Please spend a few moments getting to know me and what I have accomplished. You’ll see that I have a blend of experience in elected office, community service, work and schooling that uniquely qualifies me to be your next mayor. You’ll also meet several generations of my family, including some of the earliest settlers of our community….
I have deep roots in this community
Have you ever wondered where a lot of City street names came from? Some of my distant relatives owned Lonsdale Estates, a developer that set up in North Vancouver in the late 1800s. In addition to Lonsdale and Heywood, streets such as Cloverley, Calverhall, Shavington, Pemberton and Fell are names in the family or places near Liverpool in the UK where my family is from.
The first of my branch of the Heywood family immigrated to Canada in the 1920s and my father was the first Heywood to return to North Vancouver. I’ve lived in North Vancouver since 1970. I left after high school to go to university but returned soon after to raise my own family and have lived here ever since.
Elected Office & Community Service
I was elected as a Trustee and Chair of the North Vancouver School District for three terms that ended in 2001. I was elected to North Vancouver City Council in 2008 and again in 2011. I didn’t run for re-election in 2014.
Inbetween my time on School Board and City Council, I served on the North Vancouver Recreation Commission, which provides recreation programming and manages all of the community recreation facilities located in the City and District.
I’ve also been involved in a wide range of non-profit community organizations. I was an early volunteer and director at the Greater Vancouver Food Bank. I’ve been on the boards of the North Vancouver Chamber of Commerce, the North Vancouver Arts Council and North Shore Neighbourhood House, where I have volunteered to prepare tax returns for low-income residents for the past three years.
In 2018 I was humbled to receive one of 20 Canada 150 Community Recognition Awards presented to North Shore residents recognized for their “significant and sustained dedication to making North Vancouver a better place to live.”
Work
My experience in business prepares me well to be the mayor of the City of North Vancouver. An understanding of banking, accounting and capital markets will be essential to get a fair deal for the City’s taxpayers.
I have been employed by Canada’s major banks in management, currency trading and corporate lending. I was VP Finance and Treasurer of a large public company and later a shareholder in a renewable energy startup venture.
Before I returned to school to obtain my MBA, I was employed by the BC Resources Investment Corporation, the provincial government’s initiative to privatize several Crown assets. The company is affectionately remembered as “BCRIC,” pronounced “brick.”
I now work as a consultant to companies needing help with their banking and financing requirements.
Education
After attending Sutherland (then a junior secondary) and graduating from Argyle Secondary (1976) I studied at UBC for two years and then completed a Bachelors in Political Studies at Queen’s University in Ontario. After working for several years I went back to get a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from the Sauder School of Business at UBC. Later in my career, I earned my Certified General Accountant (CGA) designation, which is now known as a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA.)
Family
I raised two sons and a stepdaughter here in North Vancouver. My wife and I live near Grand Boulevard with Tula the dog and Taz the cat.
My father, former Councillor Bob Heywood, was CO of the North Van RCMP detachment and well known in the community for his work with the North Vancouver Museum and Archives. His wife Peggy volunteered for the North Vancouver Community Arts Council and is a successful artist (margaretheywood.ca). They lived on Victoria Park for over twenty years before moving to Penticton earlier this year.
My remaining family in North Vancouver is my brother Greg and his wife Vesta. They raised three daughters here and show no signs of moving in the near future.