By Brian Poston, Member, Pearson College UWC Board of Directors
On behalf of the Board of Directors of Pearson College UWC, I would like to invite you to consider submitting the name of a talented individual who you think might be willing and able to help shape the future of the College for its next half-century of educating young people of distinction from across the globe.
We are putting out the call to those with a connection to or interest in the College to nominate individuals to serve an initial three-year term on the Board. Joining our volunteer-powered Board is an excellent opportunity to give — or give back if you happen to be a Pearson alum — to this unique Canadian UWC school.
Nominations will be received until 9 a.m. Pacific Time, Friday, 29 April for three vacancies anticipated in fall 2022 and can be sent in confidence to board@pearsoncollege.ca. New directors will join a group of accomplished and committed individuals representing Canada and the world in time for this November’s Annual General Meeting.
We welcome nominations from any part of the world, and we are keen to attract diverse candidates. Most of our full Board and Board committee meetings are held virtually – a step we took well before the current pandemic to encourage financial stewardship, sustainability, diversity and ensuring that where you live does not stand in the way of this opportunity to serve.
Ours is a skills-based Board, one that relies on volunteers who bring relevant competencies and experience to support the Board and Finance Audit and Risk, Engagement, and Governance committees, as well as Education and Reconciliation sub-committees. We encourage people with varied backgrounds and organizational experience in any sector to consider stepping forward.
We hope vacancies this year will be filled by individuals drawn from a large and diverse pool, and we would welcome candidates, regardless of whether or not they are Pearson alumni, with experience with the IB program, accounting and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.
In 2019 the Diversity Policy for the Board of Directors at Pearson College UWC was accepted to explicitly affirm the benefits of a diverse Board, one that “(provides) the necessary range of perspectives, experience and expertise required to achieve effective stewardship and management.” Through this, Board recruitment policies specifically seek to include diverse candidates and demands that our recruitment practices recognize that diverse candidates may be found in a wide variety of organizations and circumstances. The policy also calls upon us to ensure candidates of Indigenous heritage are always considered whenever vacancies arise.
These are exciting times to join the Pearson Board. We are well into implementing actions from our Indigenous Reconciliation Action Plan, we are on the verge of introducing a new Climate Action Leadership Diploma IB path and we are looking forward to celebrating our 50th anniversary in 2024-25.
Please take the time to consider nominating a worthy individual to join our Board by sending your recommendation by 9 a.m. Pacific Time, Friday, 29 April to board@pearsoncollege.ca.