Board of Directors
Meet our Amazing Team
The Faces Behind our Success
Henry Lotin - President & Co-chair
Retired Canadian diplomat specializing in international trade and investment policy, promotion and development, serving as a research economist, and now economic consultant, devoting his efforts to bringing a planetarium back to Toronto. Since 2003, he has been engaged in tourism and investment promotion in the City, including a proposed redevelopment of Maple Leaf Gardens. Since retiring from public service in 2011, he has also undertaken a range of economic research projects for institutional clients, many highlighting the needs of Toronto for enhanced infrastructure development to accommodate and nurture talent and tourist growth.
Professor Mike Fich - Secretary & Co-chair
University of Waterloo professor of astronomy
Canadian lead investigator in numerous international observatory projects, including; SCUBA-2 camera (the principle instrument of), James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), High resolution spectrometer for the Infrared (HIFI), Herschel Space Observatory. Currently a leader of team building a new telescope: the $50-million Cerro Chajnantor Atacama Telescope-Prime (CCAT-p) in Chile.
Jo-Ann Davis - Treasurer, Sr. Associate at Leman group
Jo-Ann has led successful strategic change initiatives for 15 years for some of Canada’s largest corporations, as well as provincial ministries and agencies. Jo-Ann is former Chair of the Board, and trustee for the Toronto Catholic District School Board (2010 – 2018). Jo-Ann is currently on the Board of Directors of Young People’s Theatre and is President of the Canadian International Council – Toronto Chapter.
Richard McDonald - Technology Lead.
Richard is a retired IBM Distinguish Engineer. One of his passions is the development of technical skills in young people. He’s an active volunteer at FIRST Canada and mentor at UoT. While he was studying Astronomy and Computer Sciences at UoT, he worked as a part time lecturer and theatre operator at the McLaughlin Planetarium.
Kirsten Vanstone - Senior Manager Operations, The Fields Institute for Research in the Mathematical Sciences
Kirsten is a not-for-profit manager specialising in organizations connected with science and STEM. She has more than 18 years’ experience working in museums, planetariums and science centres and is an active volunteer with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. She has a BSc in Astronomy & Physics and a Masters degree in Science Communication. Kirsten is from Toronto, where her first job was working the elevators at the CNTower.
The Space Place Team
Committee Leaders, Authors, and Key Advisors
We rely on a number of experts from diverse backgrounds on the Space Place team to communicate with our collaborators, to help with outreach initiatives, to bring you exciting new STEAM content and to coordinate website development efforts.
