Succession is powered by a team that brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to environmental initiatives and organizational management. Board and staff members include:
Graham Saul – President
Graham Saul has more than 25 years of experience working on social and environmental justice issues. His background includes five years with Oxfam International in Maputo, Mozambique, and five years in Washington, D.C., with the Bank Information Centre — an environmental watchdog and information clearinghouse that monitors the World Bank and other multilateral development banks. Since returning to Canada in 2004, he has worked as the International Programme Director for Friends of the Earth Canada and Oil Change International, and was the Executive Director of Climate Action Network Canada and Ecology Ottawa. He is currently the Executive Director of Nature Canada.
Liz Bernstein – Board Chair
Liz Bernstein is the founding Director of the Nobel Women’s Initiative. Liz has led the organization in building strong relationships with Global South grassroots women’s organizations to grow the global women’s peace movement. In particular, Liz has focused on building the organization’s capacity for bringing more international financial and political support to grassroots activists from conflict countries. Liz is a master campaigner and has led many global campaigns. She presently serves as the Co-Coordinator of Korea Peace Now! Women Mobilizing To End The War — a global coalition of women’s peace organizations calling on the United States, North Korea, South Korea, and China to end the Korean War, sign a peace agreement, and to include women in the peace processes. She served as Coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) from 1998 through 2004, participating in the campaign since it began in the early 1990s. She lived in Thailand and Cambodia for 10 years (1986-1996), where she worked extensively with local peace and justice advocacy organizations and co-founded the Coalition for Peace and Reconciliation. Liz currently lives in Ottawa, Canada. She is a co-founder of Ecology Ottawa and President of the Lowertown Community Association in Ottawa.
Montana Burgess – Board Member
Montana Burgess is the Executive Director of the West Kootenay EcoSociety, leading local efforts to transition communities to 100% renewable energy and finding common ground in shared values in a polarized world. She has over 12 years experience working to tackle the climate crisis through civil society participation at the community, regional, provincial, national and international levels, including coordinating civil society at over 25 UN climate conferences. She believes community organizing is key to achieving social and environmental justice. She is also an advocate for gender rights and strives to continue to do better to take action on truth and reconciliation to support Indigenous Peoples. Along with being a board member of Succession, Montana is a board member of Sustainable Kootenays, and the Valhalla Foundation for Ecology, a council member of the Central Kootenay Food Policy Council, as well as a volunteer grant advisor with the Vancouver Foundation. Montana is a white settler descended from mostly Western European ancestors. She lives, works and plays with her family on the unceded traditional territory of the Sinixt peoples, in what is also known as the Slocan Valley.
Mark Brown – Board Member
Mark Brown received his doctorate from University of Ottawa, where he also taught. Mark is a professor at CEGEP Heritage College, where he teaches philosophy. He has an interest in environmental issues from an ethical perspective.
Deborah Harford – Acting Executive Director
Deborah Harford co-founded national Canadian think tank ACT (the Adaptation to Climate Change Team) at Simon Fraser University, which has pioneered research into sustainable climate action responses since 2006. Deborah has led research collaborations with local, national and international climate change research practitioners, NGOs, industry representatives, all levels of government, First Nations groups and local communities on a wide variety of climate change issues. She is a frequent media commentator, author of articles and research papers, co-author of The Columbia River Treaty: A Primer, and one of the contributors to Global Chorus: 365 Voices on the Future of the Planet. Deborah’s work includes a lifelong focus on nature-based solutions and other crucial actions designed to help biodiversity survive climate change and the Sixth Mass Extinction, with benefits for health, economies, communities, and diverse cultural and spiritual values.
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