Tash Taylor of St. Albert, Alta. has been appointed chair of the Board of Governors of the Alberta Real Estate Foundation. She has served on the Board of Governors since 2016 as a public member appointment.
Taylor says the foundation plays an important role in strengthening the real estate industry to the benefit of Alberta communities and consumers. “I’m a people-person by nature and intuitively want to collaborate,” she says. “I look forward to working with our real estate stakeholders and partners who are key in AREF’s ability to achieve our strategic goals.”
Taylor’s priority as chair will be strengthening relationships and broadening the foundation’s reach to help more communities through AREF’s community investment program, she says. “With the current economic picture in Alberta, AREF is in a prime position to act as a catalyst in building capacity and assisting organizations in unique ways other funders may not be able to.” She also says she intends to explore more formal impact investing opportunities, where funds are invested to generate a measurable social or environmental impact alongside a financial return. “Along with other foundations, AREF has been a positive Alberta example with impact investing, and I want this continue,” Taylor says.
Her career spans multiple sectors including working in Canada’s largest school divisions and serving in senior positions in the post-secondary sector, the St. Albert Housing Society, Alzheimer’s Society of Alberta and NWT, Imperial Oil and Alberta Women Entrepreneurs. She established Alberta’s first association for non-profit housing providers as well as Alberta’s YouthVOLUNTEER! Society, a charity dedicated to building youth volunteerism in collaboration with the provincial government. In 2016, her work in advancing affordable housing led to an invitation to join the Official Canadian Delegation at the UN Summit for Community Sustainability in Ecuador.
Taylor is currently a management consultant with the Alberta School Boards Association, where she provides a range of governance services to school divisions across the province. She will serve a two-year term as chair.
