CNAM is pleased to share the candidate profiles for our two 2023-2024 Vice-Chair candidates. The Vice-Chair election will be taking place March 20th – April 3rd 2023 when all eligible CNAM members will have the opportunity to cast their vote for CNAM’s next Vice Chair who will serve a three-year rotating term on the CNAM Board of Directors.
- Vice-Chair: 2023-2024
- Chair: 2024-2025
- Past-Chair: 2025-2026
Darla Campbell
The future of CNAM is bright. As chair of the Membership Committee, we are looking for more ways to serve our members, and in time, we imagine a future where CNAM serves over 1,000 members, coast to coast to coast. I see an opportunity for CNAM to further evolve into an industry association type of organization, to provide more opportunities for technical groups (specialty areas) to come together around challenges in the industry, develop programs and events to share knowledge (conferences, webinars, etc.) and to advance towards solutions to the challenges. The technical groups be engage to support the technical program at conference, both in the recruitment and selection of presentations and in the hosting of sessions at the conference.
In the role of Vice-Chair and Chair I would bring national experience to the table and be a voice for smaller municipalities. I would leverage my board experience to contribute to CNAM’s mission to advance asset management practices through leadership, connection, capacity and innovation. Collaboration is key to successfully meeting the challenges in the future. It’s only through working together that we’ll make sustainable progress on the asset management journey.
Darla Campbell is the Sustainability and Asset Management lead with Dillon Consulting Limited. Darla has served on boards, both corporate and not-for-profit, including experience with national organizations. Darla has designed and delivered asset management training in Levels of Service and Risk (AM201) and Climate Change and Asset Management (AM202) for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). As the executive director of the Ontario Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure (2012 to 2017) Darla served on the expert panel to the Ontario Ministry of Infrastructure on the development of the asset management regulation. She holds the certificate in asset management from the Institute of Asset Management.
Shekar Sharma
I am writing to state my intent for the candidacy of vice-chair role of the CNAM board of directors. I am excited about the prospect of supporting CNAM’s vision of fostering excellence in public infrastructure asset management and mission of advancing asset management practices through its strategic initiatives. The alignment of my vision and desired outcomes with CNAM’s Strategic Framework has motivated me to pursue this opportunity.
As an asset management professional, I have been focused on advancing asset management practices in municipal sector through professional engagements, as well as organizing networking opportunities, conducting education and training programs, and participating in volunteer programs.
As a vice-chair, I believe I can continue to support fostering excellence in public infrastructure asset management, from a regional level to a much larger Canada-wide impact.
My contributions and experience at regional level has included:
- Organized an ‘Asset Management Professionals Networking Event’ in Metro Vancouver, BC with a fellow CNAM member.
- Volunteer as Asset Management Chair with Green Infrastructure Leadership Exchange (GILE), furthering the understanding of asset management for green infrastructure service providers by organizing monthly asset management learning circle meetings.
- Initiated and led monthly asset management learning circle meetings within City of Vancouver to further collaboration between
asset managers from various divisions within the City. - Volunteer with CNAM’s ERT committee to support its various strategic initiatives.
I believe my passion and dedication to the field of asset management as a professional, my initiatives and efforts towards collaboration, networking and knowledge sharing, the perspectives I bring through my experiences working in public and private sector (consultant) spanning Canada, USA and India will enable me to enhance and advance CNAMs strategic initiatives.
Shekar Sharma has been supporting the development of asset management plans and strategies through deliverables including levels of service, life cycle cost analysis, risk assessment and management, O&M and capital improvement planning. He has experience working as a consultant for municipal clients in North America on a wide range of assets such as water and wastewater treatment plants, stormwater facilities, bridges, and roads. He is an IAM certified Asset Management Consultant with a Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering. After having, supported municipal organizations in Ontario comply with the requirements of O.Reg. 588/17, he now supports asset management initiatives at City of Vancouver’s Green Rainwater Infrastructure (GRI) branch.