alberta, to making sport in Canada better and to making Canada better through sport. Dale is a former hockey coach, having worked with collegiate and high-performance players in the USA and Canada. He was on the coaching staff of the 1984, 1988 and 1992 men’s Olympic hockey teams. He has worked with Hockey Alberta, Alberta Sport Council and in 1994 became the first President and CEO of the Canadian Sport Institute.

Having a place that provides athletes and their coaches with all the support they need to perform their best on and off the field of play has always been a dream for Dale. And for twenty-seven years, he had the opportunity to work with a team of committed, passionate and caring experts to help keep this dream alive. In 2013, Dale was also named President of the International Association of Sport Performance Centres. The Association has over 80 members from around the world.

Dale also promotes and advocates the benefits of physical activity and sport, writing and speaking to our community and elected leaders on the need for greater government commitment and investment. He works tirelessly to speak up and advocate for the value that sport and healthy lifestyles bring to all citizens and especially our youth. Dale is very involved in serving the community through his church, The Drop-in Center, Samaritans Purse and with several local or international sport organizations.

Jeff Booke

Jeff was born in Toronto and raised in Winnipeg. He has been active his entire life and, through this lifelong involvement in sport Jeff was encouraged to pursue degrees in physical activity & sports studies from the University of Winnipeg and recreation studies from the University of Manitoba. In 2015, he earned his MBA from Haskayne.

Jeff’s 18-year track record of leadership and management excellence was recognized in 2009 with his selection to Calgary’s Top 40 Under 40, and in 2014 with a Leaders of Tomorrow distinction. Before taking on the role of Repsol Sport Centre CEO, Jeff acted as the Executive Director of the Calgary JCC for almost nine years.

Jennifer Konopaki

Jennifer is a people-oriented, community-minded, enthusiastic individual with vision. She has brought a adaptable and unique approach to her chosen vocation because of her diverse background that includes contributions in sport business, administration, transformational leadership and change. During her career she has gained an intimate understanding of the Canadian sport system and sport excellence. She has built strong and instrumental relationships within the Sport Sector and has had an opportunity to oversee sport programming from a grassroots to performance level.

Currently, she is part of the Senior Leadership team at WinSport working as the Executive Director of Sport, and has gained second to none business knowledge and vision. During her career she has demonstrated the ability to identify opportunities and using innovation and forward thinking has contributed to organizational success.

She has completed her Executive Leadership Education, with Queens University, Smith School of Business and has vast experience and perspective from a number of continuous professional development opportunities including 20 years of specific Sport Leadership experience.

Kurt Hanson

Kurt’s passion for public service spans 38 years in a variety of progressively responsible roles with Alberta Mental Health and The City of Calgary where he served as the Director of City Community Strategies for five years, the Director of City Recreation for a decade and as General Manager of Community Services Department prior to recently retiring. Since retiring from the City of Calgary Kurt has continued to offer his expertise through consultation to several start up for profit ventures and not-for-profit organizations as well as serving on four boards as a director. His expertise on strategic planning, leadership, government relations, policy, capital developments, governance, and partnership development continues to drive his commitment to enhance community initiatives and organizations.

Throughout his career Kurt championed the development of a suite of key policies and frameworks, and filled leadership and executive sponsorship roles in many community capital development projects including the funding and building of four new regional recreation centres. Kurt has served on a host of Boards such as the Calgary Children’s Initiative, Calgary Housing Company, Calgary Sport Tourism Authority, Calgary Convention Centre, McMahon Stadium, Calgary 2026 Bid Exploration Committee, Bethany Care Society, and Calgary Seniors Resource Society. He holds a Master’s degree in Social Work with a specialization in Management and Administration and an undergraduate degree in Social Work with a focus on mental health and counselling.

Kurt’s passion for sport, recreation, social wellbeing community development and leadership continues to drive his commitment to working towards “making life better every day” for all Calgarians.

Shannon Doram

Shannon has dedicated her career to community service, leadership and social change. Her mission is simply to be a catalyst for health and happiness.

By day Shannon is the CEO of YMCA Calgary, providing leadership to the Association and its Impact work. By night she is a coach, an athlete and a tireless advocate for community health. Shannon is also a proud Board member and Audit Committee Chair of the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC).

Shannon is a leader who strives to inspire the best in those around her and sets high expectations to challenge conventional ways of working. She values relationships with community partners, spending time to understand common challenges and goals, and establishing alignment to amplify impact. A Kinesiology graduate from the University of Calgary and proud alumnus of the University of Alberta’s School of Public Health, Shannon has centered her career around building healthy communities.

Over the past four years, Shannon’s team has led YMCA Calgary’s doubling in size as part of a valued partnership with the City of Calgary. Together, they’ve opened two of the largest YMCAs in the World, extending the reach of the YMCA to more than 4 million Calgarians annually, across 10 YMCA locations and 60 virtual sites. Shannon also leads a national innovation team on behalf YMCAs in Canada, working to expand YMCA services across the country.

FUNDING TEAM

Candice Goudie

Candice has a wealth of experience in not-for-profit, event management, program development, charitable fundraising, community investment and communications. For the past 13 years, she has worked under the umbrella of Calgary’s highest profile sports organizations, leading the Calgary Flames’ community relations and charitable foundations as the Executive Director of the Calgary Flames Foundation and Community Investment.

In recent years she augmented her portfolio to include the foundations of all teams of the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation (Calgary Stampeders, Calgary Hitmen, Calgary Flames and Calgary Roughnecks). Candice leads a team of staff in the management of the organizations four foundations and community investment activities. While executing on these prominent events and programs, she has established CSEC as the industry leader in providing fulfillment to the organization’s goals of customer service, fundraising, and creating unique event experiences.

Candice has not only set the standard in the field of community investment and charitable activities but has done so under the brightest lights of the professional sports world.

Jenn Johnson

Jenn is an experienced sponsorship and events professional, bringing 15 years of experiences from all sides of the sponsorship ecosystem with organizations like TELUS, The Calgary Stampede, Canadian Pacific, Freestyle Canada and ATB Financial, where she is currently the Managing Director of Sponsorship and Community Initiatives. Growing up in rural Alberta as a multi-sport athlete, her passion and in-depth knowledge of the Canadian sport system has resulted in leadership roles on 14 FIS World Cup organizing committees, nine PGA Tour Canada golf committees and three Team Alberta Mission Staff teams. She is currently President of the Sponsorship Marketing Council of Canada, Calgary Chapter and a board member of The Balance Foundation, a local non-profit committed to engaging youth in Calgary through sport and education opportunities. Jenn is excited to join the ActiveCITY Board to continue building community and connection through sport and activity.

Judy Black

Judy’s a key player in the area of fund development- seamlessly uniting essential decision-makers from the City of Calgary and major Canadian cities to adopt a shared sense of purpose, win enthusiastic support, and jump-start donations. She is an articulate communicator who quickly forms productive ties while networking with high-net-worth individuals, corporations, celebrities, athletes, philanthropists, and the general public. Judy is gifted in cultural sensitivity and protocol, having received education and lived in Toronto, London (U.K.), Paris, Rome, Johannesburg (S.A.), and 7 American states.

Judy’s career has spanned a depth of not-for-profit sectors including education, health, and arts & culture. At WinSport her portfolio as Fund Development Manager oversees grant writing, start-to-finish gift cycle, donor data management, philanthropy events and government relations to name a few.

Mother of 3 and grandmother to 5, time spent with family members that live in Calgary, Toronto, Seattle and Sydney, AU are crucial to her health and wellbeing, as well as swimming and riding horses; two sports that she competed in for many years.

Kevin Webster

Kevin is a 7-year member of the team at KidSport Calgary and the Calgary Flames Sports Bank. He is a proud husband, dad, coach, volunteer, sports fan and advocate for creating opportunities for kids in sport. Prior to joining KidSport, Kevin spent time in the sport world with Hockey Canada in their marketing and events department working with various corporate partners and events all across Canada, working 5 Vanier Cups in various roles, with Wilfrid Laurier University in their athletics and recreation department responsible for University Stadium and all their home events, and with DC United of the MLS as one of their Canadian Interns.

Mathew Stone

Mathew is the co-Founder of Stone-Olafson, a research consulting firm that works with companies across North America. Their team has been leading the New Experience Economy research in Alberta for the past year and have been passionate supporters of experience organizations since their inception 10 years ago. They’ve partnered with almost every major event, sports organization, arts company and community experience organization in Calgary to help them better engage audiences, refine programs, engage volunteers, sharpen messages and drive better marketing. Simply put, they strive to help these organizations thrive.

Mathew is a fixer who loves to get to the heart of a problem and quickly figure out how to solve it. He works from the believe that research is not about data – it’s about engaging facts that bring the audience voice to life. As a member of this community he has contributed time and expertise to various committees and advisory groups for organizations like the Calgary International Film Festival, Bow Valley College, University of Lethbridge, Calgary Chamber, Calgary Economic Development and others.

Additional Funding Team Members

Bernie Asbell

MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS TEAM

Gary Davies

Gary Davies was recently named President/CEO of Canadian Sport Institute Calgary after spending 25 years in the media/marketing/events industry. He joined the ActiveCITY Collective because he believes in the vision and wants to ensure it becomes reality in 2030.

Most recently Davies served as President of e=mc 2 events, one of Canada’s largest event/conference management companies, and as Founder/President of Best of Calgary, an annual survey and celebration of the best this city has to offer. He also provided consulting services to Kelly Brothers Productions in the development of the live variety talk show, Dave Kelly Live. Prior to that, Davies served as President of Canada Wide Media in Vancouver, at the time the largest independent magazine publisher in Western Canada. And he started his career serving for nearly 17 years at the Executive Vice-President of RedPoint Media Group, publishers of Avenue magazine and WestJet’s inflight magazine, to name a few.

As a volunteer, Davies has served on the boards of the Calgary International Film Festival, the Calgary Marketing Association, the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association, the Magazine Publishers Association of British Columbia, the Western Magazine Awards Foundation, Magazines Canada, BPA International, Oakridge Community Association, and as a member of the Communications Committee for the United Way of Calgary and Area.

Born and raised in Calgary, Davies is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario. He lives in Oakridge with his wife, Allison, and their three children.

Rob Leduc

Rob was first introduced to ActiveCITY while completing a degree in Sport and Recreation Management at Mount Royal University. As a student volunteer for the original Roundtable event that was held in September 2019, he was inspired by the immense excitement that filled the room of industry leaders on that day about the potential for a united vision in the sector. When a greater opportunity to contribute to ActiveCITY’s mission presented itself, Rob deemed it impossible to pass up. He went on to complete an independent study developing a model to quantify the active economy, after which he was hired as a lead researcher for the development and delivery of Playbook 2030.

Rob continues to stay involved with ActiveCITY as a member of the Marketing and Communications Working Group, while pursuing a career in a related passion - helping to remove financial barriers for low-income youth to participate in organized sports with the KidSport Calgary chapter.