Richard Nichols

President, Managing Director and Director of Capital Direct Financial Ltd.

Richard is a Founding Partner and President of Capital Direct Lending Corp. (CDLC) and is a director of Capital Direct I Income Trust. During his tenure, CDLC a Vancouver-based company has now spread across Canada. Mr. Nichols graduated with honors from the Masters of Business Administration (MBA) program at the University of British Columbia. While completing his Masters degree, Mr. Nichols studied international marketing at the Haute Etude Commerciale in Paris, France.  His studies began at the University of Prince Edward Island where he studied finance and capital budgeting and received his Bachelors of Business Administration (BBA). In 1993, Mr. Nichols is an Accredited Mortgage Professional certified by the Canadian Institute of Mortgage Brokers and Lenders (CIMBL) and the Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals (CAAMP). Richard has served on various boards, and originally the CKNW Kids’ Fund in 2010.

Jessica Bouchard

Associate Director — The Polygon Gallery

Jessica Bouchard has enjoyed two decades of fundraising success in both the public and private sectors. She has led fundraising teams at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the largest visual arts organization in Western Canada; Hungerford Properties, raising a real estate private equity fund of $120 million; and The Polygon Gallery, leading the campaign for its new home, which opened on Vancouver’s north shore waterfront at the end of 2017. She is currently The Polygon’s Associate Director.

Jessica is passionate about raising money. She has created fundraising strategies for Hollyhock, Foundations for Social Change, and the BC Centre for Ability, and has been a board member of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, Electric Company Theatre, and the CKNW Kids Fund. Jessica has been a YWCA Women of Distinction nominee, a Canadian Arts Summit Leadership Fellow, and was awarded the Profession Culture Residency in Paris by the French Cultural Ministry.

Jessica currently lives and works in dialogue with members of the Squamish Nation, the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, and the Musqueam Band, on whose unceded lands her family makes their home.