Councillor Mike Hillman

My career path took me to Ottawa for 2 years and when I returned to the Lower Mainland, I lived in Langley and then Vancouver. During these years, I kept my Burnaby ties through my parents. In 2010, my wife and I built a multi-generational home on Marine Drive in Burnaby, where we now reside with our daughter, son-in-law and family.

Projects

• Expo '86 - Bid co-leader and then VP Operations: Worked with 3 BC cabinet ministers and Mayor Volrich of Vancouver to assemble the bid, develop concepts and present the bid to the Bureau of International Expositions. I assisted in developing and announcing the concept plans for BC Place.
• Skytrain - Deputy Project Manager, Metro Canada Limited: During the Expo'86 bid, I identified and secured federal funding to provide a "Canadian transportation demonstration project" for the exposition. I assisted the system contractor as their deputy project manager and the system owner BC Transit to ensure the project was built on time and operational for Expo '86.
• BC Transit - Organizational restructuring: Prepared an evaluation of the board structure and purposes of the Metro Transit Operating Company and BC Transit for the minister responsible for transit, leading to the merger of the 2 corporations.
• PNE - Chair, Study Group: At the BC Provincial Secretary's request, I chaired a provincial study on the future of the Pacific National Exhibition.
• Northern Development Council: Assisted the communities north of 100 Mile House and their regional districts with their economic development and promotion. With funding from the BC government, we established a Vancouver office located at the World Trade Centre.
• Northern Institute for Resource Studies (NIRS): Apart from bringing together a reference library of environmental and project studies in northern BC, the NIRS brought business leaders together to explore resource development issues.
• C-W Agencies, VP – International Affairs: Provided strategic communications for provincial and federal governments working towards licensing agreements relating to offshore lottery sales. I successfully turned around European mail fulfillment and call centre services.

Events

• Executive Director, 1988 Vancouver Whistler Winter Olympic Committee: Volunteered on the ad hoc committee responsible for developing the Canadian bid to host the 1988 Winter Olympics. Calgary won and hosted the games.
• Yes '89 – a world exposition in Yokohama, Japan: Facing a tight timeline and lean funds, the City of Burnaby asked me to ensure the project was funded and delivered on time. We raised $2 million and I oversaw the design review, costing, fabrication and trans-pacific shipping of the exhibit. I also added merchandise operations to promote Canadian products, managed staff and brought together an ensemble of talent to showcase Vancouver at the exposition. We strengthened our relationship with Burnaby's sister city, Yokohama.
• World Amateur Golf Team Championships 1992: Contracted with the Royal Canadian Golf Association to prepare and submit the successful bid to host the championships. I assisted with the fundraising and organizing the championships, involving 51 countries and around 1,500 volunteers in both the men's and women's events.
• 1994 Commonwealth Games: My firm was the lead consultant to the volunteer team from Victoria that secured the right for Victoria to be the Canadian bid city for the 1994 Commonwealth Games. This involved structuring a community-based organization, detailing the bid, establishing the budget and providing sport requirements.
• Winter Universiade Games - Secretary-General, bid team: Provided leadership that saw 4 interior communities, UBC and 2 interior colleges submit a proposal to host the 2007/2009 Winter University Student Games as sanctioned by FISU in Brussels. The national sports governing body moved forward with a summer games proposal.

Campaigns

• Federal elections - Campaign chair/manager for 3 Sukh Dhaliwal campaigns, Ujjal Dosanjh, and twice for Wendy Yuan.
• Mike Hurley 2018 – Co-campaign manager for the successful mayoral campaign during the last Burnaby Civic Election.
• Non-Partisan Association (NPA) campaign director for the successful campaign in 2005, Vancouver. Sam Sullivan was elected mayor and the NPA held a majority on the council.
• Provincial elections – Campaign manager for Peter Fassbender, Katherine Whittred, Jeannie Kanakos, Jet Sunner and Dave Hans.

Committees and boards

• Red Ribbon Committee – Co-chair: Reviewed and revised the Constitution for the Liberal Party of Canada.
• Election redistributions: Provided input to the committees that realigned riding boundaries.
• Liberal Party of Canada - National VP
• Liberal Party of Canada - Membership chair
• Fraser Health Board - Vice chair

Annual meetings and elections

• Newton North Delta Liberal Nomination (2004), Chair: planned, organized and oversaw 3 contenders vie for the nomination. A voter turnout of over 6,000 based on membership of 19,000
• Vedic Hindu Cultural Society elections – Returning officer
• Ross Street Temple – Returning officer
• Guru Nanak Gurdwara Society – Returning officer for 2 board elections.
• Richmond Liberal Nomination (2004): Chaired, planned, organized, and oversaw 2 contenders vie for nomination, turnout just over 2,500
• Hindu Cultural Society (2021) – Returning officer. Organized and conducted a drive-thru election during the pandemic, which saw over 60% of eligible voters safely cast their ballot for the new Society Board.

Working in government

• Executive Assistant to the Honourable Iona Campagnolo (1976-1978), Minister of State for Fitness and Amateur Sport.
• Senior Economic Advisor to Senator Jack Austin, Minister of State for Social Development (1984)
• Advisor to Sukh Dhaliwal MP for the Electoral District Association of Surrey-Newton