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Research Director, Alberta Land Institute
Professor Eran Kaplinsky teaches in the areas of property law and planning law. He holds a Bachelor of Laws from Tel Aviv University, a Master of Laws from the University of Toronto, and a Doctor of Juridical Science from the University of Toronto. Professor Kaplinsky is also a research affiliate of the City-Region Studies Centre. His teaching and research interests include: land-use planning and regulation, law and economics, municipal law and property law.
Director, Alberta Land Institute
Dave Poulton was appointed as the Director of the Alberta Land Institute effective June 1, 2016. Dave is an experienced executive and consultant, leading his own consulting practice. He is also the Executive Director of the Alberta Association for Conservation Offsets (AACO), a forum to build shared understanding respecting the use of conservation offsets and the development of offset policy
Chair, ALI Community Advisory Board
Dr. Stanford Blade is Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences (ALES) (University of Alberta). The top-ranked Faculty is made up of 500+ faculty and staff, 1650 undergraduates and 550 graduate students. The Faculty has an annual budget of $85m, with approximately $45m in external research support from industry and funding agencies. ALES is focused on teaching, research and community service in its departments: Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Sciences (where Dr. Blade is a Full Professor); Renewable Resources; Human Ecology and Resource Economics & Environmental Sociology. In 2018 Dr. Blade was named an International Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry.
Dr. Blade’s PhD was awarded by McGill University for plant breeding/cropping systems research (conducted at IITA) supported by a Government of Canada Doctoral Scholarship. He is a 2012 graduate of the Wharton Business School’s Executive Development Program (University of Pennsylvania). He is currently a Trustee on the Board of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and he previously served two terms as Vice-Chair for the Board of Trustees of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation a Nairobi-based agency supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Blade is a board member of Edmonton Global (regional economic development agency), the Alberta Cancer Foundation and the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute. Dr. Blade has been an invited discussion leader at Harvard Agribusiness Seminars and participated in the Oxford Scenarios Programme.
Dr. Blade was founding Chief Executive Officer (2008-2014) of Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions. Dr. Blade previously served as the Deputy Director General (Research) for the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).
Dr. Blade’s expertise has been recognized through his many invitations to speak at international fora on the role of innovation in creating prosperity in the agriculture and food sectors and through his participation in research reviews conducted by the European Institute of Innovation & Technology, European Union, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, Food and Agriculture Organization, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation.
ALI Community Advisory Board
Mr. Blackwood is the Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM) of Integrated Resource Management Planning Division for Alberta’s Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development and the Stewardship Commissioner for the Government of Alberta’s Land Stewardship Act.
As ADM for Integrated Resource Management Planning, Rick is responsible for the development, design and implementation of integrated resource (air, land, water and biodiversity) management plans. He maintains the relationships and engagement necessary to ensure continued dialogue for planning in Alberta.
As Stewardship Commissioner for the Alberta Land Stewardship Act, Rick is responsible for overseeing the development, implementation, review and amendment of Land-use Framework regional plans.
Over the course of his career, Rick has held a variety of senior management positions within the department and was also seconded to the role of General Manager of the Foothills Model Forest in support of Alberta’s role in Canada’s Model Forest Network. Rick was previously the ADM for Fish and Wildlife. He is a Registered Professional Forester with the College of Professional Foresters of Alberta.
ALI Community Advisory Board
Alan Breakey has recently retired from a 40 year career in mining, mineral exploration, and oil and gas exploration/ development. He began his career working for multinationals such as Shell and Cominco and in the last 15 years he has been involved in starting up junior, public and private, oil and gas companies mostly in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Through his career, he has had the opportunity to work in Africa, South America and throughout Canada and the United States. He earned a B.Sc.in geology from Queen’s University and an M.Sc. in economic geology from McGill University.
Partly because of his career in resource extraction and partly through his involvement with agriculture, Alan has had a long-standing interest in land use and the impacts of human activity on the landscape. He and his wife, Liz, operate a farm northwest of Bragg Creek in Southern Alberta where they raise a small number of commercial cattle and registered North Country Cheviots. Alan is past president of the Alberta Sheep Breeders Association and past Chair of the Sheep Committee of the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede. He is a former Chair of Action for Agriculture and sits on the board of the Bow River Basin Council where he is incoming Chair of the Science Committee.
ALI Community Advisory Board
Kim Good started her 25-year career in conservation with a degree in agriculture and a focus in plant ecology from the University of Saskatchewan after falling in love with the Canadian prairies. She has worked and volunteered for national and regional land trusts and worked for the provincial government. She spent nine years at the Miistakis Institute researching land conservation tools with a specific focus on conservation easements and transfer of development credits. Kim is currently the board chairperson of Legacy Land Trust Society and is an advisor to the newly formed Alberta Farmland Trust. She is particularly interested in helping bridge the gap between urban and rural views of land use, agriculture, and conservation. She is a proponent of the need and the benefits of both public and private land conservation to ensure ecological function.
Kim co-owns a value-added prairie agriculture products business that sells throughout North America. She lives and works with her husband, two sons and several dogs on their family farm east of Carstairs, Alberta. She is a Professional Agrologist with the Alberta Institute of Agrologists.
ALI Community Advisory Board
Tom Grabowski is President, CEO and co-founder of The Silvacom GroupTM Group of Companies. Silvacom was founded in 1983 and has offices in Edmonton, Calgary and Grande Cache. Silvacom’s consulting, software and data solutions have changed the way that Energy, Utility, Forestry, Mining and other resource sector companies and government agencies conduct their activities on the land. Tom moved to Alberta in 1977 to attend the University of Alberta. He graduated from the U of A with a B.Sc. and M.Sc., as well as an MBA. Tom serves on the board of the Alberta Chamber of Resources as well as a number of private corporations. He serves on the ACR Executive Committee and he chairs the ACR’s Responsible Development Committee.
ALI Community Advisory Board
Gerald Rhodes joined the AAMDC as Executive Director on May 1, 2003, following a lengthy career in municipal management at the Town of Devon, Town of Blackfalds, I.D. 15 (now Woodlands County), I.D. 17 East (now M.D. of Lesser Slave River) and I.D. 8 (now the M.D. of Bighorn). Gerald is a Certified Local Government Manager, completing the Local Government Certificate and Senior Executive Fellows programs, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Calgary with a major in Economics and completed his MBA in 2009.
Gerald is responsible for providing strategic advice to the AAMDC’s elected Board of Directors, ensuring that their direction is carried out through the AAMDC’s administration, and providing leadership to AAMDC staff.
The diversity of rural municipal issues and the challenge of learning from and speaking with municipal councillors and administrators on a daily basis has been one of the many reasons why Gerald has truly enjoyed his role with the AAMDC.
Gerald and his wife, Nadia, reside in Devon with their five children.
ALI Community Advisory Board
Peter was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Natural Resources Conservation Board in 2006. As chief executive officer, Peter is responsible for the ongoing regulation of Alberta’s confined feeding operations under provincial legislation. He is also responsible for scientific, technical and corporate support for Board reviews of proposed major natural resource projects. Peter co-chairs the multi-stakeholder Policy Advisory Group, which provides advice on policy related to the delivery of provincial regulations governing the confined feeding industry.
Peter grew up on a forage and beef farm in the Devon area. He has an extensive background in agricultural policy, economics and research, with Master of Science and Bachelor of Science degrees in Agricultural Economics from the University of Alberta.
Before joining the Natural Resources Conservation Board in 2006 as its chief executive officer, Peter worked for 22 years with Agriculture, Food and Rural Development (AFRD). He joined AFRD’s Resource Economics Branch in 1982, where he worked on economic analyses of various agricultural land and resource use issues.
In his most recent position with AFRD as director of the Agricultural Research Division, Peter was responsible for Alberta’s livestock and crop research programs.
Peter also worked on secondment for two years with the Agricultural Financial Services Corporation, focusing on crop insurance issues and the initial stages of a new private sector reinsurance arrangement for Alberta.
His interests include photography, hiking the North Saskatchewan River Valley and backpacking the Rocky Mountains with his family.
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