For Immediate Release
TORONTO (October 4, 2017) – Boxing Ontario is pleased to announce three new members elected to its Board of Directors – Vice President of Administration Angelina Brathwaite, Vice President of Protocol Cathy van Ingen, and newly Elected president Billy Irwin.
Billy Irwin – William “Billy” ‘The Kid’ Irwin is a retired Canadian amateur lightweight and professional light/light welter/welterweight boxer of the 1990s and 2000s who as an amateur won a bronze medal in the Boxing at the 1991 Pan American Games in Havana, Cuba. Represented Canada at the 1991 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Sydney, Australia. Represented Canada at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain and went onto a decorated professional career. He now trains amateurs upcoming international fighters and professional boxers at Irwin Boxing in Niagara Falls, and the Bayshore Boxing Club in St. Catharine’s, Ontario. He now also works to build his community, raise money to empower youth and grow the sport in his region. His goals are now amplified to continue spreading the passion of boxing across the Province!
Angelina Brathwaite – Recently was nominated to serve as Chairman of the board for the Rexdale Community Health Centre. As the Chairman of RCHC their mandate is to act as the governing body with legal responsibility for overall management and conduct of operations with accountability to the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term care and other funders. Prior to serving as the Chair, I held other titles, Secretary and Vice –Chair while serving on the Executive committee. In her daily profession, she is the Senior Client Partner of the Life Sciences division of a Global Staffing and recruitment agency. She is responsible for leading client acquisition, development and implementation of integrated talent processes, and translating business and organizational needs into talent strategy.
Cathy van Ingen – Has a mandate to support equal opportunity, prohibit discriminatory practices, and to provide an environment of fairness and respect. Her goal as Vice President of Protocol is to ensure the association and its members fulfil its legal, ethical and functional responsibilities through the existing politics and procedures manual. She also want to conduct a review of the policies and practices on gender equity, harassment, discrimination and discipline to ensure they are up to date with other provincial and national sport organizations. She is a Kinesiology professor whose research is focused on boxing and whose most recent board experience is on the Faculty Association at Brock University. Cathy co-founded a non-contact boxing program that has been running for 10 years in Toronto (www.shapeyourlifeboxing.com) for women who have experienced violence. Within this work I have successfully written research grants for boxing programs (totaling $554,806) from municipal, provincial and federal funding sources. I am currently conducting research on the mental and physical health outcomes of boxing funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada. She also has extensive experience working with diversity issues and with policy and program considerations for increasing participation among members of underrepresented groups.
QUOTES:
“We are thrilled to have such talent join our ranks. The goal of every growing organization is meet the environmental and strategic planning needs with the appropriate expertise. In this case, the membership has found that we have identified three new board members to strengthen our Board of Directors, and provide the leadership and support the staff and stakeholders need. Their appointment through this election was timely as we continue to enhance our high performance framework, the research and innovation, and the organizational capacity to deliver the best sport system possible to our members.
Matthew Kennedy, Executive Director, Boxing Ontario
About Boxing Ontario
Boxing Ontario is the only governing body for Olympic-Style Boxing in Ontario. As such, it is affiliated with Boxing Canada (CABA), the International Boxing Association (AIBA) and the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture, & Sport. Boxing Ontario was founded in the fall of 1972 and has seen a steady growth since then. Currently, Boxing Ontario encompasses more than 100 clubs, 2500 competitors and approximately 12,000 more recreational members. In 2010 we moved from a geographic-representational model, to a skill-based board structure. Along with this, voting power was given to each club, where clubs get between 1 and 5 votes at the AGM. The number of votes a club gets is dependent on the number of registered members the club has. This new structure allowed us to elect an executive which was more efficient, while still allowing members across the province to have a voice, and participate in various working committees. Boxing Ontario Executive members are elected at an annual general meeting. All members are invited to attend, and voting is done by the registered delegates. Financially, Boxing Ontario functions through club and member registration, fundraising and in large part through the support of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture, and Sport. Operationally, Boxing Ontario owes a debt of gratitude to all the volunteers who give freely of their time and energies to keep the programs running smoothly.
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Media Contact:
Matthew Kennedy
Executive Director
Boxing Ontario
416-426-7221
3701 Danforth Ave.
Scarborough, ON M1N 2G2
