LMA Vancouver Chapter Leadership
LMA Board of Directors and Responsibilities
- President - Susan Van Dyke, Van Dyke Marketing and Communications
- Past-President - Allison Wolf, Shift Works Strategic
- Secretary - Michelle Beaubien, Oyen Wiggs Green and Mutala LLP
- Treasurer - Sheila Tham, Oyen Wiggs Green and Mutala LLP
- Member-at-large - Heather Gray-Grant, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
- Member-at-large - Simone Fell, Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP (Chair, Education Committee)
- Member-at-large - Carrie Innes, Alexander Holburn Beaudin and Lang LLP (Chair, Membership Committee)
- Member-at-large - Blair Lill, Farris Vaughan Wills & Murphy LLP
- Member-at-large - Brenda Plowman, Fasken Martineau LLP
- Member-at-large - Julie Stratton, Blakes LLP (Board Liaison, Marketing Committee)
Susan Van Dyke - President
Susan Van Dyke is the Principal of Van Dyke Marketing & Communications. She has worked in the marketing and communications field, primarily in the service sector, since 1991. She is a regular speaker on marketing issues, has trained professionals and staff and has been featured in various local and national business publications. She is currently a guest marketing columnist for the CBABC's BarTalk publication, the CBA's online national resource, PracticeLink and The Lawyers Weekly.
Law firms, financial planners, employment recruitment firms, and BCIT are among her current clients. Client projects have included formulating strategic marketing plans, conducting marketing audits, developing advertising campaigns with small and large budgets, building and enhancing websites, conducting marketing seminars on various topics, branding and more.
As a former Director of Marketing for a mid-sized law firm she spearheaded a mission to develop practice group marketing plans and budgets. She tripled the number of unique visitors to the firm's website, developed an effective marketing database, and implemented a system to track marketing expenses.
During her time at Swinton & Company, she developed the strategic marketing model for one of the first web sites for a mid-sized law firm in B.C., conducted a full-scale corporate image review, and constructed the multi-region public relations campaign for Swinton & Company's merger with Miller Thomson, including the strategy for its implementation.
Shortly after her law firm marketing career began, she co-founded the Vancouver Legal Marketing Roundtable Group in 1996. This group of marketing professionals represents more than 10 of Vancouver's largest law firms.
In the mid-1990s Susan developed the strategic marketing plans for the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). During that time she received two national public relations awards from the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education for BCIT's downtown-campus campaign. Susan is an active board member developing the formation of the Vancouver Chapter of the Legal Marketing Association. She is also serves on the City Hall Childcare Society board and is a steering committee member of NexUs, which facilitates and hosts gatherings of executives, professionals and other high-performing individuals.
Contact Susan at (604) 876-7769 or by email at svandyke@telus.net.
Allison Wolf - Past President
Allison Wolf is a Certified Executive Coach and legal marketing professional. She is the founder of Shift Works Strategic Inc., a Vancouver-based firm focused on using the practice of coaching to enhance the performance and success of lawyers in key business areas.
Before launching Shift Works Strategic in 2007, Allison worked in-house for law firms of all sizes and scope, beginning with an international law firm in the Beijing, New York and Washington D.C. offices, followed by a national Canadian firm and most recently Harper Grey LLP. She brings valuable international experience to her strategic business coaching practice. She lived, worked and studied in China for eight years. Allison speaks English, French and Mandarin.
Allison is the Past-President of the LMA Vancouver chapter and a member of the International Coaching Federation.
Allison Wolf can be reached by phone at 778-773-2556 or by email at allison@shiftworks.ca. For more information please visit her website: www.shiftworks.ca.
Michelle Beaubien - Secretary
Michelle Beaubien joined the LMA Vancouver Board in the role of Secretary. She has worked in law firms for more than twenty years in a variety of positions, and is currently the marketing assistant at Oyen Wiggs Green & Mutala LLP. An active member of the Vancouver Chapter Education Committee since March 2006, Michelle has supported the Chapter’s event coordination efforts benefiting hundreds of attendees to more than 20 events. She implemented administrative protocols to maximize efficiency, liaised with the Education Committee Chair to ensure no detail was overlooked and attended each event to facilitate registrations and other important particulars.
Michelle is a self proclaimed “computer enthusiast” and has applied her skills to a variety of her firm’s advertising campaigns. She also enjoys working on a web platform and takes courses regularly to keep up with the ever-evolving technology.
Heather Gray-Grant - Past-President and Member at Large
Heather Gray-Grant serves as the Director of Business Development, Vancouver for the Canadian law firm of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP. She previously served as Director of Marketing & Businesss Development with Alexander Holburn Beaudin & Lang LLP, and Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP.
Heather has over 18 years of experience in the marketing of professional services, all of which have been served in the legal industry.
She also served as President of LMA international in 2003, and was on the LMA national board for a total of four years. At various times she served as the Chair of Strategies, the International Committee and the Strategic Alliance Committee. She also served as the Chair of the task force that created LMA International's first position statement.
Heather is also the founder and Past President of the Anastasia Foundation where she was responsible for negotiating with provincial health authorities, the national ministry for immigration, Canadian embassies overseas, and foreign governments and health institutions to bring children to Canada for life-saving or life-changing surgery. The Association has since been transferred to the BC Children's Hospital Foundation.
She is also a trained mediator and negotiator, and coaches soccer in her spare time.
Heather Gray-Grant can be reached by phone at (604) 640-4121 or by email at hgraygrant@blgcanada.com.
Simone Fell - Member at Large and Chair, Education Committee
Born in South Africa, Simone lived in Johannesburg until 1997 when she relocated to Vancouver. She has worked in a marketing and business development capacity for professional services firms in a variety of industries; including hospitality, design and construction, video game publishing, insurance and financial services.
Simone is the Chair of LMA Vancouver’s Education Committee and a member of the Editorial Board for Strategies magazine. She holds a Diploma of Technology in Marketing from BCIT and is currently completing her B.Comm in Management. She is fluent in English and Afrikaans.
Julie Stratton - Member at Large and Board Liaison, Marketing Committee
Julie has been working in legal marketing since early 1998. Her experience ranges from working for the British firm, Hammond Suddards, the US firm, Sidley & Austin and now Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP. Julie’s experience includes developing and implementing marketing and business development initiatives, developing new business and expanding current business relationships.
Carrie Innes - Member at Large and Chair, Membership Committee
Carrie Innes serves as the Marketing Manager for Alexander Holburn Beaudin & Lang LLP, a seventy lawyer, multi-service firm in Vancouver. In addition to her past two years in the legal marketing industry, Carrie has ten years marketing experience in the arts and culture sector. On the side, Carrie has trained as a dancer in Cuba, assisted new Canadians with finding meaningful employment, taught English in the Czech Republic, and has facilitated over 100 anti-oppression and conflict resolution workshops across Alberta.
Carrie's most recent endeavours include coordinating the 1st and 2nd annual LMA Vancouver HELM Awards (Honouring Excellence in Legal Marketing), dancing in the international award winning dance film "Cea", and launching Alexander Holburn's Sustainability Program.
Brenda Plowman - Member at Large
Brenda Plowman is the Director, Marketing at Fasken Martineau for the Vancouver and Calgary regions.
Prior to joining Fasken Martineau she was the Vice President of Sales and Marketing, USA for an international furniture manufacturer. She oversaw a team of 40 independent sales reps across US. She spent nearly a decade running her own company, a full service marketing, communications and public relations agency in Vancouver, serving clients from a broad spectrum of industries. She had a strong specialty in professional services marketing for accounting, engineering and law firms.
During this time she developed a professional speaking career, delivering numerous presentations to a variety of audiences. Her background includes facilitating strategic planning sessions, emceeing and teaching BCIT night school courses. This skill combined with her business development knowledge and experience took her down a natural path of providing one-on-one coaching to lawyers and accountants to build their practices.
She has been an active volunteer, having served on the boards of many organizations including Chair of the Employability Skills Board, President of the Langley Chamber, Rotarian, Executive Board Member WITHIT (Women in the Home Furnishing Industry Today), Board Member Focus Foundation, and Board Member Canadian Chamber of Commerce. Most notable she was the Chair of the BC Chamber of Commerce in 2002/03, and served that Board for a total of nine years. This organization represented 27,000 small to medium sized businesses throughout the province, from all sectors of the economy.
Brenda is keen to bring her skills and knowledge to the legal marketing community, by putting her name forward to become a member of the Board of LMA.
Blair Lill - Member at Large
Blair Lill is the Director of Marketing at Farris, Vaughan, Wills & Murphy LLP and has 15 years of experience in the areas of strategic marketing, business development, and product management. Before joining Farris, Blair worked as Marketing and Business Development Manager at Cellex Power, a hydrogen and fuel cell development company; as Product Marketing Manager at Creo Products, a global high-tech company developing, manufacturing, and marketing computer-to-plate and workflow solutions to the graphic arts sector; and as Product Manager for global paint giant, ICI Paints.
Blair hopes to add value and edge to the LMA as an experienced marketer with world leading companies. He has launched over 40 products into North America, Europe, and Asia. He launched the Creo Prinergy workflow solution internationally, which is now the industry defacto standard, and he was one of the first Product Managers to bring to market a certified range of environmentally friendly paints, later recognized at the New Zealand Institute of Building Awards (1997). He has helped raise over $40 million in venture capital, and over $10 million in Canadian and US government funding for alternative energy projects.
Blair has a business degree from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He arrived in Canada in 1998 with the plan to travel and work for a year, but that all changed when he met his Canadian wife. Outside of work, Blair’s “second shift” is as a father with two young daughters. He is an avid water-skier and All Blacks rugby fan; he enjoys home renovation, wine appreciation, BBQs with friends and family, snow-skiing, and running.