Director
Coralie Gregoire, a member of Component 7, was elected BCGEU Executive Vice-President at the 2024 Constitutional Convention – the first to mandate an Indigenous EVP. With almost 20 years of union activism experience, Coralie has held roles including steward and Occupational Health and Safety rep at Legal Aid BC, and various positions in Local 703 and Component 7.
Coralie was originally motivated to get more involved after witnessing workplace bullying and today is dedicated to recruiting and training shop stewards and advocating for living wages. Her notable projects include contributing to the BCGEU’s submission to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls National Inquiry and helping establish the BCGEU’s Indigenous Advisory Council. Coralie is active in the BC Native Women’s Association and the New Westminster & District Labour Council.
She enjoys playing and coaching fastball and learning her Indigenous language, Nsyilxcen. She is a proud member of the Okanagan Indian Band.
Board Chair
Hermender Singh Kailley was elected BCFED Secretary Treasurer in 2022. Hermender’s first involvement with the labour movement began when he helped organize his fellow Vancouver Fringe Festival workers with IATSE Local 118. After a career change in 2004, he became a member of ILWU Local 502, joining the executive board in 2018 and becoming secretary-treasurer in 2019. A first-generation Canadian born to Punjabi parents, Hermender also serves on the executive board of the New Westminster and District Labour Council.
Irene is currently the Associate Director of Finance at SHARE (Shareholder Association for Research and Education), our longtime strategic partner. Irene emigrated to Canada from Belarus in 1999 and started her accounting career in 2001, building on her economics background, in which she earned a Bachelors of Economics from the Academy of Public Administration in Minsk. Irene joined Columbia Institute in 2005 and, since then, has provided accounting services to the organization. Irene says this experience has given her a deep understanding and appreciation of the important role of nonprofits and charities in supporting progressive values. Irene received a Certified Canadian Accountant (CGA) designation in 2012.
David Levi currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Columbia Institute.
Outside volunteering his time to the non-profit, David is the President & CEO of Working Enterprises Ltd. In 1992, he founded the Working Opportunity Fund (WOF), BC’s original labour-sponsored investment fund, and was CEO until 2016. WOF has invested $600 million in more than 130 growth-oriented, entrepreneurial BC companies.
GrowthWorks was founded by David in January 1999 and grew to be a leading venture capital fund manager, having five offices and nine venture capital funds under management which have made investments in over 200 companies across the country David has grown assets under management to $800 million for GrowthWorks, the second largest manager of labour-sponsored investment funds in Canada. Today, he serves as Executive Vice President.
In addition to his entrepreneurship and strategic leadership, David has over 10 years of investment management experience and an in-depth knowledge of the brokerage community, having previously been chair of VanCity Credit Union and Vice-President of Broker Services at C.M. Oliver.
David has provided strategic direction to many portfolio companies and currently serves on the boards of Avcorp Industries and Xantrex Technology. He also chairs Verite, an independent, non-profit social auditing and research organization and is involved in a numDirectorber of community organizations.
Contact David via email.
Director
Annette Toth was elected MoveUP president in July 2024. She was first elected as vice-president representing the ICBC component in 2013 and served in that position for four terms. Her experience in the labour movement goes back to 1992 when she was president of Local 4002 with the airline division of CUPE for over nine years. Annette joined ICBC in 2005.
She was also elected as the COPE-SEPB National President in June of 2022.
Annette serves on the board of directors for the Columbia Institute, Union Protein Project and is on the Executive Committee for IndustriAll, a global union federation. She sits on many of the committees at MoveUP.
Annette holds a B.A. from the University of Victoria.