Board of Directors

Ray Bouchard is the Board Chair of EMILI, and President and CEO of Enns Brothers Ltd., an agricultural equipment dealer in Manitoba.

Dr. Jay Doering is a Senior Water Resources Engineer and Professor Emeritus and Dean Emeritus, University of Manitoba.

Danielle Graff is a partner and technology lawyer at MLT Aikins where she leads their Innovation, Data and Technology practice.

Tom Greaves is President of Pitura Seeds.

Maureen Kinnear is the Chief Technology Officer at Payworks Payroll Services Canada.  Maureen has more than 20 years of IT experience in software development, infrastructure engineering, risk management and strategy. She began her career as a co-op student at ExxonMobil. Maureen joined Payworks in 2024.

Andrea Legary is the Chief Science and Technology Officer at The Recoup Group.

Dr. Jitendra Paliwal is Vice-President, Research and Innovation at the University of Winnipeg. Previous to this role, he was Associate Dean (Academic and Graduate Programs) in the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences at the University of Manitoba and has been a Professor of Biosystems Engineering in the Price Faculty of Engineering since 2002 where he has established an internationally recognized research program in food quality monitoring. The knowledge and applied solutions developed by his lab have helped scientists, equipment manufacturers, and regulatory agencies in the agri-food sector.

Dr. Lysa Porth is a Professor at the University of Guelph's Department of Economics and Finance. Previous to joining the University of Guelph and the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics, Dr. Porth held the Guy Carpenter Research Chair in Agricultural Risk Management and Insurance and served as the Director of the Warren Centre for Actuarial Studies and Research. She is currently an adjunct Professor in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Waterloo.

Dr. Porth’s research covers a wide breadth of topics regarding product design and pricing, as well as risk modelling and business analytics pertaining to crop insurance, price insurance, revenue insurance, livestock insurance, weather insurance, and weather derivatives. Her research also focuses on new and innovative approaches to insurance, such as remote sensing. Her research “bridges the gap” and strengthens public-private partnerships to encourage more cooperation and dialogue among producer organizations, insurers and reinsurers, and provincial and federal governments. Much of her research has primarily focused on developing innovative risk management products to achieve more stable incomes for agricultural producers, as well as more efficient risk management solutions for agricultural producers in Canada, and the World.

Erin Romeo is the Executive Vice President and General Manager at Glacier Farm Media.

Dr. Martin Scanlon is Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences at the University of Manitoba. Martin's teaching and research interests have been focused on food processing and food quality, primarily working with Canadian prairie crops. Martin has published over 160 peer-reviewed works to-date plus over 150 non-peer reviewed contributions. As well as being on granting agency panels for granting agencies and international review teams, Martin has worked with a number of trans-national and local companies to implement new technologies aimed at improving process efficiency or product quality. In 2024 Martin  was elected President of the Deans Council of the Agriculture, Food and Veterinary Medicine for a one-year term. Martin grew up in a pub in northern England. He holds BSc(Hons) and PhD degrees from the University of Leeds (England).