Alfonso (Poncho) Murguia

Pronouns: He / Him / His

Alfonso (Poncho) is a passionate and proud Mexican immigrant who identifies as a gay man. He moved to Canada in 2013 and made Vancouver his new home to continue his personal and professional growth in the areas of Communication, Marketing and Sales. Prior to moving to Canada, he dedicated three years in France studying philosophy, theology and metaphysics so he may better understand why we are here, and how to influence our minds to create a better place for everyone.

Alfonso has always had a passion for helping and connecting with people and during his years in university as well as after graduating, he collaborated with different non-profit organizations that focused their efforts on the social and economical development of less fortunate communities in Mexico.

On his way to become a Canadian citizen, Poncho aims to share his personal touch and life’s experiences to support and bring more open and safe spaces to BC’s LGBTQ2S+ community as part of the QMUNITY team here in Vancouver.

Anthony Azar

Director

Pronouns: He / Him / His

Anthony is a human resources professional who works in the technology consulting sector at a company called Traction on Demand. He is a passionate people manager with a focus in talent acquisition, people analytics and organizational development. Giving back to the not-for-profit sector is a part of his calling and he has served on other LGBTQ boards and as a facilitator at the Vantage Point. He is currently completing his masters online through Queen’s University.

Anthony has grown up on the west coast, and lives with his partner and corgi in Gastown. When not working, studying or volunteering, you will find him outside in the parks and beaches of the city.

Christopher (Topher) Vollan

Chair

Pronouns: He / Him / His

Christopher (Topher) is a transplanted Albertan-Okanaganite who has trekked genetically through the worlds of hospitality, earthquake engineering, real estate development and construction in Western Canada and the hinterlands of California.

His work includes the design, approvals, marketing and construction of market and rental homes as well as office and retail space in the Metro-Vancouver area.

An avid urbanist and admitted agent of change, Topher also volunteers on the board of The Urbanarium, an organization committed to advancing Vancouver’s urban conversation.

Elizabeth Barbeau

Director

Pronouns: She / Her / Hers

Elizabeth acknowledges with gratitude that she is an uninvited guest, living, learning, playing and working on the traditional and unceded territory of the Coast Salish People.

Elizabeth is an educator, administrator, management consultant, and passionate advocate for children, youth and families. She has spent over 35 years as a teacher, coach, and leader in the non-profit and higher education sectors. She currently works at Douglas College where she is Associate Dean of the Faculty of Applied Community Studies. Her commitment to social justice is fuelled by her enthusiasm and genuine enjoyment of working with community-focussed organizations.

Elizabeth grew up in Montreal and lived in several parts of Quebec and Ontario before moving to Vancouver in 1991. She lives in East Vancouver with her wife and their three kids.

Evie Mandel

Pronouns: She / Her / Hers

Evie Mandel loves green spaces, good food with good company, and diverse communities. Her grandparents came to the Canadian prairies from Eastern Europe about 110 years ago, fleeing the persecution of the Jews and bequeathing her a sense of history and the movement of peoples. She grew up in Edmonton on Treaty 6 territory, a traditional gathering place for many Indigenous peoples including the Cree, Blackfoot, Métis, Nakota Sioux, Iroquois, Dene, Ojibway/Saulteaux/Anishinaabe, and Inuit. After many years travelling and working outside of Canada, she is now grateful to live in Vancouver, on the traditional and unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh people.

Evie started her working life as a bookseller, which left time in the evenings to organize Take
Back the Night marches and edit a lesbian magazine called Diversity that once existed in
Vancouver. She then became an accountant (CPA) and management consultant. She worked
internationally for the World Health Organization and other parts of the UN, and then locally
for UBC, managing budgets, implementing new systems, and supporting organizations to
deliver their programs more effectively. She still thinks a good spreadsheet is a thing of beauty.

These days Evie is also on the board of her East Van housing coop and is enjoying spending
more time close to home with her wife.

Glen Stratton

Pronouns: He / Him / His

Glen is from the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. He is a lawyer at Singleton, Urquhart Reynolds Vogel LLP, practising in workplace law and commercial litigation. He advises clients on workplace law and advising on human rights issues. He also works in entertainment law, assisting with financing applications and with litigating commercial disputes. Glen understands the human component of workplace law-related issues. He volunteers at the Indigenous Community Legal Clinic. Glen was called to the British Columbia bar in 2019 and is a recipient of the J.E (Jack) Klinck Award that supports Indigenous law students.

Malcolm Horne

Treasurer

Pronouns: He / Him / His

Malcolm is a finance professional with experience in external reporting, audit, controls and financial systems. He is a Chartered Professional Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree specializing in Accounting from the University of British Columbia. While born and raised in Vancouver, Malcolm moved back to the city in early 2020 from a job assignment in Dallas, Texas. Currently his work involves implementing a new financial system for a global manufacturing company based in Vancouver. Malcolm is excited to bring his financial background to the not-for-profit sector through QMUNITY.

Massood Baqi

Director

Pronouns: He / Him / His

Massood Baqi is a Portfolio Manager at Vancity, Canada’s largest community credit union. With over 10 years of experience in the financial services industry, Massood has worked in a variety of areas including Retail Banking, Human Resources, and Credit. As well, he has completed work assignments at the United Way of the Lower Mainland and Saint Mary’s University in Nova Scotia. His current work focuses on strategic operations for Vancity’s branch and call-centre network with an emphasis on change management efforts.

Early on in his career, Massood completed a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Simon Fraser University with a concentration in Accounting. He was active in the student association space with a focus on creating career development opportunities for fellow students. His passions now include advocacy for co-operatives as a sustainable business model and supporting diversity and inclusion initiatives in the workplace.

Sebastien Burghgraeve

Pronouns: He / Him / His

Born and raised in a small town in the North of France, Sebastien moved to Canada looking for a city where the rain will be less intense than his small french town.  He found Vancouver in 2013.

He has been an Associate Production Manager and he is working in Animation and Digital projects since 2015.

Sebastien is a true believer of what Art can bring to the world and how we can change people with it.

That’s why he started to give his free time in diverse organizations in France to help LGBTQ Art find the most Audience possible. His focus was on Movies with the ‘Un Autre Ecran’ organization.  He was creating events to project movies with the directors followed by a debate on their movies. His mission was to dig up some movies from the 70s and 80s but also new international movies that didn’t reach the french borders.

Now that he became a permanent resident of Canada, and soon a Canadian citizen, Sebastien wants to be an active member in the LGBTQ community of Vancouver. He joined the Vancouver Queer Animation, VFX, Games group in 2019 who support Canadian Artist by creating a platform to share ressources and support each other and hope to bring his organization and project development skills to QMUNITY by joining the board in April 2020.

Stephen Menon

Staff Liaison

Pronouns: He / Him / His

Stephen is a seasoned  product professional in the  conversational AI, FinTech and financial services industry. Stephen Is current the SVP of Product and Design at Finn AI where he leads the Product management, Product marketing  and product design functions, Stephen joined Finn AI in Late 2017, as a sole contributor in product and lead building out both the product function and helped in the creation Finn AI’s two core SaaS product offerings.

Previous to Finn AI Stephen spend over  12 years of working experience in various lines of business within banking, Stephen formerly served as VP of Operations at MBNA (acquired by Bank of America) and SVP of Marketing and Product. He later moved to TD Bank as AVP responsible for consumer credit cards, including the launch of Aeroplan.

While at both Bank of America and TD Stephen served on both organizations executive LGBTQ2+ employee affinity groups helping promote a more incline workplace for queer employees.

Born and raised in Nova Scotia, Stephen received his Bachelor of Commerce (honours) from Queens school of business Stephen has been active in LGBTQ2+ organizations across Canada, including being a former board member and treasurer at The 519 in Toronto, creating and organizing human right panel conversations in conjunction with Vancouver pride society from 2017-2019 and also currently sits on the board of Raincity Housing.