Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters Welcomes Three New Board Members

TORONTO, ON, Dec. 18, 2020 – Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME) is happy to announce the nomination of Joanna Boshouwers, Gurcan Kocdag, and Lori Shalhoub to its national board of directors.

 

As a senior executive at MDA, Joanna Boshouwers has over twenty-five years of experience in complex program and business management. With 35 years of experience in the space industry, Ms. Boshouwers joined MDA (then SPAR Aerospace) in 1985 as an engineer. She joined the management team in 1997. Ms. Boshouwers has held several positions with increasing responsibilities: Program Manager, Director of Business Development, Director of Program Management, Vice President & General Manager for the Satellite Systems Division of MDA Corporation, and Chief Operations Officer for all of MDA. She is currently back in charge of the Satellite Systems Division. In her many years with the company, she has worked in virtually every area of the business and has acquired a broad view of the workings of a high-tech company with complex manufacturing activities and significant exports.
 

 

Gurcan is an industrial engineer with over forty years of manufacturing, business development and consulting experience. Gurcan graduated from Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey in 1979 and has been working around the globe in different management and consulting capacities ever since. Currently Gurcan is the SVP, Manufacturing & Supply for Ag Growth International (AGI) a global company that manufactures equipment for agriculture and food infrastructure business around the world. His corporate responsibilities include Manufacturing Operations & Technology, Supply Chain Management, Lean Enterprise Operations, Safety & Environmental Strategy and Capital Investments in Canada, United States, Brazil, Italy, India, and South Africa. Prior to his current responsibilities, Gurcan was VP, Storage & Conditioning for AGI with business units in Canada, US, Italy and Finland.
 

 

Lori Shalhoub joined FCA Canada Inc., formerly Chrysler Canada Inc., in 1997 as Staff Counsel, before becoming Assistant General Counsel and Assistant Secretary in 1999, and then Director – External Affairs and Public Policy in 2002. She was appointed Vice President, General Counsel / External Affairs and Secretary in April 2007. In this position, Ms. Shalhoub is responsible for all the company’s legal activities as well as those of its subsidiaries. In addition to her legal activities, she has oversight responsibility for all External Affairs activities in Canada. She is a member of the Ontario Bar Association, State Bar of Michigan, Law Society of Upper Canada, Essex Law Association and the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association. In 2010, she was recipient of the prestigious ZSA General Counsel of the Year award. In 2015 she was a Windsor Chamber of Commerce finalist for Professional of the Year.
 

“Adding Mr. Kocdag’s, Ms. Boshouwers’s, and Ms. Shalhoub’s vast experience and skills to CME’s board is certainly a benefit for our members as we emerge from the period of great uncertainty for business linked to the COVID-19 crisis. We are especially delighted to see two talented women join us at a time when manufacturing companies need to find workers with the skills the sector must have to compete domestically and abroad. We are committed to encouraging more women to choose manufacturing careers, and to take on advanced technology and complex management challenges in front of us”, underlines Dennis Darby, President and CEO of CME.

About Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters

Since 1871, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters has been helping manufacturers grow at home and, compete around the world. Our focus is to ensure manufacturers are recognized as engines for growth in the economy, with Canada acknowledged as both a global leader and innovator in advanced manufacturing and a global leader in exporting. CME is a member-driven association that directly represents more than 2,500 leading companies who account for an estimated 82 per cent of manufacturing output and 90 per cent of Canada’s exports.

For more information

Ady Stefan Calin
Manager, Communications & Branding
Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters
(514) 293-3765
ady.calin@cme-mec.ca