Vancity Community Foundation hires interim executive director to replace Derek Gent

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      Derek Gent is no longer the executive director of the Vancity Community Foundation.

      After being with the organization for a decade, Gent was replaced by an interim executive director, Allison Felker, at the start of July.

      According to the foundation's website, Gent informed the board that he would step down at the end of June as he was looking for something new to do at this point in his life.

      “I am very proud of the work we’ve done here and what has been accomplished together with our many partners, donors, co-investors and the organizations we have supported that are affecting positive change in our communities,” Gent said in a statement on the website.

      Felker has worked in the past with Canada World Youth, Vancouver Foundation, Vantage Point, and the Justice Institute. She's also a former board member of the Vancity Community Foundation.

      It's an arm's-length organization that pools donations collected through Vancity. Its assets exceed $50 million, which are deployed to promote healthier, more environmentally sustainable, and more equitable communities.

      Vancity is B.C.'s largest credit union with $21.1 billion in assets and 525,506 members, according to its website.

      Prior to joining the foundation, Gent worked in Vancity's venture-capital arm, financing nonprofit social enterprises, cooperatives, aboriginal businesses, and green enterprises. He's also on the board of Imagine Canada, which is an umbrella organization that advances the interests of nonprofits and charities across Canada.

      According to the Vancity Community Foundation's most recent annual report, it distributed $7.7 million in 2016 to more than 1,000 organizations.

      That year, it provided $271,054 in funding to social enterprises.

      The foundation's board of directors is much leaner than it was in the 2016 annual report. And it's comprised entirely of senior Vancity employees as opposed to volunteers from the community.

      The foundation is chaired by William Azaroff, vice president of community and business investment with Vancity. He's also a director and former chair of Modo, a car-sharing cooperative.

      The other directors are Vancity corporate secretary Karen Hoffmann, Vancity group controller Vinson Luu, and long-term Vancity employee Jeremy Trigg, who was project manager for the Vancity Centre building.

      In the last published annual report, there were 12 directors, including former Victoria mayor Dean Fortin, Spice Radio founder Shushma Datt, development company executive Bob Ransford, former Vancouver Opera head Jim Wright, and former Urban Native Youth Association executive director Lynda Gray.

      In the last annual report, the board listed two cochairs: retired credit union executive Gene Blishen and Heart and Stroke Foundation of B.C. & Yukon manager Alice Miro.

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