Board of Directors

Tim Griffin is the former CEO and chair of the board of Connor, Clark & Lunn Private Capital. In addition to his forty year career in finance, Griffin spent ten years in the consulting and book publishing businesses. He remains active in the philanthropic community on behalf of several healthcare, educational, and arts organizations, mostly as a fundraiser. Notably, he served as the chair of the Board of Directors of the St. Michael’s Hospital Foundation for six years and was a director for thirty years. Griffin is also the current chair of the Investment Committee for the Bishop’s University Foundation.

For over thirty-five years, Nalini Stewart has held leadership roles on local, provincial, and national boards. She has been Chair of the Ontario Arts Council, Acting Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts, and President of the Canadian Club. She is a Founding member of the Ontario Arts Foundation, The Power Plant Art Gallery, and the Asia Pacific Foundation. She is currently Chair of Necessary Angel Theatre, Vice-Chair of the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, and Chair of Friends of WWF Canada. She is an honorary governor of York University and the National Theatre School of Canada. Stewart received the Order of Ontario and the Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship for “contribution to the arts, education and communication, and for efforts to promote diversity awareness and inclusion.” She has a lifetime achievement award from the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce.

Steven M. Wilson is a retired audit partner from the Asset Management Practice of PwC Canada with over twenty-five years of experience in the field of financial services. Prior to moving to Toronto in 2010, he helped lead a financial services audit practice in Vancouver. An avid member of the arts community in Canada, Steve has extensive volunteer and board experience, both in Vancouver and Toronto. Prior to joining the ACI Board, he served on the board of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto.

Sammy Lau is Co-Founder of Granite Technologies. He has been a senior marketing leader at various startups, including Ask-AI, Lillio, and Top Hat, and has advised leading cultural organizations, including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Royal Ontario Museum, on technology and digital marketing. Sammy is a longtime interviewer and assessor for the Loran Scholarship and McCall MacBain Scholarship at McGill. He previously sat on the University Affairs and Discipline Appeals Boards of the University of Toronto’s Governing Council, as well as the campaign leadership for multiple Members of Parliament. Born in Hong Kong and raised in Vancouver, Sammy holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts from Trinity College at the University of Toronto, where he studied as a Loran Scholar.

Kiki Delaney is President of Delaney Capital Management the investment counselling firm she founded in 1992. Kiki has served on the boards of many not-for-profit organizations across Canada. She is Chancellor Emeritus of OCAD University. Kiki has been awarded honorary degrees from the University of Manitoba, OCAD University and Mount Saint Vincent University. She received the Edmund C. Bovey Award from Business for the Arts in recognition for her lifetime support of Canadian arts and culture. Kiki is a Member of the Order of Canada and is also inducted into the Investment Industry Association of Canada Hall of Fame.

Tate Abols is Managing Partner at Forum Asset Management and a member of its investment committee. He has spent most of his career in the private markets and prior to joining Forum, spent fifteen years with Onex Corporation where he worked both as an investor in Onex’s private equity fund and as corporate development for the parent public company. Tate is a passionate supporter of the arts and not-for-profits. He is a founding board member of ShiftCanada and formerly was on the board of The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery. Tate holds an Honours Business Administration degree (with Distinction) from the Ivey School of Business, Western University, and a B.A. in Philosophy from Huron University College, Western University.

John Bianchini is Hatch’s Chairman (2017–present), Chief Executive Officer (2012–present), and member of the Board of Directors (2003–present). As Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hatch, he represents a team of more than 10,000 employees located in 65 permanent offices on six continents, with capital projects under management totaling more than $75 billion dollars. Bianchini is a great supporter of the Canadian universities and their engineering programs, and with Hatch sponsors numerous bursaries and scholarships. He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of Toronto (1985), is a member of the Professional Engineers of Ontario, and is active in both the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy & Petroleum, and the Canadian Society of Chemical Engineers. In 2011, he was named a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. Hatch was recognized as the 2015 recipient of the Outstanding Corporation Award at the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Philanthropy Awards.

A member of the Algonquins of Pikwàkanagàn First Nation, Jim Burant is a curator, author, archivist, and an Adjunct Professor of Art History at Carleton University and was Director of the Ontario Region of the National Archival Appraisal Board of Canada for ten years. As the Chief of Art and Photography Archives at LAC from 1998 to 2010, he was responsible for guiding an archival team of art and photography archivists who made acquisitions and described and provided specialized access to the more than 500,000 works of art and 30,000,000 photographs. In recognition of his many achievements, he has been awarded the Queen’s Golden Jubilee medal (2002).

Katherine (Katy) Graham Debost has a BA from McGill University (1986) and in 2021 completed the Director’s Education Program, ICD.D designation at the University of Toronto. After living in Paris, France for thirty years she returned to her native city of Toronto in 2020. Fluently bilingual, she is a committed volunteer and fundraiser for internationally recognized arts organizations, including the Bata Shoe Museum Foundation, Toronto, (where she has been a Director since 2022), and the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), Washington, D.C., (where she was Board President of Les Amis du NMWA from 2015-2019). Since 2003 Katy has been a Shareholder Panel member of Graymont Limited, Vancouver. She is a director of the newly created N’Oubliez Charitable Foundation, also based in Vancouver.

Elaine Kierans is a lawyer whose career has included both the private practice of law and government service. She has previously served as Vice Chair and a Director of the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario and Chair and CEO of the Canadian Artists and Producers Professional Relationship Tribunal, a federal labour relations tribunal focussed on the Canadian arts community. Elaine holds degrees in business, common law, and civil law, all from McGill University. She is a member of the Law Society of Ontario and has served on the boards of directors of both publicly traded and private not-for-profit organizations.

Nancy McCain is Chancellor, Acadia University and ALI Fellow, Harvard University. She is Chair of the Arts Access Fund, a non-profit organization committed to the provision of arts scholarships for youth in need. She is Past Chair of the Toronto Foundation, and a member of the board of directors of Acadia University, the Sobey Art Foundation, and Soulpepper Theatre Company. She is a member of the capital campaign for the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and most recently served as Chair of the successful Campaign for Acadia. As President of the Morneau-McCain Foundation, she is currently leading an initiative with the University of Toronto to provide scholarships and permanent residency to refugee girls from Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya. Previous roles include President of The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Chair of the Canadian Art Foundation, Director of Arts for Children of Toronto (VIBE Arts), and Director of the National Gallery of Art Foundation. McCain was awarded an honorary doctorate from Acadia University and has an MA in Arts Administration from New York University.

Gerald McMaster is a curator, artist, author, and professor, and the director of the Wapatah: Centre for Indigenous Visual Knowledge at OCAD University (Toronto). With forty years of international work and expertise in contemporary art, critical theory, museology, and indigenous aesthetics, he has worked at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, and the Canadian Museum of Civilization. As curator, McMaster has represented Canada at the Venice Biennale (1995) and the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale (2018). In 2012 he was Artistic Director to the 18th Biennale of Sydney (Australia). His most recent book, Iljuwas Bill Reid: Life & Work, was published by the Art Canada Institute in 2020. McMaster is a nêhiyaw (Plains Cree) and a citizen of the Siksika First Nation.

Shabin Mohamed, a Chartered Professional Accountant by training, has dedicated time to serving many different boards and arts organizations. She has been deeply involved in culture through her work with numerous institutions: she has been a trustee of the Art Gallery of Ontario; a director of the Aga Khan Museum; a member of the Advisory Board for the Ryerson Image Centre; a director of The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery; Co-Chair of Partners in Art; a board member of the Institute of Contemporary Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum; and a director of the Toronto International Film Festival. She currently serves on the boards of the Evergreen Brickworks, the National Gallery of Canada Foundation, and the Writers’ Trust of Canada.

Peter L. Slan is Chief Financial Officer of SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust. Prior to joining SmartCentres in 2022, Peter spent 23 years with Scotiabank, most recently serving as Vice Chair. Peter holds an MBA degree from the Rotman School of Management and completed the Executive Leadership Development Program at Duke University. He is also a Chartered Professional Accountant and a Fellow of CPA Ontario. He is a member of Ernst & Young’s Alumni Advisory Board and served on the Advisory Board of the Scotiabank Women Initiative. Peter spent six years as a member of the Financial Services Advisory Board at the Rotman School and 12 years on the Board of the Baycrest Foundation.

Carol Weinbaum is VP Operations at WJ Properties, a family-owned property management, investment, and development business. A dedicated supporter of the Canadian arts community, Weinbaum is a co-founder of Partners in Art and a founding director and board member of the Museum of Contemporary Art. As well, she sits on the National Gallery of Canada Foundation Board and is a Partner at the Outset Contemporary Art Fund, UK. A strong believer in the value of art education, Weinbaum served on the Ontario College of Art and Design University Board of Governors. Through her family’s foundation, she supports cultural programming and education, including the Nomadic Residents Program and a new Global Artists Residency at OCAD U; education at MOCA; and programming at The Power Plant and the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Joyce Zemans is an art historian, educator, and curator. She was director of the Canada Council for the Arts (1988–1992). At York University she served as chair of Visual Arts, dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts and director of the MBA Program in Arts, Media & Entertainment Management (Schulich School of Business). At OCADU she was the founding director of Liberal Arts Studies. She is a member of the advisory committees of the Toronto Arts Council, the Theatre Museum of Canada, and the acquisitions committee of the Art Museum at the University of Toronto. A member of the Order of Canada, she is a fellow of OCADU, the recipient of three honorary doctorates, and the Queen’s Golden and Diamond Jubilee Medals. Zemans has curated numerous exhibitions of Canadian artists, including Bertram Brooker, Alexandra Luke, Kathleen Munn, Edna Tacon, Jock Macdonald, Christopher Pratt, and Tony Urquhart. She is the author of the Art Canada Institute’s publication Jock Macdonald: Life & Work.