2025 Nomination Papers
Sending date: May 21, 2025
The process has now officially commenced for the nomination of candidates for the four seats on the Board of Governors that will become vacant in October 2025.
2025 Nomination Form (Deadline: June 11, 2025)
What is the Board of Governors?
The Board of Governors is a volunteer Board (unpaid position, and members do not receive benefits), focused on the governance, oversight and strategic direction of the school, rather than its day-to-day operations. Governors volunteer to dedicate significant time and expertise to the Society, and are also fiduciaries of the school, responsible for overseeing the school's fiscal management. Governors serve in three-year terms, with a possibility to renew for a maximum of three successive terms (or nine years) and in the case of the Chair, for a maximum of four successive terms (or twelve years).
Nominations Process for 2025
Candidates can be nominated in two ways: by the Board appointed Nominations Committee or by two society members. All candidates must meet the requirements to be Governors set out in the Society Bylaws. Candidates must complete and submit the signed Nomination Form and satisfy all other requirements detailed in the Nomination Form, by June 11, 2025.
For 2025, the Nominations Committee has identified finance experience and Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) certification as critical needs for the Board. This is because the Board’s current Treasurer and Finance Chair will complete his terms after nine years of dedicated service to the school and it is imperative not only to fill these positions, but also to add additional depth in these areas. As such, in December 2024, there was a call for nominations to the Society to encourage expressions of interest, with a focus on this skill set, which received excellent responses that have greatly assisted the Nominations Committee in building the Board slate. We thank the members of the Society who generously responded to the Call for Nominations, and explored the possibility of serving on the Board or committees.
If no additional candidates come forward by the nomination deadline, the Board slate will be elected by acclamation and will take their seats in October 2025. However, if there are additional candidates, the bylaws of the Society require that an election be held to elect only the number of candidates necessary to fill the vacant seats.
Nomination Committee's Nominated Slate
One of the most important duties of the Board’s Nominations Committee is to thoroughly assess the needs of the Board and to recommend the most qualified slate of returning and new board candidates to the Society, in terms of skills, experience and diverse perspectives, as well as specific succession planning requirements for key roles such as board officers and committee chairs. This is done rigorously through the focused work of the Nominations Committee, which identifies qualified and interested individuals, and thoroughly evaluates both returning governors as well as new candidates.
To find new candidates, the Nominations Committee sources members of the SMUS community, including those that have a strong track record for volunteerism (including prior committee work), a track record for philanthropy, and a demonstrated ability to work effectively as part of a team. As mentioned above, for 2025 a critical need was to identify candidates with finance experience and CPA certification. As such, the criteria established by the Nominations Committee required that all new candidates demonstrate proficiency in at least one of the identified skill areas.
New candidates, in addition to fulfilling the identified capability and experience needs of the Board, typically have already been serving on a board committee. They then go through a series of virtual and in-person interviews. For term renewals, returning governors undergo a peer evaluation through a confidential survey and must demonstrate a positive contribution to the Board's work.
This year, the Nominations Committee nominates a highly-qualified and experienced slate that includes two returning governors eligible for renewal, Douglas Freeman and Chris Talbot, and two new candidates Anup Grewal and Scott Marks. The selection of Anup and Scott was largely due to their strong backgrounds in finance and/or CPA qualifications.
This slate contributes to a board that is diverse across multiple dimensions, bringing a plurality of perspectives to reflect the school community. Including these four recommended candidates, the 12 elected governors will include an ongoing balance of six females and six males, eight alumni and four non-alumni, six current SMUS parents and six past or non-SMUS parents, six governors whose careers have mostly been pursued in B.C. and six whose careers have been international and finally, four governors with experience with boarding and eight with day school. Critically, the Board will also have the blend of skill-sets needed to perform the duties that the Board and its committees require – expertise in law, finance, general management, facilities, sustainability, technology, human resources, real-estate development and leadership.
Overview of Candidates
Both returning governors, Douglas Freeman and Chris Talbot, have made outstanding contributions to the Board and the school. Together they represent a collective nine years of volunteer service that has been important to the governance of our school, including serving as Vice Chair of the Board and Chair of the Nominations Committee, and members of multiple board committees. These individuals and their experience have enabled the Board to function at a high level, while also bringing soft skills in teamwork and leadership that are so important in any effective group setting. Additionally, the continued contribution from these returning governors for the next three years will help ensure a successful and efficient transition as we prepare to welcome and onboard our new Head of School, Dr. Jeff Aitken, while bringing a complex and much-needed building project, the Middle School expansion, to a successful and timely conclusion.
The Nominations Committee additionally recommends Anup Grewal and Scott Marks as the two new candidates in this year’s slate to replace two governors, Kyman Chan and David Longridge, who will complete their Board service this year upon reaching their term maximum. Kyman is the Board’s current Treasurer and David is Governor and past Board Chair. Both have steered our school’s finances through the challenges of the COVID pandemic. As such, the Nominations Committee has spent the past months identifying and vetting candidates with the requisite executive-level financial and accounting leadership expertise, in order to effectively reinforce these skills on the Board, and also to serve as Treasurer. We are confident that we have identified two individuals with the requisite skills, experience and capabilities to serve on the Board.
If you are interested in putting your name forward as a candidate for the 2025 Board openings, we would ask that you please contact the Nominations Committee, at [email protected]. For further information on the process, see Nominations and Elections and the Nomination Form (PDF). In general if you have interest in learning more about serving on a Committee, the Board, or any of these other volunteer organizations in the future, please email the Nominations Committee at [email protected].
Nomination Papers and Candidate Bio and Q&A
Please read below to learn more about this year’s recommended Board Slate. Candidates are listed below alphabetically by last name:
Douglas Freeman
SMUS Board Service: Current member of the Board, Board member for the past 3 years, currently serves on SMUS Nominations Committee, Journey for Life (overseer) and Advancement Committee
Relationship to SMUS: Alumnus ’88 (Grades 6 to 12)
Key Contributions, Attributes and Qualities:
- As the President of UniWorld Group, Inc. (UWG), Doug and UWG serve as the Chief Human Capital Advisor to four of the 10 largest publicly traded companies in the world.
- Douglas Freeman has served on a range of non-profit Boards, from a fine arts board in Chicago, to a university board in the mid-South, to a range of advisory boards over the last 20 years. This level of board knowledge and participation has enabled him to provide a strong source of best practices knowledge, whether it is related to governance, key board decisions, or offering an alternative perspective during board member discussions, to facilitate strategic board management.
- Douglas has also been extensively involved with the SMUS Advancement Committee, not only attending meetings but also supporting the strategic outreach activities of the school’s advancement team in different geographies. Additionally, as a member of the Nominations Committee, in years that Douglas is not also a candidate, he has actively participated in all aspects of the nominations process.
Read nomination papers, including detailed Q&A with Douglas Freeman
Anup Grewal
SMUS Board Service: Newly proposed candidate for this year’s slate
Relationship to SMUS: Parent of SMUS day student graduates ’20 and ’23. Member of both the Finance and the Facilities committees
Key Contributions, Attributes and Qualities:
- With a background in economics, Anup has over 30 years of experience in finance, including as an investment advisor at CIBC Wood Gundy, where his work spanned managing risk assessment and mitigation for institutional portfolios.
- As co-founder of Novus Properties, Anup also brings valuable property development expertise to the Board to support the school’s capital projects.
- Anup has a track record of contributing his time and expertise to community in not-for-profit environments. He is active on the Victoria Hospitals Foundation Board, and for years volunteered as a team manager at the Victoria Minor Hockey Association.
Read nomination papers, including detailed Q&A with Anup Grewal
Scott Marks
SMUS Board Service: Newly proposed candidate for this year’s slate
Relationship to SMUS: Alumnus ’90, current day student parent, member of the Finance Committee
Key Contributions, Attributes and Qualities:
- Scott Marks is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) with extensive experience leading large-scale infrastructure projects across North America. His work involves collaborating with teams responsible for building and operating these assets over multiple decades, requiring a strategic balance between day-to-day operations and long-term implications.
- His career spans leadership roles in accounting, corporate finance and treasury, as well as infrastructure investment. Based in Canada as well as for a period in Bermuda, he has worked for Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Intrawest Corporation, as well as Macquarie Bank.
- Scott has governance experience, with a particular focus on not-for-profit finance, sustainability and budgeting, having been Treasurer of the Canadian Cancer Society BC/Yukon Division for six years.
Read nomination papers, including detailed Q&A with Scott Marks
Chris Talbot
SMUS Board Service: Current Vice-Chair of the Board, Chair of the Nominations Committee (currently recused while a current candidate for this year’s Board Slate), and member of Executive and Governance Committees, ad-hoc Opportunities Committee and formerly the Advancement Committee
Relationship to SMUS: Alumnus ’87 (Lifer), current day student parent, mother was a teacher at SMUS
Key Contributions, Attributes and Qualities:
- Chris’s experience as a Founder of successful healthcare technology leader Qualcomm Life and senior executive at Fortune 500 tech company Qualcomm, Inc. brings valuable leadership, teamwork, governance and strategic level skills to the Board table, especially as we build our momentum in the school’s STEAM strategy and plans.
- Chris has brought new perspectives and diligence to our nominations process, ensuring good succession planning and board teamwork, while also helping to diversify our Board.
- He brings impressive leadership through the eyes of an informed perspective of global complexity, business and organizational development, financial decision making as well as strategic planning. His range of school perspectives as alum, parent, former day and boarding student and child of a former SMUS teacher provide a 360 degree perspective.
Read nomination papers, including detailed Q&A with Chris Talbot