Annually, the Oakville Community Foundation concludes the year with the Annual General Meeting of members. The meeting is both to recognize the work of the prior year but also a chance to thank our Board for their leadership and work, as well as to recognize Board Members who are completing their term of office. At our AGM this year we said thank you to four retiring Directors: Sam Greiss, Chuck Havill, Frank Lochan and Tim Zahavich. All four retiring Directors have had long histories of volunteering and being involved with The Foundation and we thank them for their service.
While thanking those leaving, we also had an opportunity to welcome in our new Board Chair, Bindu Cudjoe, and three new Directors: Dr. Mira Backo-Shannon, Kevin Tremblay and Andrew Tyrrell, who you can read about below.
Bindu Cudjoe
“Serving as the Chair of the Board of the Oakville Community Foundation is a great privilege for me. We have a highly capable, diverse and energetic board that believes strongly in The Foundation’s mission and strategic priorities and I am so excited to be part of and lead this group. The Foundation’s leadership and team is ambitious and driving toward exciting innovations in the philanthropic sector and it is.”
Bindu Cudjoe is a Fundholder, a founding member of The Foundation’s Women’s Giving Collective, past Chair of the Community Legacy Building Committee and Governance & Nominating Committee’s of the Board, and now serves at Chair of the Board of the Oakville Community Foundation. Professionally, she was named one of the Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers in Canada by Canadian Lawyer Magazine in 2016. Bindu is active in the community and believes in leaving the world a better place than how it was found. Bindu is a big proponent of activism and social justice and works to be an active teacher, listener and ally throughout her work with The Foundation.
You can read more from Bindu here, or see her in action in Episode 1 of The Foundation’s Vital Older Adults Report.
Dr. Mira Backo-Shannon
“Being on the Oakville Community Foundation Board is about being an active member of our community, to support in a way that helps people flourish, grow and succeed.”
Dr. Mira Backo-Shannon is a member of The Foundation’s Women’s Giving Collective and the Program Related Investments Sub-Committee. She is also a volunteer advisor on the Canada Healthy Communities Initiative Grant Review Committee, as the health and wellness expert reviewer. She has been a practicing physician in the Oakville community for 20 years and throughout the pandemic has worked on many parts of the COVID-19 response and recovery. Mira is an active member of the community, volunteering on the Board for the Oakville Symphony and, in the past, with the Halton District School Board and Oakville Soccer Club.
You can see Mira in Episode 2 of The Foundation’s Vital Older Adults Report.
Kevin Tremblay
“Being on the Board of the Oakville Community Foundation provides me with an opportunity to get involved in the community in support of key social issues and to learn and grow as an individual and on a professional level.”
Kevin Tremblay is a Fundholder with The Foundation and a member of The Foundation’s Audit as well as Finance and Risk Committees. Kevin has more than two decades of experience as a strategic consultant and is qualified as a Chartered Professional Accountant, Chartered Business Valuator and has his Corporate Finance qualification. He uses his professional experience to navigate challenges associated with succession planning to help clients realize their personal and corporate goals.
Andrew Tyrrell
“Having seen first-hand the wonderful community work that the Oakville Community Foundation does, I am excited to now sit on the Board of Directors. The Foundation continually strives to ensure that human rights, diversity, inclusion and equity remain a cornerstone of their philanthropic policies, programs and practices. I am proud to be a part of this organization and its support for cultural diversity in Oakville.”
Andrew Tyrrell is a Fundholder, newest member of The Foundation’s Community Legacy Building Committee and a longtime friend to The Foundation through his community involvement. Andrew is the President & Executive Board Member of the Canadian Caribbean Association of Halton and is on the Board of Directors of Radius Child and Youth Services. Professionally, he is a Senior Investigator with expertise in complex financial frauds, professional conduct of regulated professionals and criminal prosecutions. Andrew is a cycling and running coach to many recreational athletes in the Burlington, Oakville and Toronto areas and continues to serve as President of Oakville Legion Track & Field Club.
You can read more about some of Andrew’s work with the Canadian Caribbean Association of Halton here.
