Governance

Encasa’s board of directors is comprised of representatives from the four shareholder groups:

Brian Marks has the privilege of being the Chief Administrative Officer for the Cochrane District Social Services Administration Board. Brian truly appreciates the opportunities afforded over 20 years with the CDSSAB to serve his coworkers as they provide Emergency Medical Services, Affordable Childcare, Affordable Housing, Income Security and Employment Services to the residents of Northeastern Ontario across 140,000 km2 and multiple municipalities.

Brian is an unapologetic civil servant and a champion for personal and collective accountability in service delivery. Brian believes that Ontarians can be best served through strategic and honest collaboration across service sectors, including: Health, Education, Social Services, and Economic Development and he is dedicated to creating the service system people need.

Brian has served on numerous provincial, regional and local boards with diverse mandates, from immigration to health care and literacy to addictions treatment. Brian is a founding member of the Chartered Institute of Housing Canada and a proud alumnus of the Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference (2012). Currently Brian is serving as the Chair for Ontario for the 2020 Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference.

Brian is a lifelong resident of Northeastern Ontario, save some time away to obtain his Bachelor of Arts (Hons) Degree and his Master’s Degree of Business Administration. Brian is a husband, father and runner.

Bio coming shortly.

Tim Ross is the Executive Director of the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada. CHF Canada is a national membership association of housing co-operatives, representing over one thousand members, and home to over a quarter of a million people.

Tim is a nationally recognized leader in the Canadian community and co-operative housing sector. Under his leadership, Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada has realized nearly one billion dollars of reinvestment into the Canadian co-operative housing sector. He is the founding President of the Community Housing Transformation Centre, and is a director on the boards of several dynamic social enterprises and associations, including Encasa Financial, and the Community Housing Management Network. Under Tim’s leadership, CHF Canada has been recognized as one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers in the National Capital Region for four years running.

In 2020, Tim was appointed to the National Housing Council. The Council’s mandate is to advance Canadian housing policy by providing advice to the Minister of Housing.

Prior to working with CHF Canada, Tim worked with several housing and advocacy organizations. He currently resides in the Ottawa region with his partner and newborn son.

Howie Wong has been Chief Executive Officer of Housing Services Corporation (HSC) since 2013. Previously, Howie has served as HSC’s Chief Operating Officer and as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC), Canada’s largest landlord with over 165,000 tenants and a $6 billion housing portfolio. At TCHC, Howie provided oversight to TCHC’s $450 million public bond offering program and $350 million corporate debt program; and the establishment of several high-impact joint ventures and public-private partnerships.

Prior to joining TCHC, Howie practiced business law at a predecessor of Gowling WLG (Canada) LLP for over 18 years. He also serves on the board of HSC Insurance.

Sarah joined HSC in 2011 and has led the development of HSC’s client and stakeholder engagement strategy. She has played a critical role in the redesign of HSC’s Insurance and Energy Services programs, ensuring the successful launch of highly integrated, customer-focused programs and teams.  She has also directed HSC’s data strategy teams in the production of user-friendly visualization tools that enable clients to derive meaningful insights from HSC’s program data.  As COO, she continues to play a key role in the evolution of HSC’s core programs, managing a multidisciplinary team of professionals in the areas of insurance, energy services, communications and sector collaboration.

Sarah brings a wealth of experience in strategic planning, program delivery and client communications.  Her extensive knowledge of policy and program development was refined in various roles at the Ministry of Energy and the Ontario Power Authority.  Prior to joining HSC, Sarah served as Chief of Staff to the Ministers of Transportation and Natural Resources.  She holds a B.A. (Hons.) from the University of Western Ontario and a Master’s degree from York University.