Board of Directors

JOY BEWS : Chair

Joy Bews is retired from a career in pathology and business and has long been a community activist and advocate for women and children. She first become involved with Impact First in 1993 when along with her husband, they formed a group of Calgary volunteers to raise funds for Impact First. Since this time she has enthusiastically headed fundraising efforts in Calgary, bringing in over half a million dollars towards the support of Impact First projects.

Her volunteer work has consistently centered on women and children serving as a school trustee for 9 years, Chair of the Board of Rocky View School Division, Director of the Calgary Youth Science Fair and President of her local Community Association. She has also volunteered with the Calgary Stampede for over 25 years and currently serves as Chair of the Nominating Shareholders Relations Committee. Joy has a BSc in Bacteriology from University of British Columbia, is married with grown children and resides in Calgary.

LYNDA BELL : Secretary

Lynda is a partner and chief operating officer for Dynapro Equipment Ltd, a family owned engineering business. She also works as an executive coach and facilitator in the corporate sector. Lynda has over 20 years experience working as an IT executive in financial services. Prior to her business career, she was a high school teacher and community college instructor. Lynda has a long and successful history in managing people through change and was awarded a certificate in “People Change Management” from Connors Partners.

Lynda first became involved with Impact First in 2003. She became a board member in 2007 and also traveled to Bolivia to see Phase III of Impact First’s Microcredit and Civil Society Building Project. Long an active volunteer for disadvantaged women and youth, Lynda has served as Chair of the Board for Youth Employment Services (Y.E.S.) which provides services for disadvantaged youth, and as a director for the Board of Curriculum Services Canada (CSC). Lynda enjoys traveling, theatre, gardening and spending time with her family.

DOROTHY NYAMBI : Treasurer

Dorothy brings over 20 years of international development experience in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe to Impact First’s board. She supports and believes in the work of Impact First for its focus on women and an integrated approach to microfinance programs. She is currently the Executive Director and senior partner at Transformational Development Results, a Toronto based development firm. Prior to her current position, she served as the Vice President; International Services, at the Canadian Executive Service Organization. She has worked with Right To Play International, the US Peace Corps, PSI and CARE International, where she served in a variety of senior management positions.

Dorothy has extensive experience working with many funders, inclusive but not limited to USAID, CIDA, SIDA, EuroAid, NORAD, SDC, World Bank, the Africa Development Bank, major foundations and individual givers. She is a volunteer with UNICEF Canada’s speaker bureau undertaking development education for children and diverse communities in Canada on topics like HIV/AIDS, Malaria – spread the net campaign, TB, children in conflict, and others.

In addition to reading and writing, Dorothy enjoys swimming. She is a member of the Canadian Public Health Association and the Canadian Evaluation Society. She holds a doctor of medicine degree from the University of Cameroon and post graduate studies in policy and management for the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. A social entrepreneur, Dorothy lives in Toronto with her husband and three children.

JOHN D'AMATO: Director

John is a financial services professional with over 20 year's experience working primarily in Canada, and abroad in the areas of wealth management and private banking. John has worked and travelled extensively throughout many of the areas where Impact First operates and witnessed the empowering ability, and positive economic effects of micro-credit, especially for women entrepreneurs.

Born and raised in Toronto, John attended York University and has been a long time supporter of local youth development and sports programs as a fundraiser, administrator and coach. He has also been an active supporter of numerous charitable organizations and recently joined the board of Impact First International in December 2010. John is married with two children, lives in Toronto and enjoys being active, traveling and spending time with his family.

RUTH EPSTEIN: Director

Ruth Epstein is a lawyer, retired in 2010, having most recently held the position of vice president of Canada Law Book, a law publisher in business since 1855. Ruth spent most of her 30 year career in the law publishing business, having worked also with Carswell Thomson (now Carswell Thomson Reuters) and Butterworths (now Butterworths LexisNexis). She also worked for several years with the law society in Nova Scotia and practised law for about two years.

Ruth has extensive experience in business strategy and development, marketing, sales management and author and customer relationship development. She is a volunteer with Lawyers Feed the Hungry and was co-chair of the Nova Scotia branch of the Legal Education & Action Fund. Ruth grew up in Halifax and went to Dalhousie Law School. Ruth is married with two adult children and lives in Toronto.

LINDA THERON: Director

Linda Theron was born in South Africa and spent most of her childhood in the Canadian Prairies. She moved East for University where she studied design and visual arts. Linda has extensive experience in sales, marketing, management and executive recruitment. She is an artist whose work is focused on painting, film and jewelry design.

Linda is Executive Director of Salon Voltaire, an interactive intellectual speaker series, held at The Spoke Club, which has been featured on TVO's series 'Big Ideas'. She is committed to the arts and spends her spare time finding ways to engage people with arts and culture in Toronto. She is currently the Arts and Culture, Team Lead for the Civic Action Alliance's, Emerging Leaders Network. Linda speaks and has taught Icelandic.

THIERRY ZOMAHOUN: Special Advisor to the Board

A passionate international development professional, Thierry has devoted his entire life to advancing the causes of poor and marginalized populations in developing countries.

His 17 years of grassroots work in Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean includes research and advocacy for policy change and implementation in sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on girls' education, early childhood education, health, local governments' capacity building and youth development. Thierry strongly believes that the most sustainable strategy to eradicate poverty in the developing world is to integrate microfinance, health and education.

Thierry holds an MA in arts, an MPhil in International Development from the University of Geneva (Switzerland), and an executive MBA from McGill & HEC Montreal.