Board of Directors
If you would like to contact the board, please email board@viasport.ca. viaSport is currently seeking passionate individuals to serve on their Board of Directors. Applicants are asked to apply by 5pm (PT) July 5, 2021. Find out more.
Board of Directors
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Jon Festinger
viaSport Board Chair
Jon Festinger, Q.C. is a Vancouver-based lawyer, strategic advisor and educator practicing law in digital media, creative freedoms as well as entertainment, communication and sport matters. As a graduate of McGill University’s Faculty of Law, Jon began his legal career in private practice, in turn becoming General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of WIC Western International Communications Ltd., Senior Vice President of the CTV Television Network and EVP Business & General Counsel of the Vancouver Canucks and GM Place. He brings a wealth of experience, having held leadership positions with various organizations including Chair of Ronald McDonald House British Columbia, Director of the eatART Foundation, Director of City Opera Vancouver, and Director of the Vancouver Board of Trade.
Jon is also an educator as he has taught media, entertainment, communications and corporate law topics for almost three decades. Currently, he is a Professor of Professional Practice at Simon Fraser University, a faculty member at the Centre for Digital Media, Adjunct Professor at the Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia, Sessional Faculty at the Faculty of Law, Thompson Rivers University as well as Honorary Industry Professor, Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London School of Law.
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Rick Ramsbottom
viaSport Vice Chair
Rick Ramsbottom is a leading Canadian sponsorship and marketing executive. Over the past 20 years, he has worked in professional sports with the Vancouver Canucks and Vancouver Whitecaps, as well as on major nation-building events including the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
Rick was also the Vice President, Sponsorship Sales and Service for the highly successful Toronto 2015 Pan American and Parapan American Games. In this role, he was responsible for all corporate partnerships and was the leader for the record-setting sponsorship program that delivered $135M in revenue – over three times any previous Pan American Games. Rick is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of UNITE Partnerships Inc., a sponsorship marketing agency based in Vancouver, BC
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Melanie Pump
viaSport Secretary/Treasurer
Melanie is currently the VP Finance for Incognito Software Systems, a global provider of solutions for communication service providers. With twelve years of progressive public company experience, Melanie Pump is a solutions focused designated accounting professional and business leader. Moreover, she is an outstanding networker and communicator with a proven history of inspiring staff and vendors to go the extra mile. Adept at delivering results that improve operations and reduce costs, Melanie has held financial leadership roles with Alive Publishing Group, Teldon, and Peer 1 Hosting.
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Jessica Burton
viaSport Board Member
Jessica Burton’s involvement in marketing ranges from community-based to nation building sporting events. Her extensive experience in advertising and promotions allowed her to succeed as the Manager, Consumer Marketing and Promotions with the Vancouver Organization Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC). In addition, Jessica has thrived through marketing strategy and community engagement capacities with lululemon athletica, Braun Allison, and Shape Properties Corporation.
Through her multitude of roles, Jessica has had the opportunity to create and manage the visual identity of brands, develop and implement marketing plans, and work closely with key stakeholders to ensure meaningful outcomes. Her multi-faceted career has also allowed her to witness the unification of diverse individuals, education of youth leadership and interpersonal skills, and beneficial impact on an individual’s physical and mental well-being through sport. In her current position as Senior Manager, Project Operations with Arc’teryx, Jessica continues to develop her skills in cross functional collaboration and project management.
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Samantha Shorter
viaSport Board Member
Samantha Shorter, CPA, CA, works with public and private companies in various leadership roles and is a partner in a financial consulting group. With a diverse client list, she works in a multitude of operational, cultural and regulatory jurisdictions. In this role, she is a business owner, service provider, employer and leader.
Samantha began her journey in sport in rugby and played at the University of British Columbia. She continued to share her passion for the community by serving as the Treasurer for BC Rugby and as President for a three year term. In 2019, she was awarded the Chairman’s Award by Rugby Canada for leadership. As a member of the Board of viaSport, she endeavours to bring her experience in sport to encourage participation and education.
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Peter Lawless
viaSport Board Member
Peter has been involved in high performance sport for over 25 years in sailing, athletics and cycling and was recognized for his services to sport in 2012 with a Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal. A three-time winner of Petro Canada's Coaching Excellence Award and Sport BC's Coach of the Year, Peter has seen great coaching success with his athletes winning over a dozen Paralympic and World Championships medals in both cycling and athletics, as well as breaking 27 world records. Peter is also the Vice President of the Canadian Olympic Committee.
In his "non-sport" life, Peter is a lawyer who frequently provides legal representation to sport organizations, athletes and coaches involved in sport-related disputes. Peter has appeared as counsel before the International Court of Arbitration for Sport centred in Lausanne, Switzerland and has also served as the Chief Arbitrator for several national level sports disputes. In addition to representing sport clients, Peter teaches Sport Law at Camosun College and is often called upon to speak to various sports groups and organizations about legal and other matters.
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Eron Main
viaSport Board Member
Eron Main is a dominant leader who has worked in sport for both able-bodied athletes and athletes with a disability over the last 25 years. His humble beginnings of changing wheelchair tires in community gyms influenced his passion for Paralympic sport and his current involvement as CEO of the International Wheelchair Rugby Federation. As a member of the International Paralympic Committee Sports Council, Eron took on a reformative leadership role to further the Paralympic movement when the group’s existence was challenged. His successful advocacy for the group resulted in the creation of the independent Association of Paralympic Sport Organizations (APS) to lead the development of a sustainable Paralympic sport system.
While well-immersed at the national and international level of sport, Eron’s previous experience as the Executive Director of Rowing BC allows him valuable familiarity with the B.C. sport sector. In addition, Eron continues to volunteer with Team BC’s mission staff, keeping him in touch with the vital train-to-train and train-to-complete levels with emerging high-performance athletes.
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Tom Waller
viaSport Board Member
With the privilege of having worked in the sport industry for nearly 20 years, Tom Waller has redefined the delivery of innovation to individual athletes and global companies. As a visionary strategist, his focus is to enable human potential through the development of turnkey, patented solutions for elite and grassroots human potential. Tom’s dynamic experience in the application of technology to enhance athlete performance has inspired a novel innovation methodology for global brands and elite sporting entities, including Speedo International.
Currently, Tom is the Founder and Senior Vice President of Whitespace™, lululemon athletica’s in-house innovation and R&D team. He leads a team of inventors, engineers and scientists committed to building lululemon’s future guest experience through the discovery and application of industry-shifting initiatives. When he’s not immersed in innovation and R&D, Tom is an influential executive committee member of the International Sports Engineering Association, an editorial Board member of the Journal of Sports Technology and Engineering, a Board member for ProMotion, the charity arm of Fortius Sport & Health, and an active triathlete.
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Geoffrey Wong
viaSport Board Member
Geoff Wong is a Victoria-based strategic alliances expert with a lifelong passion for Canadian sport. His experience in event marketing, sponsorship and athlete representation was honed working with Canadian leaders in the field, including Christopher Lang and Associates and the Landmark Group. Geoff developed and implemented partnerships and strategic alliance strategies for major corporations, including the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, ICBC, Coca-Cola, Manulife Financial and more.
Geoff couldn’t resist the opportunity to relocate to Victoria from his childhood home in Vancouver to be a part of the team that delivered the Commonwealth Games to that city, and it remains his home. He is currently active in property development, custom house construction and an owner of Accent Inns and Hotel Zed. A lifelong athlete, he competes in cycling and can be found chasing his kids around the ski hill all winter.