Canada’s former chief NAFTA negotiator and the operations manager for a well-known Calgaryarea ranch are the newest board members for the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency. Agriculture Minister George Groeneveld has named John Weekes and Cherie Copithorne-Barnes to ALMA’s board.
Weekes is a Toronto-born senior international trade policy advisor for Chicago-based law firm Sidley Austin LLP and is based in Geneva, where he served as Canada’s ambassador to the WTO from 1995 to 1999, chairing the WTO’s general council in 1998.
Copithorne-Barnes is the operations manager for CL Ranches, which was founded by the Copithorne family in 1887 and now includes seedstock and commercial cow-calf operations, a backgrounding lot and custom farming operation at Jumping Pound, just west of Calgary.
Copithorne-Barnes and Weekes join Joe Mackowecki, Ted Bilyea, Charlie Gracey, Kee Jim, Harry Hayakawa, Jeff Kroll and Kim McConnell on the ALMA board.
