Jon Tinker has worked in international development for over 35 years. He was the founder and chief executive first of Earthscan (1974-86) and then of the Panos Institutes (1986-93). During that period he helped pioneer for Earthscan and Panos media briefing documents, thematic information programmes, information capacity-building among Southern media and civil society, and work on HIV-AIDS.

He has been an active member of the Conseil d'administration of l'Institut Panos Paris since its foundation in 1986. He resigned from this position when Panos Canada was formed, and in December 2003 Panos Paris made him its honorary president.

He became a Canadian resident and senior associate of the Sustainable Development Research Institute at the University of British Columbia in 1993. He has been a Winston Churchill Memorial Fellow; been environment and development editor of the UK weekly New Scientist; won awards from UNEP (Global 500) and the Association of British Science Writers; and been a member of the UK Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution.

William Booth is an educator and development consultant with professional experience with UNDP, UNAIDS, UNICEF and other international agencies and NGOs in more than sixty countries. He was executive director of AIDS Vancouver 2005-8, and is currently at the College of Health Sciences, University of British Columbia, and a board member of the Canadian HIV-AIDS Legal Network.

Pieter de Vos has a master’s degree in public health, based on research into the social, political and economic factors that shape the lives of homeless individuals and ultimately influence their notions of individual agency, selfhood and personal health. He has worked for Our Voice Magazine, a newspaper that advocates on behalf of poor people, and been involved in a variety of capacities in the health and social services sector, including counselling street youth and conducting a health needs assessment for the Woodland Cree First Nation. He is also a documentary photographer focusing on such issues as poverty, aging and health.

Margaret Catley-Carlson, now resident in Vancouver, has been president of CIDA, chair of ICARDA (International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas), vice-chair of IDRC, chair of the Global Water Partnership, president of the Population Council, Canada's deputy minister of health and welfare, and deputy executive director of UNICEF.

Lloyd Axworthy, former Canadian foreign minister, now president of the University of Winnipeg.

Monica Gruder Drake (secretary), business consultant and journalist, and Asia-Pacific specialist.

Françoise Havelange, executive director of Panos-Paris.

Amir Moghadasi CA (treasurer), Grant Thornton LLP.

John M. Robinson (chair), former Canadian high commissioner to Jamaica and vice-president of CIDA.

Jon Tinker, Executive Director.

Julie Wagemakers, deputy director, Liu Institute for Global Issues, University of British Columbia.

Vancouver Initiative Principals 

Honorary President

Board of Directors