Bios - Current Board of Directors & Officers
A.J. Keilty - Chair
A.J. Keilty is the President and CEO of Keilty Realty Corporation, an asset management and property management firm focused on making and managing real estate investments in the Ontario multi-family and office sectors. He is a past member of the Canadian Sailing team, campaigning in the 49er class with skipper Gordon Cook, a past board member of Kingston Yacht Club, and an Opti-Dad who loves regatta road trips with his wife Alexandra Keilty and their four kids.
Grant Carter - Past Chair
Grant Carter is the Founder and Principal of GreyHawk Consulting Group. GreyHawk helps B to B, consumer products and business services organizations accelerate revenues and profits by optimizing their marketing and communications investment. Prior to founding GreyHawk, Grant was Vice President Marketing & Communications at the CSA Group.
Grant is a former big boat sailor who discovered windsurfing and never went back. He is the founding President of the Canadian Masters Windsurfing Association, a past North American and Canadian Masters Mistral windsurfing champion and a recipient of the Province of Ontario’s National Achievement Award for Sports. Grant was the Program Director for O CANADA’s successful 2011 California campaign. He is also the recipient of the Queen’s Jubilee Medal for “exemplary contributions to Canada”.
Philip Gow
Phil Gow is currently the owner of Pett Financial, a Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, company providing financial, capital markets and business management services. In his business career, he was a fund manager, company founder and chief financial officer, working in Toronto and occasionally London from 1993 until 2008. His sailing background includes the Olympic Games in 1988 and 1992 in the Soling class with partners Paul Thomson and Stuart Flinn. He also campaigned for the 1983 and 1987 America’s Cup and has several years on the international match race circuit. His favourite boat to sail is the Finn. Phil has been Chair of Sail Canada’s Athlete Development Committee since 2009. He is married with 3 kids, 2 Opti’s, a Laser, a Sonar and a dog.
Paul Davis
Paul Davis is currently the manager of North Sails main manufacturing facility in Sri Lanka. He has spent his entire career in the marine industry as a sailmaker, coach and consultant, working sailmaking companies, coaching Olympic aspirants and for a Volvo Ocean Racing Team.
Paul has a strong background in competitive sailing having won 8 World Championships, numerous Continental Championships and National Championships both in North American and Europe. The highlight of his sailing career was attending the Olympics in 1996 in Atlanta and in 2000 in Sydney where he won a bronze medal in the Soling Class.
Paul is also a past commodore of two yacht Clubs, The Kingston Yacht Club in Kingston, Ontario and the Asker Sailing club in Norway.Paul has been an elite athlete both on the Canadian Sailing Team and the Norwegian Sailing Team spanning a time frame from 1978 until 2000.
Paul has always felt it has been very important to use his expertise in the sport and industry of sailing to give back to the sport and support developing athletes.
Peter Hall
Peter Hall is a retired business developer/lawyer. He negotiated over $6B of major infrastructure projects and supply contracts in Canada and internationally, including the DND 12 minesweepers, various mass transit projects, telecommunications contracts, P-3 Canadian projects, sports arenas, university and school buildings, Canada Post Mailbox contracts, prisons, etc.
Peter is a World Sailing Council member for Region P, North America for the last 15 years, a member of the Constitution Committee since 2004, and Committee Member since 1994. He was a member of the National Sailing Team from 1976 – 1984. He was past president of Voile Québec and a CYA board member 1994-96. He is a CORK Board member. He actively races a soling both internationally and nationally as well as a Lightning. He is a member of the executive at the Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club.
Tam Matthews
Tam Matthews has a strong background in sailing, finance, governance and education. Tam is a three time Olympian 80’ 84’ and Team Leader in 96’. He and his crew, Jay Cross from RCYC, were National Team 470 sailors for 10 years. Tam then chaired the Olympic Development Committee as member of the Sail Canada Board and also served on the Board of Directors at RCYC.
Tam was a member of the Canadian Olympic Committee for eight years as the Sailing representative and served on the Finance and Audit Committee. Early in his career he worked with CIBC in international banking prior to a distinguished career in education over 35 years. He started teaching at Upper Canada College, Lakefield College and then was recruited to be Head of School at Albert College, Ashbury College in Ottawa and most recently West Point Grey Academy. Tam was on the Board of Canadian Accredited Independent Schools (93 schools) and served as Board Chair. Most recently, he was Board Chair of the Independent School Association of BC. Tam is now retired and does educational consulting on strategic planning, governance and fundraising. Currently, he is Board Chair of Canada’s Youth and Women’s America’s Cup Challenge taking place in Barcelona 2024 sponsored by Concord Pacific Racing, Royal Bank and Telus. Tam and his wife Jan have lived in Vancouver since 2013.
Lee Gifford-Simms
Jennen Phelan
Jennen Phelan has a strong background in fundraising. Jennen chaired the Butterfly Ball for BOOST, The Reel Artists Film Festival, and The Art Gallery of Ontario’s Smashed. In 2014 Jennen was thrilled to be invited onto the Board of Directors of the Canadian Art Foundation. She was also on the Advisory Board for Second Cup, which was listed on the TSX. She has participated in a leadership roles to raise funds for many charitable organizations such as: The Art Gallery of Ontario, The Royal Ontario Museum, The Ontario Science Centre, The Gardiner museum, the Hospital for Sick Children, and Camp Ooochigeas. She currently is a Director of the Phelan Charitable Foundation and sits on the Board of Directors of her family’s company.
Jennen’s childhood was shaped by the early days of windsurfing culture. Her earliest memories feature her father excitedly rigging his board while organizing races that spanned from Northwinds Beach in Collingwood to Hawaii’s North Shore. He also competed in them. A life spent in and around boats, Jennen accompanied her father sailing in many races and regattas. She crewed Albacores with him on Georgian Bay and has fond memories of windsurfing alongside him in the Bahamas, or watching him from the shore as he sailed his Finn. Watching her father’s engagement, support and love of sailing, her own life was shaped by nautical metaphors and analogies. Jennen wishes to honour her father’s passion and devotion to the sport of sailing and sailors, while contributing her experience with fundraising and admiration of sailing. She believes sailing is not just a sport but is the embodiment of athleticism, knowledge, and spirituality - surrendering to something higher than yourself - whilst having skill, resilience and faith. She is overjoyed to be part of the Board of Wind Athletes Canada.
John Curtis - President
John’s career has been anything but conventional, although successful in multiple dimensions. John is a lawyer, mediator, and Olympian. A 16 year veteran of the Canadian Sailing Team, John represented Canada in Sailing at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004, in the Tornado Class.
After two years in the practice of law, it became clear to John that mediation was frequently a much better way to manage conflict than the traditional legal approach. He pursued training in mediation, began offering mediation services in 1998, and ultimately has become a leading practitioner and trainer in the field: www.johncurtis.ca.
With his extensive background in sport as an athlete and, later, as a High Performance Manager and General Counsel to the Canadian Yachting Association, John began providing legal services specific to amateur sport. He continues to work in this field, acting for several National Sport Organizations concentrating on team selection disputes, governance and policy.
John has continued his competitive sailing in the International 14 Class and in offshore racing. He recently competed in the 2010 World Championships in Sydney Australia and finished 3rd in the 2011 Transpacific Ocean Race (L.A. to Honolulu) aboard the 60 footer - O CANADA. The Transpac Race was captured on film and the documentary film about his race can be viewed at: www.sailingaroundtheworld.tv. He also enjoys sailing at home in Kingston with his two children, Jamie and Annika.