Welcome Diana Cawood and Ian Watson!

At its March meeting the board of trustees of The Power of Hope Society welcomed two new directors:

Diana Cawood, M.Sc., helped bring interactive teaching into classrooms of 30 to 300 students at UBC’s Sauder School of Business for over 15 years and was nominated for the Teaching Excellence Award three times.  With corporate clients, she designed career development systems in projects that ranged from 1 to 4 years and required managing teams ‘at a distance’ as well as training in-house trainers.  She has assisted client companies to create, integrate and sustain a ‘learning culture’ for healthy leadership, career success, and brilliant teams.  Previously, as consultant to the City of Vancouver, Diana helped initiate a process for inter-departmental collaboration and management team development.  Over the last 5 years, Diana has worked with a widely dispersed re-forestation company implementing a leadership and innovation development program based on cross-boundary team projects. 

Diana has designed and facilitated numerous programs related to leadership effectiveness, career development systems, team relationships, communications and life balance for the business community through Sauder’s Executive Education.  Currently, she is part of Sauder’s faculty for Meeting the Leadership Challenge, a 6-day residential program in which Diana acts as a catalyst for leaders to find their courage and begin to lead from within.  In other leadership capacities, Diana is the Executive Director for the Watson Family Foundation. 

In the community, Diana has been an active member of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS).  She founded and led the Vancouver IONS community group; she served on councils and on the board of directors to develop the world-wide network of 250 IONS community groups. These experiences offered Diana invaluable opportunities to participate in and guide the growth of groups capable of deepening their learning and sustaining their strengths over time.  On a more personal note, Diana has found that being a parent and partner provide daily opportunities for learning about compassion, non-competition, shared leadership, and being real.  And she can teach you to cha cha.   

Ian Watson is co-founder and principal of Agrifirma Services Limited, a farmland investment company based in London, England.  He is the co-executive Producer of the Forgiveness Project Television Documentary scheduled for 2009 PBS, Educational Distribution and Theatrical release.  Ian is a Life Director and former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (www.noetic.org).  Previously he was Chairman of the Global Board of Directors of The Hunger Project for 9 years.  Ian co-founded and was chairman of Global Media Ltd.  Global Media created global live telecasts including a broadcast with the Pope from Rome to 90 countries. 

Ian and his wife, Victoria Watson, participated in the Summer Gathering at Hollyhock, July 2007, at which time their daughter, Lucinda, participated in the Power of Hope session.  Lucinda’s positive experience and Ian and Victoria’s subsequent interaction with several people integrally involved with Power of Hope have led to Ian’s desire to contribute to Power of Hope’s ongoing success. 

In August, 2007, Ian and Victoria established the Watson Family Foundation in Vancouver, BC, to further their support for selected initiatives and research.  As a Power of Hope Board member he will contribute insights and wisdom gained from past experiences in both the corporate and philanthropic worlds.

Welcome, Diana and Ian!

Note: Diana Cawood and Ian Watson have known each other for 10 years through their involvement on the Board of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, and more recently, participation with the His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the the 2006 Vancouver Dialogues, Connecting for Change sessions where Diana was one of the 4 facilitators and Ian was a one of the 120 invited global leaders.  Diana, living in Vancouver, was invited by Ian to act as Executive Director for the newly established Watson Family Foundation.  She attended the July 2007 Summer Gathering at Hollyhock with Ian, Victoria and Lucinda, and has since met and interacted with several people central to furthering the good works of Power of Hope.