New appointments to the Board of Directors

December 2021

Our current chair, Marshall Cowe, and past chair, Michael Ziegler, will be retiring from the Board of Directors early in the new year after having each served two three-year terms. Both of them have helped to guide E&O through significant changes in the BC real estate world, including recent legislative changes that enabled E&O to appoint three of its own directors. E&O extends its gratitude to both Marshall and Michael for their years of service and extensive contributions.

E&O’s Selection Task Force has now appointed two new members to the Board of Directors with terms starting in early 2022. We are pleased to welcome Dan Bennett, QC, and Eric Watt.

Dan Bennett, QC, a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright in Vancouver, has practiced law in BC for more than 33 years. His practice has been focused on commercial and administrative litigation and he has acted as legal counsel for several real estate organizations over the years including BCREA, the Real Estate Compensation Fund Corporation and various real estate boards. He sat on the Law Society Discipline Committee and has been involved in professional development of lawyers, including acting as an adjunct professor at UBC. He was also an elected county member for the Canadian Bar Association and sat as a board member for Family Services of the North Shore.

Eric Watt is an accountant with more than 40 years of client-service experience, primarily in the asset management, insurance, and real estate sectors. He has achieved the designations of Fellow of Chartered Professional Accountants (FCPA) and Fellow Chartered Accountant (FCA). He was active in the BC captive insurance sector, including sitting on the board of the Canadian Captive Insurance Association and serving a term as chair. He is currently serving as chair of Leith Wheeler Investment Funds’ Independent Review Committee and is a director of both the Arts Umbrella Foundation and the Rick Hansen Foundation.