The following four directors were appointed as interim Board of Directors for the Canadian Centre for Cannabis Innovation (C3i) by their respective organizations’ Board of Directors.
Bryan Inglis
Bryan is the CEO of the Food Island Partnership. Before joining the Food Island Partnership, Bryan served as CEO of Co-op Atlantic. He joined Co-op Atlantic in 1986 and has held numerous leadership roles over his 30-year tenure. Bryan holds a B.Sc. in Agriculture Economics from McGill University (MacDonald College). Bryan has extensive retail experience in both food and primary agriculture. He has served on the Boards of Country Ribbon Inc., IPCO Inc., and the Atlantic Council for Bioenergy Co-operative Limited; and is a past Board member of Atlantic Beef Products Inc., Co-op Research Farms, and Valley Fertilizers Inc.
Kent Thompson
Kent is the Director of Finance at Food Island Partnership where he manages the finances of the organization and works with companies in the food industry. Prior to joining the Food Island Partnership, Kent worked with entrepreneurs through experience leading the launch of Lucky Fox Snack Co., working as Product Development Officer with the PEI Department of Agriculture, and operating a busy seasonal restaurant. He was the Chief Operating Officer of the PEI 2014 celebrations and managed all operations and finances of the $27 Million project. Kent graduated from St. Francis Xavier University with a BBA majoring in Enterprise Development and received an accounting designation through the MBA-CMA program from St. Mary’s University.
Rory Francis
Rory has 30 years of experience in professional, management and leadership roles in the public and private sectors. As an experienced senior executive, Mr. Francis has led transformative change in several public sector organizations encompassing economic and social policy, programs and services. Since 2004 he has been Executive Director of the Prince Edward Island BioAlliance, a not-for-profit network of bioscience businesses, academic and research organizations, and government agencies.
From 1991 to 2003 Mr. Francis held Deputy Minister positions in several provincial government departments, including Environment; Agriculture and Forestry; Fisheries and Aquaculture; and Health and Social Services. Mr. Francis is a member of the Canadian BioAccord and serves as a Board member with the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute, the Greater Charlottetown Area Chamber of Commerce, the PEI Agri-Food Alliance Inc., PEI Institute for Human Health Research, the Regional Advisory Board of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC-Atlantic), and is President of the Eastern Canada Oilseeds Development Alliance. He chairs the Advisory Board for Canada’s Smartest Kitchen. In 2008-09 he co-chaired The Commission on the Future of Agriculture and AgriFood in Prince Edward Island. He earned a BSc in geology and chemistry from Mount Allison University and an MSc in Hydrogeology from the University of Waterloo.
Dr. Don Ridley
Dr. Ridley obtained a Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Guelph, followed by an NRC industrial post doc with the Swiss multinational Ciba-Geigy. He subsequently joined that company as a research scientist. He had a 23-year career with Ciba-Geigy with progressively senior research, product development, marketing and management positions culminating as Managing Director for Ciba-Geigy S.E. Asia based in Singapore. After the merger of Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy to form Novartis, Don returned to North America and joined CanTox US Inc., a scientific and regulatory consulting firm, as Managing Director and Senior Scientific Consultant, a position he held until he retired in 2004. He returned to Canada and settled in Prince Edward Island. Dr. Ridley has been a member of a number of boards in the region including Chair of the Institute of Human Health Research (PEI), BioVectra Advisory Board, Genome Atlantic, and the NSERC Synergy Awards for Innovation Committee. Don is currently a consultant and Mentor in Residence with the PEI BioAlliance and Emergence Incubator.
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