The Banff Centre Foundation

Over the past 30 years, Leslie Belzberg has overseen television, film, and animation for several prominent Hollywood Studios including Imagine Entertainment, Gaumont Productions USA, Miramax, and Endemol-Shine North America. She has also consulted for companies such as Blumhouse Television, Sony Television, and Paramount +. 

Before moving into high-level executive roles at major studios, Belzberg was an independent producer, and Executive Producer, most well-known for her storied collaboration with director John Landis. Together, they co-created St. Clare Entertainment, a TV production company. She also produced many of his films including Coming to America, Three Amigos, Blues Brothers 2000, Beverly Hills Cop III, Susan's Plan, The Stupids, Oscar, Spies Like Us, and Into the Night.

Belzberg has also produced Academy Award winning films such as Crazy Heart, which earned Jeff Bridges a Best Actor win, and for the documentary Genocide, also produced by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, now the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.

She earned her MBA from Fordham University in New York and a BA in English Literature and Contemporary Drama from York University in Toronto.

Belzberg also sits of the board of Otis College of Art & Design in Los Angeles, and Chicken & Egg Pictures based in NY & San Francisco. 

She is a member of the Producer’s Guild of America (PGA), and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Science (AMPAS).

Ken Hughes is an entrepreneur and community leader. He serves as Chair of the Board, Providence Therapeutics, Canada's cancer therapeutics company, focused on saving lives through cancer and infectious disease therapeutic development. He is Vice Chair of Beacon Data Centres, a leading developer of hyperscale data centres in Alberta, and serves as Lead Independent Trustee of Nearctic Industrial REIT.

Hughes is also a member of the board of the Banff Canmore Foundation and a Director of the Banff Centre Foundation.

Elected at age 34 to the House of Commons of Canada, he served as Chair of the Aboriginal Affairs Committee leading five all-party unanimous reports and was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister.

Hughes was appointed the first Chair of the Board of Alberta Health Services in 2008, creating Canada’s largest health delivery service, leading through early years of development. In 2012, Hughes was elected to the Legislature of Alberta, appointed Minister of Energy, and led the creation of the Alberta Energy Regulator. Subsequently, as Minister of Municipal Affairs, he led the resolution of Disaster Recovery Assistance Program claims for nearly 10,000 Albertan families recovering from the southern Alberta floods of 2013. In September 2014, he returned to private life.

Hughes studied at the University of Guelph, the University of Alberta, B.Sc. (Agriculture) and has a Master of Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University. As a governance professional, he has been a certified ICD.D member since 2005.

He was recognized as Honourary Chief Badger Runner of the Blackfoot Confederacy Piikani First Nation in 1991. He has received the following civil awards: The 125th Anniversary of Confederation of Canada Medal (1992), The Alberta Centennial Medal (2005), The Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012) and The King Charles III Coronation Medal (2025) He and his wife Denise live in Canmore, Alberta and on Salt Spring Island, BC. (Updated August 2025)

Chris Lorway is the President and CEO of Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Chris brings senior leadership experience across a broad range of artistic disciplines in both Canadian and international contexts. Well-positioned to strengthen Banff Centre’s position as Canada’s creative leader in arts, leadership, and convening, Chris has a proved record as a global influencer in arts and culture. 

Chris is a Canadian citizen, born and raised in Cape Breton, and comes to Banff Centre from his recent position as both Executive and Artistic Director at Stanford Live in California. His artistic and community programs draw on the breadth and depth of Stanford University to connect performances to the significant issues, ideas, and discoveries of our time in a season featuring over 200 performances and events across four primary venues. 

Prior to his role at Stanford Live, Chris was Director of Programming and Marketing at The Corporation of Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall, where his focus was on developing a cohesive brand identity for the institution and ensuring that programming in the halls reflected the diversity of the city of Toronto. 

Prior to that position, he was the inaugural Artistic Director of the Luminato Festival, where he commissioned or co-commissioned nearly 50 new works from Canadian and International artists. 

Before his return to Canada in 2007, he was a consultant in the United States with AMS Planning and Research and AEA Consulting. These two roles offered him detailed insight into the governance and operations of major cultural organizations, including Carnegie Hall, New York City Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Edinburgh International Festival, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the West Kowloon Cultural District and San Francisco Opera. 

Prior to his consulting experience, he worked for Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, where for two seasons he was part of the Lincoln Center Festival team. It was there he was introduced to some of the world’s top artists and companies. He also had roles in marketing and development at Lincoln Center and worked on the first phase of the $1.5 billion campus redevelopment project.

Aly Khan Musani, CPA, CA is an accomplished finance executive with over 20 years of leadership experience. Currently, Mr. Musani is the Chief Financial Officer of Symend, a Calgary-based technology software company, with a mission to transform digital customer engagement through behavioural science. Over the past five years, Mr. Musani has led the growth and transformation of the finance function at Symend and has been instrumental in the Company raising over $100 million in venture capital financing.

Mr. Musani has managed financial forecasting and reporting, insurance, risk, treasury and capital projects for companies with over $1 billion in assets, and over $500 million in revenue in the oil and gas and technology sectors. He has led global teams with operations in 13 countries and has directed the creation and execution of full financial reporting cycles. Mr. Musani has the proven ability to create and streamline business processes that result in the most efficient, accurate and cost-effective method to operate and grow a business.

Mr. Musani holds both Chartered Accountant and Certified Public Accountant designations and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Calgary.

As a 36-year veteran of the financial industry, Rob has an extensive track record of building and leading institutional asset management firms. He is the former CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Greystone Managed Investments, a prominent Canadian institutional investment manager known for its strength in alternative investments. During his tenure, Rob oversaw more than $35 billion of assets under management, positioning Greystone as one of the country’s largest pension assets manager. Prior to joining Forthlane, Rob was Chief Investment Officer of TD Asset Management Inc., which acquired Greystone in 2018. Earlier in his career, Rob was recognized by The Globe and Mail as one of Canada’s “Top 40 Under 40.” Rob has also contributed to a range of boards, including serving as Chair of the Regina Airport Authority. He has held board roles with the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance and the Saskatchewan Roughriders Football Club, and is a past President of the Saskatchewan Chapter of the Chartered Financial Analysts. Rob holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Manitoba and is a CFA Charterholder.

Paul Baay served as administrator of Banff Centre from October 2023 to April 2024. He is currently the president and chief executive officer of Touchstone Exploration Inc. Mr. Baay served as the chair of the board of directors of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and was a member of the board of trustees of the National Art Gallery of Canada. He holds a bachelor of arts degree in administrative and commercial studies from the University of Western Ontario and completed the Directors Education Program offered by the Institute of Corporate Directors.