New Chief Executive Officer appointed to lead the OTF

Before joining OTF, Katharine was the Executive Director of Food Banks Canada which supports a network of 10 provincial associations and over 500 local food bank organizations.

During her ten years at the helm of Food Banks Canada, she supported the organization through transformational change and significant growth enabling the organization to better achieve its mandate of relieving hunger in Canada every day.

Before being named Executive Director of the national organization, she led the Food Bank of Waterloo Region. She has a wealth of experience in senior roles, including as the Senior Director of Public Policy at the Food and Consumer Products of Canada, Director of Provincial and National Affairs at the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers, and during her ten-year career with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs where she was a Regional Manager, Senior Project Coordinator and a Rural Leadership Consultant.

She holds a Master in Business Administration from Wilfrid Laurier University and received her Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of Guelph.

She has 25 years of experience in leadership and organization development for nonprofit and charities locally, provincially and nationally. Currently, she serves on the Board of Directors and is the Chair of the Governance Committee for The Global FoodBanking Network.

Katharine has received the 2009 Community Leadership Award Wilfrid Laurier MBA Alumni and was handpicked by the T.V. series Undercover Boss Canada to participate in an episode highlighting hunger in Canada and the role of food banks in local communities. She regularly attends local, provincial and national events where she shares her experience and expertise in the fields of poverty, food security and the nonprofit sector. Under her leadership, Food Banks Canada was the recipient of the 2017 Google.org Impact Challenge People’s Choice Award.

Katharine replaces Andrea Cohen Barrack who was the CEO of the Foundation since 2012 and led OTF through the implementation of the new outcomes-based Investment Strategy.

OTF is committed to focusing on creating measurable, positive impact in Ontario communities. As the new CEO, Katharine brings strategic leadership and government experience to the Foundation’s position as a leader in evidence-based, fair and accountable grant making practices. She is excited to join OTF and is just as comfortable growing food in a garden as she is providing food for thought in a boardroom.

 

QUICK FACTS:

• The Chief Executive Officer is appointed by the Board of Directors.
• OTF started the recruitment process for a new CEO in the Spring of 2017 after Andrea Cohen Barrack was appointed Vice President, Community Relations at TD Bank.
• Katharine Bambrick (Schmidt) will begin as CEO September 11, 2017.
• OTF is an agency of the Government of Ontario and one of Canada’s largest granting foundations.

 

QUOTES:

“After a rigorous recruitment process, and seeing many high-quality candidates, I’m glad to announce that Katharine Bambrick (Schmidt) will join the Foundation as our new CEO this September. She brings a wealth of experience from the nonprofit sector and with the Ontario government. All of her previous work has helped build healthy and vibrant Ontario communities, and the Foundation is excited to see how she will continue that work through improving our grantmaking practices.”

- Tim Jackson, Board Chair, Ontario Trillium Foundation
 

“It’s an honour to join an organization that is considered a changemaker with a long history of leading the way in improving grantmaking in Canada. I’m looking forward to learning and sharing more about the Ontario Trillium Foundation’s outcomes-based granting, measurement, evaluation and outstanding customer service. This position provides a lot of opportunity to continue in that tradition of excellence, and I will make it my mission to help the Foundation improve the public benefit sector and ensure we build healthy and vibrant communities in Ontario.”

- Katharine Bambrick (Schmidt), CEO (as of September 11, 2017), Ontario Trillium Foundation