Founder & President / Treasurer: G. Shawn Coady, MOM CD

Email: president@memorialribbon.com

Shawn joined the Vancouver Police Department in 1990 after 4 years with BC Corrections at the Lower Mainland Regional Correctional Centre (Oakalla). He returned to the VPD, as the Subject Behaviour Officer Response Report Co-ordinator, after working for two years with the Integrated Security Unit preparing for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Prior to working with the RCMP on the Olympics he worked in the Vancouver Gaol as the NCO in charge and as the Station NCO working out of the old VPD HQ building. He also held a variety of positions in patrol as well as a detective in the Domestic Violence Unit.

Shawn is the creator of the Memorial Ribbon and has been involved with the BC Police and Peace Officers' Memorial since 1998, serving as coordinator for two of the events held in Vancouver. In May of 2010 Shawn became a Member of the Order of Merit (MOM) for Police Services, due to his continued work on the Ribbon Society, receiving his award from Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michelle Jean, Governor General of Canada.

Vice-President: Ross M. Gulkison, OStJ, SMOTJ

Now retired, Ross's civil service extends over thirty-four years and includes corrections, sheriffs, police, federal investigations, and the militia. His proudest moments were his military commission and later his appointment in 1993 to Chief of the former Sto:lo Justice Service, by Ovide Mercredi, Grand Chief of the National Assembly of First Nations, Canada.

Ross is the cofounder of the Police and Peace Officers' Memorial Ribbon Society. In 1993 Ross lost an officer under his command, Officer James Adams, and as a result Ross fully understands the grief, sorrow and hardship that the families, colleagues (Brothers and Sisters), communities, and Canada as whole must endure whenever an officer is killed in the line of duty. Ross believes that it is our duty as a nation "to remember our fallen heroes".

Ross remains a proud member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, serving in his eighteenth year, and looks forward to many more years of the international fellowship he has experienced with the IACP. Ross is also a volunteer on several other boards.

Secretary: Jean Galvin

Jean Joined the RCMP as a civilian member in 1978, and became a sworn member in 1979. She spent her whole career in "E" Division, Vancouver and retired in 1998.

Jean is presently employed by the RCMP Langley Detachment as the Court Liaison.

Director: Mike McCarthy

Mike McCarthy has been a Director of the Memorial Ribbon Society since 2001 and member of the RCMP since 1986. His work locations have all been in B.C. and have included Shawnigan Lake, New Hazelton, Kelowna, Granisle, Chilliwack and Agassiz. Mike has worked in several areas of policing including Detachment Commander duties, General Duty Patrol, Community Policing and Serious Crime.

Mike is currently working as the Sgt. in Charge of the Agassiz RCMP office. Mike is married and has three teenage children.

Director: Chaplain Jim Turner

Jim has served as pastor at three churches over a period of twenty years of Pastoral Ministry. In addition he has taught at Northwest Baptist Theological College, served in executive positions in the regional and national Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada.

Jim has served the law enforcement community in a voluntary capacity for over nineteen years. Jim has served with the RCMP as Chaplain for five years in "K" Division specifically Calgary Sub-Division. Since moving back to B.C. in 1995, Jim began serving at Burnaby, Richmond Detachments and "E" Division HQ. On October 23, 2000 Jim left full time pastoral ministry in the church setting and was appointed as the first Divisional Chaplain for "E" Division. In February of 2001 Jim was appointed as Chaplain at Delta Police. In February of 2003 Jim was appointed as the chaplain at Vancouver Police.

Director: Sylvain L'Heureux

Sylvain L'Heureux joined the ranks of the RCMP in 1981 and is currently serving in the Province of Québec. In the course of his career he has been involved in national security (serving 3 years with CSIS 1984-1987), customs and excise, and commercial crimes investigations. He has also work in the media relation section.

Sylvain has been involved with community policing for many years. He is actively involved in protocol and partnership with local police agencies in Québec. In 2009 he was appointed to the rank of Staff Sergeant Major and acted as Divisional Sergeant Major for the Province of Québec. He has been a Member of the Order of Merit of Police Forces since 2006.

Director: James Pearson

James Pearson has been employed by the Vancouver Police Department since May of 1992 where he has been involved in patrol, undercover drug units, grow-busters, crowd-control, the Ceremonial Unit, and Emergency Operations and Planning. He was instrumental in creating the Military Liaison Unit which is a first in Canadian policing. Prior to his enlistment with the VPD he enjoyed a 10 year career with the Canadian Military where he joined as a non-commissioned member and worked his way up the ranks to obtain a Queen's Commission.

James is currently appointed as Vancouver's Departmental Sgt/Major, working out of the Operations Division.

Director: Jim Pyke

Jim Pyke joined British Columbia Corrections in 1994 and has been involved with the B.C. Provincial Police and Peace Officers Memorial from its first Memorial Parade in 1998. He was invited to become a Director of the Police and Peace Officers' Memorial Ribbon Society in 2008.

Jim currently works at Surrey Pre-Trial Services Center and is heavily involved with that Center's Local Honour Guard and with the Provincial Honour Guard which was formed in 2007.

Director: Gord Tomlinson

Gord Tomlinson was born and raised on a farm in Ontario, one of six children. At the age of eleven he decided that he wanted to be a police officer. Never wavering in that decision, he was accepted into the RCMP in April 1973. Upon completion of training in Regina, he served for a year in Ottawa, before being transferred to Alberta, where he spent the next twenty four years.

He was first posted to Lac La Biche, Alberta, a town so small that he was unable to locate it on the maps available to him in Ottawa. It was only after arriving in the province of Alberta that he was able to ascertain that the town where he would marry his wife Anne and they would see the birth of their two children was located in the north-east of the province. After four years in Lac La Biche, Gord served in many communities around the province - Brooks, Fort Chipewyan, Turner Valley. Gleichen, Calgary, Edmonton and Grande Prairie.

Accepting his Commission in 1999, Gord jumped at the chance to serve in Surrey, B.C. – the largest RCMP detachment in the country. In 2000, he became the Operations Support Officer at North Vancouver Detachment, and in September 2001 he was named the Officer In Charge of North Vancouver RCMP, with a promotion to Superintendent. Gord retired from the RCMP in 2009 and moved to Berrie, Ontario, where he now acts as the Ribbon Society's director for Ontario.

Director: Bob Underhill

Bob Underhill joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1974. Following basic training in Regina he was posted to Richmond Detachment. Since that time he has served in Pemberton, Burnaby, North Vancouver, CLEU, and at E Division Headquarters in four different postings. He was appointed to the position of Staff Sergeant Major on the 15th of November 2006. He is the Ceremonial, Protocol and Support N.C.O. and works from the Deputy Commissioner's Office in Vancouver.

Bob has helped organize, and has participated in, all Regimental Funerals for RCMP Members in British Columbia since 1982. He readily assists other police and peace officer agencies (Federal, Provincial and Municipal) when they lose a member in the line of duty. He is a valued asset when dealing with the families of these fallen heroes.

The annual Police and Peace Officer's memorial for the Province of British Columbia is held on the final Sunday of September. This memorial remembers those Police and Peace Officers who have died in the line of duty both in British Columbia and throughout Canada. Bob serves on the organizing committee for this service.

Bob is an active member in his community and volunteers with several non-profit societies. He is a Knight of the Order of St. John.