Board of Directors

Denise Wong | President (Burnaby)

Denise is a Chartered Professional Accountant and a Consultant, specializing in financial reporting and systems and business processes. Denise has been passionate about tennis from a very young age and now enjoys travelling the globe to different tennis tournaments to support our Canadian tennis athletes. In addition to the Tennis BC Board, she also served as Treasurer at the New Westminster Tennis Club. Denise joined the Tennis BC Board of Directors to find more ways to inspire and bring tennis to the people in our community.

 

Kira Draliuk | 1ST Vice President (Vancouver)

Kira Draliuk is a lawyer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. She has experience in private practice and as an in-house lawyer. She advises the leadership team on a variety of legal matters including privacy law, corporate governance, strategy, and commercial law. Kira has worked with various public companies and societies to design and overhaul corporate governance mandates and policies. She holds an Honours in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from Simon Fraser University, and a Juris Doctor and a Master of Business Administration degrees from the University of Western Ontario and Richard Ivey School of Business.

Growing up playing tennis in Vancouver, Kira had the opportunity to compete for two Canadian universities and continues to participate in BC tournaments and league. Kira enjoys watching live tennis and often travels to watch ATP and WTA tournaments.

Kira brings creativity, a solution-oriented focus, and a passion for tennis to the Tennis BC Board.

Paul Crawford | 2ND VICE PRESIDENT (Vancouver)

Paul Crawford is the President of King Marketing, a national Manufacturers’ Agency that provides sales and marketing support to enable many well-known hardware and home-improvement brands to sell their products into retail groups like Home Depot, Lowes, Home Hardware, and Canadian Tire.

Paul is originally from England where he grew up playing rugby, soccer, tennis, and, of course, cricket. He is an avid skier and worked for three winter seasons in the French Alps. He has played tennis recreationally for most of his life and is currently the tennis captain at Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club, where he plays three to four times a week.

Recognizing the tremendous success that Canadian tennis players have had in recent years at the international level, Paul is keen to see the continued growth of the game in BC, and to make it accessible to as many people as possible, from school children to older players.

Ashneel Singh | Director (White Rock)

Ashneel has been a part of the tennis community for most of his life. He has a tremendous passion for all aspects of the sport, including playing for UBC in his university days, being a line umpire, working at the Rogers Cup, and is a tennis coach too. He hopes his time on the board at Tennis BC will be yet another way to give back to and grow the tennis community throughout the province.  Professionally, Ashneel runs two tech companies and has been an entrepreneur since 2014.

Anna Matheson | Director (North Delta)

Anna has been playing since she could hold a racquet. Tennis was a family activity as she grew up and it continues to be now. Anna is a member of several clubs including Sunshine Hills, Hazelmere, and Tsawwassen Tennis Club where she plays Ladies’ League.  Anna is passionate about growing the game including helping players to improve their game by taking advantage of coaching opportunities. She is excited to be on the Tennis BC board as the organization strives to bring more tennis opportunities to more people in the province. Professionally, Anna is the Health, Safety, and Environment Manager for the British Columbia Institute of Technology in Burnaby BC.

Raymond To | Treasurer (Vancouver)

Raymond is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA CMA) with a BSc. and MBA, both from the University of British Columbia. He started playing tennis as a 10-year-old, and while he didn’t make the UBC tennis team, he continued his love of tennis as the President of the UBC Student Tennis Club. Fast forward 30 years later, he reignited his love affair with Tennis as a recreational player, and a corporate sponsor for the Odlum Brown Van Open tournament and for Equity Deserving communities like the Vancouver Tennis Association. His other board experience includes being a Director, Advisor, Investor, and Chair for both for-profit and non-profit boards such as the Learning Disabilities Association of BC, Social Venture Partners, Dress for Success, and Science World’s Equity Giving Committee. He is still an active investor of Inetco Systems, LifeBooster, and Netskrt Systems. 

His business career spans 3 decades where he started and operated two agencies that offer recruitment and HR advisory services. In 2006, he was awarded the Business in Vancouver’s “40 under 40” award for his then innovations in how professional services are delivered to companies. Today, he works on-demand as a Subject Matter expert for the National Research Council offering advice to companies who need to scale their organization and also still recruits for technology companies both local and in the United States. 

Entering into his second term as a Board Member and assuming the role of Treasurer, he is excited about Tennis BC’s future. 

dave pentland | director (Vancouver ISLAND)

Dave is a Licensed Customs Broker and the Sr. VP of Compliance and Client Services at Carson International. Dave was born and raised in Vancouver and was an active tennis player and coach during his youth. Today he continues to play social, league, and competitive tennis 3-4 times per week and often travels afar to take in tennis tournaments around the globe.

Dave has extensive past experience on the Boards of various Tennis clubs in and around British Columbia.  He is currently a member of Bear Mountain Tennis Club, and in the summer, can often be seen on one of the seven historic 135-year-old grass courts at South Cowichan Lawn Tennis Club. A self-professed lover of all things tennis, Dave truly believes that ‘Tennis is a sport for life,’ and that as an organization, Tennis BC needs to do more to promote the sport of tennis, capture players of all abilities, and keep them playing tennis for a lifetime.

MADELINE BENN | SECRETARY (Vancouver)

Madeline is a corporate lawyer in Vancouver. Prior to practicing law, she grew up playing tennis on the North Shore and competed as a high-performance athlete both nationally and internationally.

She received her Bachelors of Science in Business Management from Skidmore College in New York. At Skidmore, Madeline played NCAA tennis where she was a two-time All-American, New York State Champion, and captain of her team for two years.

In 2020, Madeline received her Juris Doctor from the University of Western Ontario. There, she was involved in the London community as a member of the Western Women’s Tennis Team, as a volunteer with a local legal aid clinic, as a student editor at several legal journals, and as a sportswriter for the Western Mustangs communications team.

Madeline is passionate about promoting tennis in BC and strongly believes in the power of sport to help shape individuals. Madeline brings her enthusiasm for tennis and her entrepreneurial mindset to the Board at Tennis BC.

Alex Williams | director

Alex grew up playing tennis, playing into adulthood, but took a break from the game when her children were growing up. She has been a member of Jericho Tennis Club for nearly a decade, playing league, mixed, doubles and singles when she can. Being part of the Tennis BC Board means helping to grow the game that has given her so much in life including community, physical fitness, and athletic challenge. Alex sees being a member of the Board as a way to shine a light on the value that tennis brings to players of all levels, and as a chance to use her professional credentials and experience to help Tennis BC serve its members and future members as effectively as possible.

Marvin Storrow | Honorary LIfetime Director

Marvin Storrow is a Partner Emeritus with Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, involved in arbitration, mediation, and civil and criminal law. Marvin has been involved with a wide variety of litigious matters and alternative dispute resolution matters over the past several years. He has been a member of the bar since 1962, is a chartered arbitrator, and a graduate of UBC Law School.

Marvin has been a Director of a number of organizations, including the BC Epilepsy Society, Greenpeace Canada, the West Coast Environmental Law Association, Cambie Surgery Centre, the Justice Institute of British Columbia Foundation, the BC International Commercial Arbitration Centre, the Arbutus Club, the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation, and was a 2010 Olympic Ambassador.

With respect to sports generally, Marvin has been a Board member of the BC Sports Hall of Fame and Museum for the past 15 years and has chaired approximately 12 of the Board’s annual Gala Award Dinners. In addition, he has had the opportunity to observe tennis at very high levels attending each of the four majors on a number of occasions and has been a regular attendee at the professional tournament in Indian Wells, California for several years.

Marvin developed a passion for sports from a very young age and was the first stick boy for the very first Vancouver Canucks hockey team; he has played soccer, fastpitch softball, and tennis competitively and was a ranked slalom and downhill skier as a junior. With respect to tennis, he has competed in “low level” tournaments within the province over the past many years, and to this day, continues to play approximately four times a week.

Tennis Canada BC Representatives

Penny Ballem | Director

BC Representative – Since her graduation from UBC with her MD in 1978, Penny Ballem, MD FRCP FCAHS, has had a diverse career in the health and government sector as a senior administrator, academic medical practitioner, and teacher/researcher. Dr. Ballem is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at UBC, a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, and a recent appointee as a Senior Fellow in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Institute for Health System Management and Evaluation at University of Toronto.

She has received significant public recognition for her work in medicine and public service, including the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal for Public Service, the 2012 Wallace Wilson Award at UBC for High Ethical Standards and Leadership in the Profession, the Marion Powell Award from Women’s College Hospital for leadership in Women’s Health, and the Cannell Award from the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada for her contributions to leadership in reproductive health and others. In addition to being a member of the Tennis Canada Board, she also serves on the Boards of StreetoHome Foundation and the Heart and Stroke Foundation National Board.

Richard Harris | Director 

BC Representative – A Partner and Managing Director at Tricor Pacific Founders Capital Inc., Richard is an accomplished businessman with 30 years of experience in North America, the United Kingdom, and Europe, including 15 years at the CEO and Chairman levels. Richard lives in West Vancouver with his wife Ailsa and two teenage children, Daisy and Joseph. He is a tennis fan and plays recreationally three to five times a week at Hollyburn Country Club.