Coast Funds is pleased to welcome two widely respected and diversely experienced new directors to our board. Angela Wesley and David Egan were appointed by Members to the board of directors on July 7, 2021.

“Angela and David bring with them an incredible diversity of knowledge and expertise and we are thrilled to welcome them to the board,” said board Chair Dallas Smith. “Their experience strengthens Coast Funds’ ability to empower the First Nations we serve to achieve their stewardship, conservation, and economic development goals for the benefit of future generations.”

Angela Wesley is a citizen of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations (Nuu-chah-nulth) and has been principal in Wes-Can Advisory Services since 1992. Over the past 30 years, she has worked extensively within her own community and with First Nations communities throughout BC providing advisory and facilitation services in the areas of strategic planning, community development, communications, community engagement, and governance capacity building.

David Egan is a recently retired Partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers, a major accounting firm, where he worked for over 25 years as a financial advisor and management consultant specializing in financial and market analysis, strategic planning and business decision support. David has had a strong focus on public sector infrastructure and has worked on large scale complex procurements involving project financing. He has also worked on outsourcing programs and been involved in federal and provincial Treasury Board submissions to obtain program funding approvals.

Angela and David bring with them an incredible diversity of knowledge and expertise and we are thrilled to welcome them to the board. Their experience strengthens Coast Funds’ ability to empower the First Nations we serve to achieve their stewardship, conservation, and economic development goals for the benefit of future generations.

Dallas Smith, who was announced as board chair on June 9, 2021, was elected to a four-year term. Dallas is the President and Founder of Na̲nwak̲olas Council and has spent his professional career working to bring greater well-being and capacity to First Nations in the Great Bear Rainforest. Through his leadership roles, Dallas has built positive working relationships with all levels of government, industry, and the philanthropic community to find balance between conservation and sustainable economic development.

“It’s an honour to step into this role at a time when Coast Funds shifts from a legacy organization of 2000s-era agreements to an organization that is actively partnering with First Nations across the region to uplift our efforts to build sustainable, self-determined financing for the governance and stewardship of our lands and seascapes,” says Smith.

Members also re-elected Garth Davis to the board. Garth has served on the board since 2013, and this current term will be his final one under our bylaws. Garth’s wealth of experience in capital deployment, impact investing, and corporate and leveraged finance is a continued benefit to Coast Funds and the First Nations we serve.

Read the new directors’ full biographies and learn about the rest of the Coast Funds board here.

Thanking Past Directors for their Commitment and Dedication

The appointments come as long-time directors Wally Eamer and Darcy Dobell completed their terms. Both served as directors on the board for eight years from 2013-2021.

“On behalf of the board and staff, I extend my sincere gratitude to both Wally and Darcy for all they have contributed to enhancing the well-being of First Nations in the Great Bear Rainforest and Haida Gwaii,” said Dallas Smith.

During their tenure as directors, Wally and Darcy oversaw many milestones at Coast Funds. In 2019, both directors celebrated a major moment in Coast Funds’ history: a decade of partnering with First Nations to create a new conservation economy that links a healthy environment with the prosperity and well-being of their communities.

On behalf of the board and staff, I extend my sincere gratitude to both Wally and Darcy for all they have contributed to enhancing the well-being of First Nations in the Great Bear Rainforest and Haida Gwaii

Under the stewardship of the board of directors, Coast Funds has supported First Nations to achieve well-being outcomes for their communities, including:

• The creation and expansion of 17 unique regional monitoring and Guardian Watchmen programs, covering an average of 4.1 million hectares annually.
• The leveraging of $102 million from their investments with Coast Funds to attract additional investment of $259 million.
• The creation of 1139 permanent jobs in a diversity of sectors, 888 of which are held by First Nations community members.

Darcy joined the Coast Funds board of directors in 2013. As chair of the communications committee, Darcy provided her strategic leadership as Coast Funds developed our communications efforts, including the Talking Stick magazine and email.

Wally was nominated by Na̲nwak̲olas Council as a director in 2013. He was a key player at the negotiation table for the Great Bear Rainforest land use agreements, serving as the provincial negotiator. In 2006, Wally joined Na̲nwak̲olas to help implement ECOSYSTEM-BASED MANAGEMENT throughout the territories of its MEMBER FIRST NATIONS.