Board

Clean Air Champions (CAC) was founded in 2001 by David Chernushenko, Deirdre Laframboise and Anna van der Kamp. Each founder has extensive education and long careers in sport and environment fields.

Today, CAC is managed by an Executive Director and staff who work under the guidance of a volunteer Board of Directors and Advisory Board.

 

Board of Directors

Christian Weber, Chair

Profession: Project Manager - Climate Change, Canadian Standards Association

Chris has been working in the environmental field since 1992. He has a Masters in Natural Resource Management and an undergraduate science degree from the University of Manitoba. He has worked and in the private sector, as a consultant, at the government of Manitoba, the Office of the Auditor General, Environment Canada and is now at CSA. Chris has worked at the cross-section of agriculture and environment, on air quality and smog issues in the federal-provincial domain and on policy and design issues of air pollutant and climate change emissions cap and trading programs.

Chris was an elite track and field distance runner competing at an international level from 1988 to 2000. Chris may be the only Canadian distance runner who has won the national championship in all four seasons, cross-country, road racing, indoor track and outdoor track. As a proud Manitoban, he had the privilege of representing Canada at many international competitions including the world cross-country championships, the Francophone Games, the Commonwealth Games and other international competitions. Chris was Manitoba’s Male Athlete of the Year in 1990 and was inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in 2002. Chris was also a member of the 1999 Winnipeg Pan-Am Games Environmental Committee.


David Crawford, Treasurer

Profession: Certified Management Accountant & a Canadian Certified Environmental Professional.

David Crawford is both a Certified Management Accountant and a Canadian Certified Environmental Practitioner. He specializes in the integration of financial and non-financial performance measurement. David has previously been both a small-business owner, and employee of a multi-national waste management company. For eight years he was the Market and Technical Services Manager at the Manitoba Product Stewardship Corporation in Winnipeg where he provided operational, marketing, financial, and environmental consulting services to support waste reduction and pollution prevention programs, consistent with the principles of sustainable development.
 
David co-chaired the Environment Committee for the 2002 North American Indigenous Games. In November of 2002, he received a Sustainable Development Award of Excellence from the Province of Manitoba's Roundtable for Sustainable Development for his work as co-chair. Shortly thereafter he championed the creation of the Spirit of the Earth Awards, an annual environmental awards program sponsored by Manitoba Hydro. The intent of this awards program is to promote environmental awareness and recognize the culture and history of Aboriginal people.
 
In 2006 the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) selected two of David’s magazine articles as Articles of Merit. These articles were selected as part of IFAC’s annual Articles of Merit Award Program for Distinguished Contribution to Management Accounting. Originally published in CMA Management Magazine, the two articles are "Managing and Reporting Sustainability," by David Crawford, CMA, and "The Balanced Scorecard and Corporate Social Responsibility: aligning values for profit," by David Crawford, CMA, and Todd Scaletta, CMA, FCMA.


Erin Down, Secretary

Profession: Senior Policy Analyst, Strategic Policy Branch, Health Canada

Erin has been a professional in the environmental and health field since 1998. She holds a graduate degree in economics and environmental studies (MA, Toronto), and an undergraduate degree in international business (BBA, Bishop’s). She started her career working in environmental and energy policy at The Conference Board of Canada, and has since been employed by private environmental consulting firms, and as an environmental policy analyst in the federal public sector. Erin originally joined the CAC team as an interim Program Coordinator for Clean Air Achievers in 2005. Currently, Erin is a Senior Policy Analyst at Health Canada.
 
For a number of years, Erin was also on the Board of Directors for Ottawa Kids Triathlon, a CAC partner. Erin was a competitive amateur triathlete for several years, and has represented Canada at the age-group World Championships a number of times. She continues to train for triathlons, and maintains a consistent yoga practice to balance things out.

 

Liza Campbell, Director

Profession: Senior Policy Advisor- National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy

Liza has worked in both the sustainable development and fitness fields for over 18 years. Key areas of focus include natural resource management, water, climate change, international relations, wetland conservation, health and environment, and integrated landscape management from a policy, communications and multi-stakeholder perspective. In the fitness realm, she has experience as a personal trainer and instructor of aquavit, spinning, downhill and cross country skiing as well as having participated in a number of short course summer and winter triathlons. She has degrees in political science and geography, and strives to inspire action on health and environment!


Adam Kreek, Director

Profession: Olympic Gold Medalist, Entrepreneur and Expert in High Performance.

After a disappointing loss at the Athens Olympic Games of 2004, he powered his way to a gold medal at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.  During his 13 year rowing career, Adam won over 60 medals, 27 in international competitions, with 43 of these being gold medal or first place performances. Adam was named Athlete Leader of the year at the 2010 Canadian Sports Awards, a lifetime achievement award presented to an individual who has provided outstanding contributions to sport as a leader advocate, change agent and builder.

A self-described “positive realist,” Adam has spoken to over 100,000 people across North America on topics of leadership, team development and change management.

Adam is an elected member of the Canadian Olympic Committee Board of Directors and Athletes Commission, an Ambassador for Clean Air Champions and Right to Play, a Board Member of the Island Biodiesel Coop and is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the BC Biofuels Network. He is a Big Brother, with Big Brothers and Big Sisters, a Team Power Smart Leader with BC Hydro and a representative of Act Now BC. He is an ambassador for the Robert Bateman Get to Know Program, and has worked with thousands of youth in schools across Canada, instilling within our next generation the idea that the “secret to happy living is giving”.

Adam holds a degree in Geotechnical Engineering and Hydrology from Stanford University.  He is a loving husband and proud father who lives part-time in two cities: Victoria BC and Ottawa, ON. www.KreekSpeak.com

 

Ann Duffy – International Relations

President: The Ann Duffy Group
 
Ann’s passion for sport as an agent for social change is expressed through her work as an international advisor and speaker on sustainability for the Olympic Movement and leaders in the sport event sector including sponsors and community partners. Ann led the planning and engagement process for Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games to implement environmental, social, economic bid commitments throughout the project. She also chaired a national process to create Z2010 - Canada’s first sustainable event management standard with the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) and the business, sport and cultural events sector.
 
Previously, Ann served as Vice President, Sustainable Development for CH2M HILL Canada, operated her own practice and worked for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) International in Switzerland on multi-regional education and communication projects.
 
Ann holds a Master of Communications Studies, University of Calgary and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Human Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Guelph and lives in Vancouver, B.C.
 

Rumon Carter – Legal

Profession: Lawyer, Entrepreneur, Photographer & Journalist, Masters Multi-Sport Racer
 
Rumon pursues a diverse cross-section of personal and professional interests. A lawyer and former professional biologist, he holds degrees from the University of Victoria and the University of Northern British Columbia. He has worked as a Special Advisor to the British Columbia Office of the Premier to the tar sands of northern Alberta as an avian toxicology research scientist.
Most recently, as managing director of The Athena Group of Companies Rumon provides strategic, legal and creative advice to businesses, professionals and non-governmental organizations. He sits on a number of boards including as Director-at-Large for the Tour de Victoria, Advisory Board Member for New Professionals at Canadian Government Executive Magazine and Director-at-Large for Runners of Compassion.
 
A survivor of two heart surgeries, a former member the Canadian National Triathlon Team and current member of the Canadian XTERRA Offroad Triathlon Team, Rumon is a member of Clean Air Champions as a Masters level athlete. He races as Team Lead for Impossible2Possible’s Adventure Sport Team, competing in multi-sport events and endurance races around the world, doing so to spread messages of youth empowerment and environmental sustainability.
 
Rumon writes and shoots photographs about his races, travels and social justice matters for a number of publications. When not on the road he lives in Victoria, B.C. with his wife and an entertaining menagerie of furry animals.