March 2023 Monthly Networking Luncheon

Learn about current campaigns, ways to get involved and the impact of giving. Meet the new CEO, the new vision of NDHF and the impact on healthcare in Central to North Vancouver Island.

 Barney Ellis-Perry

Barney Ellis-Perry on-boarded as the new Chief Executive Officer of the Nanaimo & District Hospital Foundation in August of last year.

Barney is delighted to be returning to his home province of BC, after working in the US for eight years. Barney’s most recent position was as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Alumni Relations and Annual Giving at Vanderbilt University in Nashville Tennessee, where he led a team of forty staff with annual goals of raising $17 million and engaging over 24,000 alumni. Prior to Vanderbilt, Barney was the Senior Vice President for Alumni Relations at the international fundraising consultancy GG+A, where he worked for a wide variety of not for profit and university clients throughout North America and Australia. In 2014, Barney was recruited from UBC to be the CEO of the University of California, Irvine (UCI) Alumni Association where he partnered with their hospital foundation. During his 3.5 year tenure at UCI Barney worked collaboratively with campus leaders and alumni volunteers doubling alumni engagement.

Barney was born and raised in Vancouver where he worked in fundraising and constituent engagement until 2014. He has over thirty years of fundraising and constituent engagement experience spending 14 years with his alma matter UBC where he held several key fundraising and alumni relations positions including Director of Alumni Engagement Campaign and Director of Alumni Relations.

Barney and his husband are loving oceanside life in Lantzville and are eager to get back to boating and exploring the coast.

 Tony Harris

Tony was born and raised in Nanaimo British Columbia and is of the sixth generation Harrises to call the city home. He started his first business at seven selling peanuts and candy from a 25¢ vending machine in his father’s car dealership.

After graduating from Brentwood College School he completed a BA in English Literature from the University of Western Ontario. Post-graduate work included graduating class president from the National Automobile Dealer’s Association Dealer Academy followed by graduating from Babson College Entrepreneurship and Leadership Executive Education.

Tony’s career with the Harris Auto Group spanned fifteen years; formerly the Managing Partner of Harris Mitsubishi and Harris Mazda Tony remains a proud partner in several Harris Auto Group dealerships.

Mr. Harris is a real estate developer. Tony Harris Developments has a number of commercial, marine, mixed-use and multi-family projects at various stages in the development cycle. The company’s LEGASEA development won the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board Commercial Building Awards Mixed Use Building of the Year and the overall Judge's Choice Building of the Year.

Tony is a philanthropist and community builder. Mr. Harris is the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Nanaimo & District Hospital Foundation; he is a passionate and vocal advocate for a new tertiary hospital in Nanaimo. Tony founded the Tom Harris Charity Classic which has raised over $1,000,000 for the Tom Harris Community Foundation and in turn many charities across Vancouver Island.

He is a husband a father of three.