Board welcomes new members, chair

UVic’s board of governors has two new members and a new chair and vice-chair this fall.

Biology undergraduate Andrew Bateman has been elected as a student representative for a one-year term. Alumnus and long-time board member Murray Farmer has been elected chair for a one-year term. And former public and private sector executive Raymond Protti has been appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council for a three-year term and elected as vice-chair for one year.

Andrew Bateman is in his final year of a biology honours degree with a second major in mathematics. He has been active in a number of capacities on campus and last year served on the UVic Students’ Society Board of Directors. He now works with Common Energy, finding local answers to the question “How can we do more to solve the problems of climate change than we do to cause them?” Bateman is also an artist and avid cyclist. After graduation, he hopes to pursue graduate studies in mathematical biology.

Murray Farmer is president of Farmer Industries Group Inc., vice-president of Accent Inns and Beckton Estates Inc., and vice-president of Farmer Management Inc., which provides project management services and oversees a portfolio of company-owned commercial properties. Farmer holds a BA in economics from UVic, is a registered quantity surveyor and completed the Harvard Business School’s owner/president executive education program. He has been active in a number of community organizations including the United Way of Greater Victoria and is a past chair of the Victoria Foundation and the Royal Jubilee Hospital Foundation. Farmer is also recipient of the 2007 Distinguished Alumni Award for Lifetime Achievement (see story and photo in this issue).

Raymond Protti has more than 30 years’ experience managing banking, agriculture, security and intelligence, and labour issues both domestically and internationally in the Canadian public and private sectors. He served in four federal deputy ministerial positions including director, Canadian Security and Intelligence Service and deputy minister, Agriculture and Agri-Food. Most recently, he served as president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Bankers Association. Before moving to Victoria, Protti served on the boards of several not-for-profit and arts sector organizations, including Ryerson University, St. Joseph’s Health Centre Foundation and the Toronto Community Foundation. He holds a BA and MA in economics from the University of Alberta.

For current Board of Governors membership, see http://web.uvic.ca/univsec/governance/governors.htm