Founding Directors
1. Reg Ogen, President
2. Susan Stearns, Vice President/Chair
3. Karin Hunt, Treasurer
4. John Nooski, Secretary
5. Faith Brown, Director
6. Shannon Haizimsque, Director
7. Wes Böhmer, Director
Board of Directors, Current
We are governed by a Board of Directors currently comprised of five members. The board provides leadership and oversight for all corporate activities of YLP. The complete five member board combine years of experience in economic development, community development, financial management, legal direction, forestry management and political expertise at all levels of government. The board is made up of the following directors:
REG OGEN, President/CEO
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Reg Ogen, President and Chief Executive Officer. A Wet'suwet'en First Nation (WFN) band member, his interest has always been in creating or finding employment for WFN's membership. He has demonstrated years of leadership as his role as a political leader for the WFN community from 1998 to 2007. In addition to his political role, Reg has been a great asset to WFN's Natural Resource Department, devoting 26 years to forestry and most recently mining, exploration and energy industry. Reg has demonstrated his business knowledge by building Yinka Dene Economic Development Limited Partnership from its inception in 2012. Being born and raised in the community of WFN he has the intimate knowledge of the community needs. He is very passionate about the advancement of the community and its members along with supporting independency.
Email: r.ogen@ydedlp.com |
JOE WONG, Vice President
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I am honoured and humbled that the Wet’suwet’en First Nation Leadership feels that I am worthy to assist their Nation in Economic Development. I have always felt privileged assisting Reg Ogen who puts his talk where his heart is- Community First. WFN’s Statement regarding the strengthening of the Four Pillars is the simple goal that I will strive for in my assistance to Yinka Dene Economic Development Limited Partnership (YLP) resulting in beneficial economic opportunities realized for WFN. My first experience with First Nations was when I was an immigrant walking along Granville Street in Vancouver, I was given a pamphlet to read by an “American Indian”, it was about raising money for Wounded Knee. He taught me of the injustices in the US and that perked my interest in “what about Canada?” In my first five years after my arrival from Fiji, with my advance studies in Agriculture and Plant Physiology, I worked for the BC Ministry of Forests assisting in the development of Best Practices and Designs for the planned Containerized Growing System Nurseries. In 1985, my partners and I built Woodmere Nursery. In 1995, we build another operation in Fairview, Alberta. These two operations continue today despite my retirement in 2018. I still do have ownership in Woodmere Nursery. I serve on the Board as a Director in a Cannabis business, Maple Leaf Green World. It is trying to build a production plant in Telkwa. My involvement has been reduced due to conflict of interest as I am in both its and Woodmere’s Board. Recently, I removed myself as President of Woodmere Nursery Ltd. At Woodmere Nursery, Telkwa, we build a relationship with the Witset Community where we recruited 60% of our workforce in the last 25 years. So with establishing a need to work with neighbouring First Nation Communities, I jumped to the opportunity to assist the Gitxsan Treaty Office as a mentor to their Forestry Manager, Cam Stevens, and Economic Development for approximately 7 years. I assisted with management needs in Kyah Wood Products for 2 years plus assisting Economic Development on and off for Witset, as a volunteer. Served 2 terms as a Director for the Bulkley Valley Economic Development Association in its initial startup as the representative for Regional District Bulkley Nechako until I resigned. Also have had experience in several academia Boards in the 90s. In 2015, I read a letter from Karen Ogen in the Interior News in regards to what the LNG Infrastructure Projects meant for First Nations. My conclusion was this was a unique message of strength, progressiveness, reconciliation and caring. So I called WFN and was directed to Reg. I assisted on the forestry files and now gravitated to LNG as this is the “low hanging fruit” for return on investment as directed by Reg. Since then, I have learnt much about WFN and YLP and as mentioned above, honoured to be associated with a dynamic staff at YLP. Thank you Email: j.wong@ydedlp.com |
JOHN NOOSKI, Treasurer
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John Nooski, a Wet'suwet'en First Nation band member, is currently the Business Development Officer at the Burns Lake Native Development Corporation in Burns Lake, BC. John has a very diverse background in forestry, accounting, and entrepreneur.
Email: j.nooski@ydedlp.com |
ROBERT DENNIS, Director
JASON MORGAN, Director
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Jason Morgan, MBA, Doctoral Candidate
Jason is from Ans’Payaxw (Kispiox, B.C.) and Gitwangak (Kitwanga, B.C.) and holds the hereditary name, Am-bax-gan and belongs to the Lax Gibuu (Wolf) Clan from the House of ’Wii Muk’wilixw. He is currently the Director of Operations – Community Development at Carrier Sekani Family Services (CSFS) where he oversees the prevention programs, language and culture, and community family development. Jason holds a Bachelor of Business Degree (1997), Masters of Business Administration (2018), Indigenous Governance Program (2020) and just completed Year 1 of his Doctorate in Educational Leadership at Western University, London, Ontario. His parents are the late Clifford and Constance Morgan who instilled values and principles inherent to Gitxsan laws and culture; and the importance of community and family. Jason’s career has been working with Indigenous Nations and Non-profit organizations and is a strong advocate of supporting Indigenous communities to build their capacities and institutional development to assume self-determination for the betterment of their Peoples. Email: j.morgan@ydedlp.com |
