Manjit Sidhu – President

Manjit has been volunteering with non-profit organizations for over 10 years. She enjoys working with local communities and feels passionate about grass roots organizations like Virsa. Manjit started getting involved in Virsa in 2006 when seeing negative stories about our youth and wanted to be involved in a positive way. She now sits on the Board and sits on the Marketing & Communications Committee. She’s excited about the hard working volunteers, Board members and all the Virsa programs.

Manjit attended UBC and is an investment advisor at Scotia McLeod. Through her work she enjoys meeting people and hearing their success stories and working with them to enhance their investment portfolios.

She likes to unwind by globetrotting around the world. Her past adventures have included canyoneering in the jungles of Costa Rica and biking through Ireland. She’s looking forward to more adventures including kayaking, hiking the Grand Canyon and Europe.

  

Lawrence Nair – Treasurer

Lawrence Nair is a director at Virsa and serves as treasurer.  Lawrence had been looking for some time for a place where he could serve the community again. Virsa’s mission, its unique programs and its high energy team attracted him.  As Lawrence likes to say, “Virsa is truly a grassroots organization that is able to deliver amazing programs that make a difference in the lives of children and their families. Get involved!” 

 

Bobby Nijjar

Bobby lives in accordance with his personal mission statement “To live an exciting life connected to open minded individual growth.”  He has been involved with the South Asian community as an educator, medical clinician, and researcher for over a decade. Much of his work as an educator has been done through television and radio programs intended for the South Asian community. He has a PhD from the University of British Columbia specializing in Leadership and Policy Development. His area of research is related to understanding and reducing workplace alienation. When he’s not working he likes to travel and has visited 4 of the 7 wonders of the world. His other leisure pursuits include: learning new languages, learning to play the piano and learning about social justice issues.

He has been with Virsa for over 2 years and is currently the Chair of the Child and Parent Success (CAPS) program. He joined Virsa because of its positive reputation in the community, its upbeat and youthfulness and to meet other young professionals who are trying to make a constructive difference in the community. Virsa has provided him with a significant opportunity to give back to the community and make new friends.  It gives him great pleasure to see and hear about the positive impacts Virsa has had and is having among both the parent and the child groups.

 

Rita Sidhu – Secretary

Rita was born in New Westminster, B.C. but grew up on a produce and berry farm on Sumas Prairie in Abbotsford. She is the third of five children and from a young age, her parents instilled in her the importance of hard work and education.  After completing the rigorous International Baccalaureate program in high school, she was awarded scholarships to complete a year of University at Queen’s international campus in Herstmonceux Castle, England.  After this, she backpacked around Europe before returning to study at UBC in the fall. A year later Rita studied abroad again when she participated in the exchange programme at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. She returned to UBC to complete her Bachelor of Political Science with a minor in International Relations. Following this, she was selected to complete an internship in Delhi, India – sponsored by the Government of Canada.  In India she worked at marketing Canada as an international destination.

Upon her return to Canada, Rita decided to study law. After completing her law degree at UBC in 2006, she practiced criminal law in historic Gastown. More recently after being called to the Bar in 2007, Rita has been practicing injury law in the Broadway corridor of Vancouver. Presently, she is a member of the Canadian Bar Association (CBA), the Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia, and the Law Society of British Columbia. She serves on the Work-Life Balance and Equality and Diversity Committees of the CBA. In her free time, Rita enjoys travelling, spending time with family, and living a life less ordinary.

 

Amy Gill

Amy Gill joined the Virsa Board of Directors in 2007. Why is she here? Well, she’s been busy building her career in human resources management in Vancouver and was involved in other volunteer organizations but thought “I think it’s time to give a little more of something back to the community.” Amy brings us the HR perspective in our meetings, fashion advice when necessary, a lot of laughter, and is busy all over town with her pals on the Marketing & Communications Committee planning all types of fun events for people to learn more about Virsa and get involved.

Amy is a SFU Alum with an undergrad in Economics and a MBA with a focus in Human Resources Management. She works as a Consultant for Odgers Berndtson – global leaders in executive search.  When she’s not strategizing about HR, she likes to pack up her social calendar, keep active through a variety of sport, and never gets tired of going on an adventure to a new place each year. She’s travelled extensively, and hopes to continue doing this for many years to come. Amy’s philosophy when it comes down to it really is, that it’s all about being true to your heart, leaving a legacy of excellence and sincerity in all that you choose to do, and not forgetting those that have helped you along the way.

 

 

Ronu Gill

Ronu works as a counselor with the Ministry of Children and Family Development. In this role, she supports youth, families and communities to work towards constructive problem-solving and positive goal-setting skills. Ronu graduated from Simon Fraser University with a Bachelors degree in both History and Psychology and is presently pursuing her Masters of Social Work at the University of British Columbia. She is well aware of the plight and issues that currently face the South Asian population. She believes there is a strong need for positive change and growth within this community and is looking forward to being an active agent of this change in her position as a Board Member. Additionally, her specific interests lie in providing young Indo-Canadian females with resources and services that will help them manage the challenge they face as a result of being raised in the context of two cultures.

 

Perry Bahniwal

Perry is originally from Oliver, a small town in the Okanagan currently known as the “Wine Capital of Canada”.  After completing his BA in political science at the University of Victoria in 2001, he then moved to England where he studied law at the University of Southampton. While studying law, he was elected as social representative on the University of Southampton law society and had the opportunity to travel extensively throughout Europe. After graduating, Perry returned back to Canada and soon after started working with the Vancouver Canucks and General Motors Place. Under the supervision of his principle that he is currently articling with, he helped build an in-house legal department for Canucks Sports and Entertainment that caters to the needs of various departments within the company and consults with external legal counsels and the National Hockey League (NHL) on a variety of issues that arise daily in the world of sports, media and entertainment.

 He is a member of the Canucks for Kids Fund and the Law Society of British Columbia. He has been volunteering for three years with a professional youth mentorship program that is held in Scottsdale, Arizona twice a year. 

 In his spare time, he likes to travel and has a passion for photography and enjoys different culinary experiences.