Ian Bird

President and CEO, Community Foundations of Canada

Ian Bird joins Community Foundations of Canada with a long history of building, running and leveraging the strengths of national organizations and movements. Each phase in his career has been marked by innovative strategies that bring individuals and organizations together to achieve collective impact.  

A two-time Olympian in field hockey, Bird is a well-known champion of using sport to develop resilient and inclusive communities. Over the past ten years he was instrumental in the development of: large-scale public initiatives, including unprecedented public-private community infrastructure investments and tax reforms; new investments to support Canadian athletes and coaches; pan-Canadian sport and physical activity policy frameworks.

As the senior leader of the Sport Matters Group, Bird connected the priorities of large and small sport, community and philanthropic organizations so they could achieve more together. In leading the SMG, he fostered a culture of deep collaboration and contribution, where leadership was shared and distributed across Canada’s sport networks. 

Formerly at the helm of Coaches of Canada and currently as chair of Motivate Canada, Bird knows how to engage people in important discussions, surface their shared interests and contributions, and motivate them to create lasting change.

For his volunteer efforts alongside many other Canadian athletes and his advisory contribution to the Secretary of State (Amateur Sport), Bird was selected as the recipient of the Bruce Kidd Award as Canada’s Athlete Leader of the Year in 2003. He has been appointed to numerous boards and panels, including current roles as a director at Imagine Canada, the Public Policy Forum and Own the Podium. 

A married father of three children, Bird hails from North Vancouver, B.C and resides in Chelsea, Quebec. He is currently based in Canmore, Alberta while completing a Fellowship on Innovation with the True Sport Foundation.  

Ian’s appointment was announced in January 2011. He takes over from long-time CFC President and CEO Monica Patten on May 24, 2011. Ian will be officially introduced to the community foundation movement and community philanthropy colleagues from across Canada and around the world at CFC’s 2011 Conference in Vancouver from May 12-14.