Board of Directors

There are currently no Board Director positions open for recruitment.

Please review the Director Recruitment Briefing to learn more about the recruitment process and position of Board Director at Port Saint John (Saint John Port Authority).

Lisa Keenan

Chair | Appointing Body: Provincial

Lisa Keenan has been a member of the Board of Directors at Port Saint John since 2015 and has held the position of Chair of the Governance Committee. Lisa was elected by her peers on the Board to the two-year term position Chair in March 2019. Ms. Keenan has been practising law in Saint John for more than 20 years, working primarily on criminal law, administrative law, family law and real estate law. Ms. Keenan has served on several boards, including as past president and director of Saint John Non Profit Housing Inc., president of the New Brunswick Red Cross, and member of the board of governors of the Canadian Red Cross. She holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of New Brunswick, and an Honours Bachelor of Arts in History from St. Francis Xavier University. Recently, Ms. Keenan received the E. Neil McKelvey. Q.C Pro Bono and Volunteer Service Award from the Canadian Bar Association.

Donna Gates

Vice Chair | Appointing Body: Federal

Donna is Partner and COO at Bonfire Communications Inc., a marketing and advertising agency in Saint John with clients throughout the region.

Over the past 20+ years in the business, her skills in communications and stakeholder relations have proven to be complementary to the nonprofit world. Donna has held senior roles in this sector notably as the Vice President of Philanthropy and Communications at the Heart and Stroke Foundation of New Brunswick, the Vice President of the Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation and Executive Director of Living Saint John, a community-based initiative to tackle generational poverty in the port city.

She is very active in the community, and has been a Director on the boards of Junior Achievement of New Brunswick and Lily Lake Pavilion. She is currently serving as the Chair of the YMCA’s endowment board of directors.

Donna holds a Bachelor of Public Relations from Mount Saint Vincent university in Halifax.

Thomas O’Neil

Director | Appointing Body: Federal

Thomas G. O’Neil, P.Eng, Q.C. is a Lawyer with the law firm McInnes Cooper in Saint John. Mr. O’Neil’s practice focuses on complex disputes involving commercial, corporate, construction and products liability. He is also a professional engineer. Mr. O’Neil has served on several boards including being a past Chair of Board for Service New Brunswick, a past Chair of Power Commission for the City of Saint John, and past President of the New Brunswick Branch of the Canadian Bar Association. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a Fellow of the Canadian College of Construction Lawyers.

David Emerson

Director | Appointing Body: Municipal

David Emerson has been an employee of the University of New Brunswick since 2001 and currently serves as the Senior Director, Government Relations, in the Office of the President. David is a graduate of Ryerson University's Urban and Regional Planning program. He is certified at the Fellowship level as an economic development professional and is currently President of the Economic Developers Association of Canada. David is a former member of the New Brunswick Police Commission, and a former chair of the Saint John Board of Police Commissioners.

Shelley Rinehart

Director | Appointing Body: Federal

Dr. Rinehart has over 18 years of experience as a leader in post-secondary business education at the University of New Brunswick Saint John (UNBSJ), Serving in a variety of positions including Dean of the Faculty of Business, and has also held the elected position of Deputy Mayor for the City of Saint John (2012-2016). While completing her academic studies and since achieving her current position as director of the MBA Program, Dr. Rinehart has served on numerous committees, boards and agencies, as well as written, collaborated and reviewed dozens of academic articles on a wide range of topics in areas of marketing, public policy, and gender diversity.

An extremely active community volunteer with two decades of community service in a wide variety of organizations, Dr. Rinehart currently is involved in leadership roles with YMCA, Elementary Literacy Foundation, RPC, and she is an education consultant with the Saint John Sea Dogs (QMJHL).

Jack Keir

Director | Appointing Body: Federal

Jack Keir was appointed to the Board of Directors at Port Saint John in July 2019.

Mr. Keir has served as the Director of Issues Management within the Office of the Premier, along with Executive Director of the Regional Services Commission and formerly as the Minister of Energy (2006-2010). Mr. Keir was elected to the Legislative Assembly of NB to represent the electoral district of Fundy-River Valley in the 2006 election. He has also served in executive positions on the Saint John Harbour Bridge Authority and the Fundy Region Solid Waste Commission.

Mr. Keir is founding Chair of the Regional Facilities Commission. He has served on several boards including being a past Board member of Enterprise Saint John and Co-Chair of LivingSJ.

Peter McGuire

Director | Appointing Body: Federal

Peter McGuire has graduate degrees from Boston University and University of Toronto. Within his 37-year governmental career he provided leadership to numerous innovative community mental health programs. In 2008, Peter was appointed by the Minister of Health to work in correlation with UNB Saint John to build the Promise Partnership Mentoring Initiative.

As a two term Saint John City Councillor (2004-2012), he provided oversight for numerous civic projects including: civic pension reform, the building of police, justice and transit headquarters and the completion of the Saint John Harbour Clean-up project.

Mr. McGuire has extensive governance experience and background with a number of community non-profit organizational boards. In addition, he has served on numerous committees, boards and agencies including the Saint John Police Commission, Crescent Valley Resource Centre and Plan SJ to name a few.

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