Representative of the interests of employers

Erna Ference

Ms. Ference is the past chair of the Alberta Chicken Producers and currently sits on an agricultural safety organization board. She actively farms in the southern part of the province. Nationally, Erna has been a director with the Chicken Farmers of Canada and the Canadian Federation of Agriculture organizations.

Erna’s background includes working in the legal and oil and gas industries. She is a Chartered Professional Accountant/Certified Management Accountant and has completed the Institute of Corporate Director Program.

Philip Hughes

As a leader in Canada’s energy sector for the past 25 years, Mr. Hughes has served as president and chief executive officer of five energy companies across Canada and has extensive North American and international experience. Currently, he also serves as Chairman of Naikun Wind Energy Group Inc. and of Kineticor Resources Inc., and is on the Boards of Instream Energy Systems Corp. and Beothuk Energy.

Philip has extensive corporate, public sector and not-for-profit board and governance experience and has served on a number of corporate, community, partnership and association boards both in Canada and internationally.

Keith Serre

Mr. Serre, MSc., P.Eng., is currently the Manager of Health, Safety, Environment and Assurance (HSE&A) at CNOOC International and a registered professional engineer with the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta. His professional experience includes HSE&A and process safety engineering support for projects and operations within Canada and internationally within high-risk industries. He has a BSc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of New Brunswick and a master’s degree in Safety, Risk & Reliability Engineering from Heriot Watt University.

In addition to his work activities, Keith is active in industry health and safety groups and committees, including the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) and the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS). He is also a director for a non-profit focused on raising money for the Calgary Food Bank.