Life Members

Neil Duke and Candice Yip Duke

Neil Duke and Candace Yip Duke

Neil Duke brings a career built on sales leadership in the building materials sector to his role on the Foundation's Board of Directors. He currently serves as Vice President, Sales at Target Products, having previously held the same title at Quikrete, where he helped drive growth across the home improvement and hardware retail industry. A graduate of the University of Waterloo with a Bachelor of Engineering, Duke pairs that technical foundation with decades of experience managing sales teams and building client relationships across Canada.

Candace Yip Duke has been a committed supporter and advocate for community rugby, contributing through volunteerism, organizational support, and sustained involvement alongside club and regional initiatives. Her work has helped foster welcoming, well-run rugby environments that support players, families, and volunteers alike — the essential, often unseen labour that underpins the growth and continuity of the sport at the grassroots level.

Together, Neil and Candace Yip Duke exemplify the quiet leadership that sustains rugby in communities across the country. Neil's appointment as a contributing member and board director reflects the kind of business acumen the Foundation has increasingly sought as it has scaled past $28 million in assets and nearly 100 funds nationwide, while Candace's sustained community presence speaks to the equally vital work happening far from any boardroom. Between them, they demonstrate that the strength of Canadian rugby depends as much on committed builders as it does on those on the field.

Nick Gudewill

Nick Gudewill

Nick Gudewill's name has been part of the Canadian Rugby Foundation's story since its earliest and most uncertain years. He and his brother are remembered within the Foundation as the "Gudewill Brothers," counted among the small group of contributing members whose support, dating back to at least January 2013, helped the organization survive a period when there were no funds for administration whatsoever and Gren Thomas's founding pledge required matching contributions just to be unlocked. That early generosity, alongside fellow pioneering donors like Bruce McFarlane, Bob Hager, and Peter Bull, gave the Foundation the footing it needed before it had built any kind of track record. Gudewill remains a contributing member today, which under the Foundation's distinctive governance model means he holds a direct vote on the organization's direction, a privilege reserved for those who have given $25,000 or more over their lifetime. His long tenure as a supporter places him among a relatively small cohort who have watched the Foundation grow from a fledgling, single-million-dollar operation into one managing close to $30 million in assets across nearly 100 funds nationwide. The Foundation's growth from coast to coast owes a real debt to early believers like Gudewill.

Jay Hayden

Jay Hayden

Jay Hayden is a contributing member of the Canadian Rugby Foundation, having committed $25,000 or more in lifetime donations, a threshold that grants him a direct vote on the Foundation's governance and direction. He sits among the Foundation's current roster of major donors, a group whose financial commitment underpins the organization's ability to fund endowments, student awards, and capital projects across the country. While detailed public information about Hayden's specific rugby background, club affiliations, or playing history is limited, his sustained financial support places him firmly within the community of patrons who have chosen to back Canadian rugby's long-term institutional growth rather than any single event or campaign. That kind of giving, often unglamorous and rarely public-facing, is precisely what has allowed the Foundation to grow from a fledgling, single-million-dollar operation in its early years into an organization now managing close to $30 million in assets across nearly 100 funds nationwide. Hayden's name on the Foundation's contributing members list is a quiet but meaningful part of that broader story.

Jay Johnston

Jay Johnston

Few administrators have left as lasting a mark on rugby in Ottawa, and on Canadian rugby more broadly, as Jay Johnston. Over a 20-year tenure as Treasurer and later Treasurer Emeritus for Rugby Canada, Johnston helped grow the organization's financial position tenfold, a transformation that directly supported deeper investment in the sport nationwide. His contributions extended well beyond the boardroom: he was a longstanding player and referee in the Ottawa rugby community, served as a board member of Twin Elm Rugby Park, and played a key organizing role in bringing international test matches to the capital. That body of work was formally recognized with his induction into the Rugby Ontario Hall of Fame in 2023, followed by a Rugby Canada Lifetime Achievement Award in 2024, recognition that came after decades of largely behind-the-scenes work keeping the sport's finances sound. Johnston is also a contributing member of the Canadian Rugby Foundation, extending his financial stewardship of the game from Rugby Canada's books to the Foundation's endowment model. For a sport that depends as much on careful administration as it does on talent on the pitch, Jay Johnston's two decades of quiet diligence place him among the most consequential figures in the country's rugby history.

Barry Lapointe

Barry Lapointe

Barry Lapointe built his career as an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer before founding KF Aerospace, formerly Kelowna Flightcraft, in Kelowna in 1970, growing it into one of Canada's leading aerospace companies. That business success has translated into substantial philanthropic reach: through the KF Charitable Foundation, Lapointe has supported causes spanning the Heart and Stroke Foundation, the Kids Cancer Care Foundation, and Girls Fly Too, among others. His contributions to Canadian aviation and business were formally recognized when he was appointed to the Order of British Columbia in 2015 and inducted into Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame in 2019. Kelowna Flightcraft has been a contributing member of the Canadian Rugby Foundation since its early years, with the company's name appearing on the Foundation's original 2013 contributing members list, placing Lapointe's organization among the founding generation of donors who helped the Foundation establish itself. His support reflects a broader pattern among the Foundation's corporate backers: business leaders whose success in unrelated industries has translated directly into sustained investment in grassroots sport. For an organization built on patient, endowment-style giving, Lapointe's decades-long association is exactly the kind of commitment the Foundation depends on.

Harvey Libby

Harvey Libby

Harvey Libby is listed among the Canadian Rugby Foundation's contributing members, having given $25,000 or more over his lifetime to support the organization's mission, a commitment that under the Foundation's governance model entitles him to a direct vote on its direction. While detailed public biographical information about his specific rugby background is limited, his place among the Foundation's roster of major donors situates him alongside some of Canadian rugby's most committed patrons. The Foundation's contributing member structure was deliberately designed to reward exactly this kind of giving: significant, sustained financial support rather than short-term sponsorship, with the explicit goal of building accountability between the organization and the people funding it. Libby's contribution helps support the Foundation's broader work across endowed club funds, student award funds, and capital projects nationwide, work that has allowed the organization to grow its footprint into eight provinces and approach the $30 million mark in total assets. His name on the Foundation's rolls reflects the kind of quiet, long-term generosity that rarely makes headlines but consistently makes the difference for grassroots rugby programs across the country.

Jim MacKenzie

Jim MacKenzie

Jim MacKenzie is one of the Canadian Rugby Foundation's earliest contributing members, appearing on the organization's membership rolls from its first documented years in 2013. He is part of the founding cohort of BC-based donors who stepped forward when the Foundation's survival was genuinely uncertain and its administrative resources were essentially nonexistent. His early contribution helped demonstrate to others that the endowment model was worth backing, and in doing so he helped catalyze the broader community of giving that has since built the Foundation into an organization now managing close to $30 million across nearly 100 funds. MacKenzie has maintained his contributing membership over the years, with his name appearing alongside fellow pioneering donors including Eric Savics, Peter Bull, and Gren Thomas, a group that largely hails from BC and reflects the west coast rugby community's outsized role in building this organization from the ground up. The Foundation's structure, where assets are invested in perpetuity and the returns disbursed annually, is designed to honour exactly this kind of patient, long-horizon generosity. Jim MacKenzie remains a foundational part of that story.

Woody MacLaren

Woody MacLaren

Woody MacLaren is remembered in the Canadian Rugby Foundation's own institutional history as one of the early contributing members whose leadership helped the organization survive its most uncertain years. Alongside Bob Hager, Bruce McFarlane, Gerald McGavin, John Woodward, and Pat Aldous, MacLaren is specifically credited in the Foundation's history as giving the organization "the solid footing it needed to survive the initial years," a period when there were no funds for administration and Gren Thomas's founding pledge required matching contributions before it could be unlocked. MacLaren's name appears on the Foundation's contributing member rolls dating back to at least January 2013, placing him firmly within the founding generation of donors who turned a passionate but financially precarious idea into a functioning charitable institution. His sustained commitment has continued ever since, and as a contributing member he retains a direct vote on the Foundation's governance, consistent with the accountability model that has defined the organization since its inception. Few names appear more consistently in the Foundation's account of its own survival than Woody MacLaren's.

James McKenzie

James McKenzie

James McKenzie's connection to Vancouver Island runs deep — through family, through business, and through a longstanding commitment to the communities that make the Island what it is.

The son of Ron McKenzie, who purchased Monk Office Supply from founder Charlie Monk in 1963, James grew up in the family business and took over as President and CEO in the 1990s. Under his leadership, Monk Office expanded from a single Victoria store into Vancouver Island's premier office supply company, growing to eleven locations across the Island and earning the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year award in 2007. When James stepped down as President and CEO in 2014, he remained majority owner and Chair of the Monk Office Advisory Committee, leaving behind a business and a culture of community investment.

That community spirit extended to rugby. A Contributing Member of the Foundation at the highest level, James McKenzie's philanthropic support has helped grow a charitable endowment that now funds clubs, university programs, and student-athletes from coast to coast. For the Foundation, he represents the best of what local business leadership can look like — success put back into the community that made it possible.

Clayton Panga

Clayton Panga

Few people connected to the Canadian Rugby Foundation have worn as many hats as Clayton Panga. Born in New Zealand and raised in Victoria, B.C., Panga built a playing career that culminated in six caps for Canada's national men's team between 2016 and 2017, scoring two tries as a flanker during a run that included the Americas Rugby Championship. But his impact on the game has extended well past his playing days. Panga served as Executive Director of the Canadian Rugby Foundation, a role he held before passing the position to Jeff Chan in 2021, after which he continued supporting the development of Canada's U20 program and went on to found the British Columbia Grassroots Rugby Foundation, aimed at growing the game among young children across the province. He has also been a driving force behind the Dog River Howlers, a globe-trotting club side that has raised more than $2 million for causes ranging from youth rugby in the Philippines and Rwanda to disaster relief in Haiti, and he helped bring the Lone Oak Legends Rugby Club to life on Hornby Island as a pandemic-era passion project. Panga's career reflects the full arc of what the Foundation hopes to inspire: a player who became a builder, and a builder who never stopped finding new ways to grow the grassroots game.

Rod Parker

Rod Parker

Rod Parker is a contributing member of the Canadian Rugby Foundation and is associated with Molly Maid, the Canadian-founded residential cleaning franchise that has been one of the sport's consistent corporate friends. Molly Maid has served as a game sponsor of the Canadian University Men's Rugby Championship, providing direct support for one of the most important competitions on the domestic rugby calendar. Parker's personal generosity goes beyond that corporate relationship: as a contributing member, he has made a lifetime donation of $25,000 or more to the Foundation, a commitment that earns him a direct vote in its governance under the organization's distinctive accountability model. The combination of corporate sponsorship and individual philanthropy makes him a genuinely multi-dimensional supporter of the sport, someone who has backed rugby both through a nationally recognized brand and through personal investment in the Foundation's endowment mission. He joins a community of Canadian business leaders who have channelled commercial success into building lasting infrastructure for the game, people who understand that sustainable rugby in Canada depends not just on passion at the grassroots level, but on patient, principled financial commitment from people willing to play the long game.

Spencer Robinson

Spencer Robinson

Spencer Robinson has devoted himself to the advancement of Canadian rugby through leadership, mentorship, and sustained involvement in community-based sport development. Working at the club and regional levels, he has helped build pathways for players, coaches, officials, and volunteers, contributing to the kind of organizational depth that allows the game to grow sustainably beyond its elite programs.

His service has consistently emphasized collaborative, values-driven environments that encourage participation, personal growth, and competitive excellence in equal measure — an approach that reflects a broad view of what rugby, at its best, can offer a community. Robinson's work has strengthened the foundations that support Canadian rugby's long-term vitality, and the programs and people he has helped develop continue to carry that contribution forward for future generations.

Matthew Ronald-Jones

Matthew Ronald-Jones

Matthew Ronald-Jones took the reins of the Canadian Rugby Foundation at a pivotal moment in its early development, stepping in as Executive Director after founding leader Aaron Abrams moved on to a different field, and working under then-President Pat Aldous to keep the organization's momentum building. During his tenure in the mid-to-late 2000s, Ronald-Jones helped establish some of the Foundation's more significant scholarships and award funds, work that laid groundwork still visible in the Foundation's award directory today. He represented the Foundation at Rugby Canada's Annual General Meetings, presenting on the organization's initiatives, history, and vision for the future of the game in Canada, and he worked closely with national team programs, earning particular thanks from the Female Athlete Representative for the Foundation's support of the women's program. His time as Executive Director came during a transitional period for the Foundation, between its founding years under Mike Holmes and the financial restructuring that, by 2010, would see it return to an entirely volunteer-run model. Ronald-Jones's administrative leadership during those years helped ensure the Foundation's survival through a period of real uncertainty, leaving behind funds and relationships that the organization continues to build on.

Eric Savics

Eric Savics

Eric Savics has spent decades building a reputation in Vancouver's business and philanthropic circles, and rugby has long been part of that story. He is proprietor of Tantalus Vineyards in the Okanagan, and his name appears among the Canadian Rugby Foundation's very first contributing members, listed as of January 2013 alongside founding-era figures like Gren Thomas, Bruce McFarlane, and George Jones, Q.C. That early support came at a critical moment for the Foundation, which had no administrative funding in its first years and relied on a small group of donors willing to match Thomas's founding pledge before any track record existed. Savics has remained a contributing member ever since, a status that under the Foundation's governance model comes with a direct vote on its direction, reserved for those who have given $25,000 or more over their lifetime. Beyond rugby, his civic profile spans Vancouver's broader philanthropic community, where he has been recognized for supporting causes ranging from cancer prevention to the arts. His sustained commitment to the Foundation, stretching back to its formative years, places him among the relatively small group of donors whose early faith helped the organization grow into the nearly $30 million institution it is today.

Gren Thomas

Gren Thomas

No single act did more to launch the Canadian Rugby Foundation than Gren Thomas's decision, in the last year of the 20th century, to commit a founding pledge of one million dollars. A long-time supporter of Canadian rugby, Thomas recognized that the sport needed a long-term, endowment-style vision rather than a series of short-term fundraising pushes, and his pledge became the financial backbone that, after a difficult three-year legal and political process, helped secure the Foundation's official approval in 2003, then known as the Rugby Canada Foundation. The terms of his commitment required matching donations before funds could be accessed, a structure that effectively forced the Foundation to build a real donor base from day one rather than simply relying on a single benefactor. That early discipline shaped the organization's entire culture, one built on accountability and the slow, patient compounding of endowed funds rather than one-off gifts. Thomas remains a contributing member of the Foundation today, and several of its award funds, including those bearing the Thomas family name, reflect the family's lasting commitment to the sport. Few donors anywhere in Canadian rugby can claim to have shaped an entire institution the way Gren Thomas did.

Andrew Trann

Pat Trelawney

John Woodward

John Woodward

John Woodward belongs to the small circle of donors credited by name in the Canadian Rugby Foundation's own history as essential to its survival. Following the leadership of initial contributing members Bob Hager and Bruce McFarlane, the Foundation's history records that it was Gerald McGavin, John Woodward, the estate of John Lecky, Woody MacLaren, Pat Aldous, and others who gave the organization the solid footing it needed to make it through its earliest and most precarious years, a period when there were no funds for administration and the founding pledge from Gren Thomas required matching contributions before it could even be accessed. Woodward has remained a contributing member of the Foundation ever since, a status that today grants him a direct vote on the organization's governance and direction under its distinctive donor-accountability model. He also served on the Foundation's Board of Directors, lending his judgment to the organization during a period when it operated almost entirely through volunteer leadership. Woodward's sustained involvement, spanning more than two decades, places him among a handful of figures whose early commitment turned an uncertain idea into an institution that today supports rugby in every region of the country.