Friday 17 August 2012

Hurricanes Announce Board Candidates

The Lethbridge Hurricanes are preparing for the 27th Annual General Meeting to be held Monday, August 27th, 2012.

The following is a list of candidates and a brief bio on those running for the Board of Directors.

DICK GIBSON:

Dick is a retired teacher and has been a board member for 8 years and has been involved with the Hurricanes franchise in several different capacities since 1987.

Dick’s main focus as a board member has been the establishment and continual development of the Hurricanes history. With that I mind, Dick has acted as the Chairman of the Alumni Hall of Fame and the Alumni Golf Tournament Committees. He’s also acted as the board Communications Chairman. If re-elected, it is his hope to continue on with those two committees which are of great importance to the furthering of the history of this franchise.

DAVID GURR:

David is 27 years old and was born and raised in the city of Lethbridge. David graduated from Catholic Central High School in 2003 and has been happily married to his wife Alexandria for 2 years. David has worked at London Road Market for the past 15 years and he has been the Manager for 9 of those years. Gurr is a fourth generation butcher proudly cutting in the same location that his great-grandfather did 62 years ago.

David Gurr has been a season ticket holder for the past 5 years and an avid hockey fan for his whole life. He’s currently a Board of Director with the Galt Museum and Archives, also sitting with the Finance Committee and Galt Legacy Fund Committee.

BRIAN MCNAUGHTON:

Brian has been a resident of Southern Alberta since 1989 and he’s been married to his wife Lois for 30 years. They have two grown children – Kevin (and wife Allison) and Carly. Brian is President of HyTech Production Ltd., a company which he founded in 1998. HyTech is an independent seed production company based in Lethbridge, with operations in Kimberly, BC, Moses Lake, WA and Temuco, Chile.

Brian has been involved as a volunteer in hockey for more than 30 years. He has coached at the Minor Hockey level, University and the WHL. He has also spent numerous years involved in the hockey Alberta Program of Excellence as a coach, instructor and course conductor. His list of hockey accomplishments are: Val Matteotti Golden Hawks (4 Provincial finals - 2 Gold, 2 Silver), Val Matteotti Golden Hawks (Western Canadian Bantam Championships – 3 Silver), Hockey Alberta (Alberta Cup – 2 Gold), Team Alberta Canada Winter Games (Gold), Portland Winter Hawks 1998 Memorial Cup Championship. McNaughton also previously served for 8 years on the Lethbridge Hurricanes Board of Directors, 7 of those years were as President.

DAVE OLSON:

Dave has been married to his wife Kathy for 23 years and they have a 12 year old daughter Kellie. Olson attended Brandon University and he’s been a resident of Lethbridge for 25 years where he owns and operates the Lethbridge Pizza Huts. Olson is a board member of the Canadian Pizza Hut Franchise Holders Association, currently serving as its President and he’s a member of the Operations Excellence Committee with Pizza Hut Canada.

Dave has served 3 terms as a board member (8 years) for the Lethbridge Hurricanes and during his tenure he has been involved with the Business Operation Committee, Onside Committee, Alumni and Hall of Fame Committee as well as the ENMAX renovation / liaison Committee. He’s also served as Board Secretary for the last 3 years and his hobbies include golf, camping, travel and enjoying junior hockey.

DOUG PAISLEY:

Doug was raised in Lethbridge and has been a resident since 1978. He and his wife of 19 years Tami have 2 daughters, Logan (18) who will be attending LCC this fall to take business and accounting and Brooklyn (16) who will be attending prep school in New Brunswick this fall to play varsity girls hockey as a goalie. Doug is a member of the Lethbridge Oldtimers Sports Assoc. (LOSA) and still plays hockey a couple of times per week and enjoys spending time with his family and staying involved with the local hockey scene.


Doug is the CEO of the family transportation business: Lethbridge Truck Terminals (LTT) which employs 25 people and operates as a regional trucking company based out of Lethbridge with licensing authority in BC, AB, SK, Montana and Idaho as well as a providing local warehousing and handling.

Doug has been involved with hockey for the last 35 years as a player, coach, manager, instructor, mentor, board member and scout. He has coached at the AAA minor hockey level, University and AJHL as well as U15, U16 & U17 levels with Hockey Alberta’s program of excellence. Doug’s greatest hockey achievement to date was coaching at the AAA Midget level in Lethbridge where over his 4 year involvement with the program he had the privilege to work with 72 players and be a part of their development and help prepare 63 of them to move on to the Jr A Tier 2 or Tier 1 major junior levels. Doug is a Hurricane season ticket holder and currently shares an ENMAX suite with another local business.

NICK POLYCHRONOPOULOS:

Nick was born and raised in Southern Alberta and lives in Lethbridge with his wife and two children. At present, and for the last 12 years, Nick works as an Investment Advisor for CIBC Wood Gundy where he maintains offices in both Lethbridge and Calgary. His main focus is on wealth management, tax and estate planning, life insurance and special situations.

Nick is also a Western Hockey League Alumnus having played Major Junior Hockey in the Western Hockey League for both the Prince Albert Raiders and the Lethbridge Hurricanes and he now shares his passion for hockey by coaching and instructing for Minor Hockey programs and National Sports Development programs. He is actively involved in brining awareness to, and advocating for, both the WHL Scholarship program and the Lethbridge Hurricanes Scholarship Fund.

Nick spend his youth playing in the LMHA and then the LAA where he played for the Lethbridge Bantam AAA Val Matteoti Golden Hawks and the Lethbridge Midge AAA Y’s Men; winners of the 1991 International Mac’s Major Midget Tournament Cup.

Nick is a graduate of the University of Lethbridge and majored in Finance and is a member of the Faculty of Management Alumni at the U of L.

In addition, Nick enjoys volunteering as an instructor for the Southern Alberta Junior Achievement program where he teaches finance and investment classes to Lethbridge High School students.

In fairness to all the candidates, no comments about them will be posted. This is intended to give shareholders an idea as to who is running August 27th.

Thanks,
Pat

8 comments:

  1. Time for new fresh ideas on e board!!

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  2. Awesome! Thanks Pat! This info is much needed and will help a lot! Hopefully, we have a few more names to choose from in the coming week or so. Thanks again.
    ps. I like the idea of people with a finance background running, since that seems to have been a major issue in the recent past.

    Darren

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  3. Darren: All but three of the current board do have financial and/or business backgrounds. Certainly having people with financial backgrounds is important for this board and any other boards for that matter. But even with 15 people with a finance background on the board the "major issue" can only be solved by the sale of more advertising/season tickets and the team must have a winning product in order to get more "walkups'. With both of those improving will equal the financial picture improving.

    RJ

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  4. Not sure how that whole "25% off seasons tickets" business model got passed all these savvy business men last year????? Doesn't look good on them to sign off on that and then sack the business manager because it was his idea. All Board members were responsible for that fiasco.
    Darren

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  5. Darren, Jim Bradley wasn't fired. He resigned his position back in April.

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  6. I would like the team to address the possible formation of the CHLPA and how it would effect the ticket pricing and the Hurricanes as a whole. Also Pat, when does the Monday night show start up?

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  7. The first Monday night radio show is September 17th. The new time will be 7:00 pm. The Media Roundtable will open things up that night as well.

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  8. It is expecting a bit much to have the Hurricanes comment on the CHLPA. The President of the CHL, David Branch commented on it recently without saying much other than he has not been contacted by anyone from that fledgling group.

    Besides one of the so-called issues, apparently is the scholarships.

    The WHL is head and shoulders above the OHL and QMJHL. One year played = one year of education funds. Cam Braes played 5 years in the WHL....which gives him 5 years of educational funding, which is is going to use at UNB.

    If this CHLPA does come about, they should also look into the unfair practices of some of the "rich" teams "enticing" players to come and play for them. Windsor was recently fined $400,000 for such practices. I would guess, that it is likely going on in the WHL as well.

    RJ

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