Gordon Skillen - Executive Director

Gordon has an extensive history in the association industry. He sat on the Board of the BC Restaurant and Foodservices Association, two years as Treasurer and two years as Vice President. He dramatically increased the membership base for the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association, the largest hospitality association in Canada. Gordon has taught Marketing on a Shoestring Budget seminars for the last 22 years. He has hundreds of clients throughout North America for his Customer Relationship Management consulting firm. Gordon thrives on creating highly successful systems to dramatically increase his clients’ sales. He has applied this same passion to creating an aggressive marketing and growth plan for the IPBC.

Chris Hafstein, CPB - Secretary, Board Member

With over a decade of experience, working in a variety of industries eAssistant.ca offers a complete range of professional bookkeeping and business support services to small business owners in the Surrey, White Rock, and Langley area. Chris has earned the reputation of being a committed, reliable, and knowledgeable source of help for anyone looking to get a job done quickly and efficiently. Her skills, enthusiasm, dedication and a positive attitude have equipped her to handle a multitude of responsibilities. Chris is a Certified QuickBooks Pro Advisor a member of Sage Software’s Accountants Network, the Surrey Board of Trade, as well as various networking associations including Focused Networking Ltd.

Suzie Giroux - Board Member

Prior to becoming a professional Sign Language Interpreter in 1993, Suzie worked in retail and restaurant management for 6 years. She is currently the manager for the Vancouver centre of Sorenson Communications - Canada Operations, a Video Relay Service company.

She has been on the executive board of the Westcoast Association of Visual Language Interpreters (British Columbia) for 12 years, holding the positions of Treasurer, Vice President, President, and is the current Past President. She is also the current treasurer for the Canadian national association of interpreters, the Association of Visual Language Interpreters of Canada, a position she has held since 1998.

Marge Wegren-Debré - Education, Board Member

Marge comes to us from P51 Computing Strategies, a company she has shared ownership in since its inception in 1994. She has been involved in the operations and management of small businesses throughout her entire career, with positions that have provided her with experience in a broad number of industries. Her career has provided her with an in-depth understanding of ‘what it takes’ to successfully operate a business.

Marge is certified in Small Business Management; is a certified Trainer for the “Personality Dimensions” workshops and has been a Certified Consultant for the Simply Accounting software since the mid 1990s. She is a Charter Member of the national Simply Accounting Partner Advisory Committee. She authors six training manuals used at some of the local colleges for Bookkeeping and Simply Accounting. When she is not at the front of a classroom, can be found researching and implementing answers for her clients, which includes on-site training to staff.

Margaret Ana Fernandez - Board Member

Margaret Ana Fernandez is the president of Synchrony Office Support Ltd., a company specializing in the set-up and streamlining of accounting and administrative systems. She has over 30 years experience in industries such as automotive sales, logging, financial services and retail.

Since moving to BC in 1980, she has been on the board of The Boy Scouts of Canada, several Parent Advisory Councils, and Advocis just to name a few. Currently, Ana is an active member of the Prince George Chamber of Commerce, the International Association of Administrative Professionals and has recently become involved with the Minerva Foundation which inspires and empowers women and girls to reach their full potential through the funding of various projects. Ana was also at the forefront of the building of The Prince George Rotary Skatepark in 2002 and is an avid supporter of Covenant House in Vancouver.

Frances McGuckin - Board Advisor

Frances is an award-winning, best-selling author, business management consultant, a professional speaker, member of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS) and the International Federation for Professional Speakers. She travels throughout Canada and the United States speaking on business and motivational subjects, and is a popular media guest. With over thirty years of hands-on business experience ranging from small to large entities, Frances has amassed a wealth of business experience. She has been active in teaching entrepreneurship for 17 years. Her home-based businesses, SmallBizPro.com Services and Eastleigh Publications are in their 20th year.

She is a willing volunteer who carries the message that life should be a positive and happy experience, a balance between reaching for your dreams through hard work, goal setting and focused planning, spending quality family time, and giving back to others.

Bill Irwin - Head of Research

Bill has focused his career on helping people to maximize their investment in information processing technologies. While the methods and tools used to process information have changed considerably over the thirty year span of his career, the attention to detail and his passion for helping others to realize their computing goals has only deepened his commitment to achieving excellence for his clients. Bill has been married for thirty-five years (to the same wife!) and has two grown children. He was born in North Vancouver, as was his father, and continues to reside there. He has a keen interest in local history and enjoys working on his genealogy database that now contains over 1,600 ancestors and relatives, and extends back as far as the 14th century.

Joseph Willmott - Board Advisor, Business Development

Joseph Willmott is a financier, business manager and marketing expert.

Mr. Willmott manages three companies, is a partner in a business consulting company and active as a management consultant.  He has extensive experience gained over the last 25 years providing strategic planning, marketing and financing to small to medium sizes business in Canada and the United States.

Mr. Willmott has developed tens of millions of dollars of new revenue for his clients, some achieving phenomenal growth and profitability.

Mr. Willmott has also been instrumental in locating, commercializing and financing new technologies and products for Canadian industry on behalf of the Federal Government, manufacturers and research councils.  He has been guest lecturer at universities and been the keynote speaker at important business seminars across the country.

He has lectured at UBC Conferences and BCIT on the subjects of product development and financing technology commercialization.