“The toughest mimes on the planet”... a still from the movie Kayfabe where Pete Smith (L ) reminisces with his promotor, actor Mike Roselli about past tag-team gimmicks. Shown here as “The Silent Assassins.”

Iconic Filmmaker Allan King (DFA’04), known for cutting-edge nonfiction films, including A Married Couple and Dying at Grace, has died at 79. He won a grand prix at the Paris International Film Festival in 1976 for his first dramatic feature, Who Has Seen the Wind?

Top Guy Outstanding Alumni Award winner Chris Spence (BA’85) is the new head of Canada’s largest school district. The former B.C. Lions player is the director of the Toronto School District; he also has two books (Skin I’m In: Racism, Sports and Education and On Time! On Task! On a Mission!) and five films to his credit.

Academics Advance David Ross (MAQ’95) is installed as the second president of Langara College by Martin Gerson (MSc’71, PhD’75), dean of instruction. Ross was previously vice-president of administration and student services at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Andrea Soberg (BA’80) is the new dean of business at Trinity Western University.

Off to the Soccer Big Time Craig Dalrymple (BSc’97), former Clan and 86ers soccer star, takes up a new appointment with Portsmouth F.C. of the English Premier League, current holders of the FA Cup. He will work with the club’s youth academy training and inspiring youth on an international scale. Dalrymple was most recently technical director for the Surrey United Soccer Club.

TV Stars Enuka Okuma (BFA’96) plays girlfriend-turned-double-agent Marika Donoso in the hit TV show 24. Okuma first came to our attention in the Gemini Award–winning series Madison. Sanjay Madhav (BGS’98) is starting to be typecast as a doctor. He’s played the role on TV in General Hospital and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, as well as in the film White Knuckles.

Bangkok’s Renaissance Man Farn Sritrairatana (BGS’94) is busy. He is executive director of his family’s Chao Phraya Express Boat Company in Thailand, is building a School of Art in Hua Hin in cooperation with Mahidol University, owns Bangkok restaurant Old Phra Arthit Pier, and is an expert practitioner and teacher of a little-known form of martial arts called “wing chun.”

Alan Bevan BA’99
Alan Bevan (BA’99) wins one of the highest awards in the bagpipe world – the master’s invitational solo crown. He and fellow piper Jori Chisholm were two of only eight pipers from around the world invited to compete. Bevan and Chisholm are part of the award-winning Simon Fraser University Pipe Band (see story)

On the Front Lines I Graham Muir (MA’82) is the first Canadian police commander in Afghanistan. He will be stationed at the Canadian embassy in Kabul and will provide technical expertise and advice to Canada’s ambassador on the reform of the Afghan National Police. Muir, an assistant commissioner of the RCMP, was previously director general of the force’s strategic policy and planning directorate in Ottawa.

Worried About the Flu? Do we have a web site for you! Prolific blogger Crawford Kilian (MA’72) is monitoring the worrisome flu at http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1. H5N1 is the official name of the avian flu, but these days many entries concern H1N1, the swine flu. The retired Capilano University instructor maintains 16 blogs, and his latest book, Sell Your Non-Fiction Book, came out from Self-Counsel Press in October.

Inspirational Daniel Igali (BA’01) receives a Future Aces Foundation award from the Carnegie Foundation for being an inspiration. While he continues to work on his master’s thesis on the Niger Delta political struggle, Igali’s main focus is on raising money for his school in Nigeria. The first Daniel Igali Foundation Run 4 the Kids was held at Surrey’s Bear Creek Park in October.

On the Front Lines II Former Vancouver police officer Walter McKay (MAL’98) is fighting police corruption in Mexico. He is project director for the Instituto para la Seguridad y la Democracia, a non-profit, non-governmental agency that works to strengthen and support the Mexican police.

Green Roof The six-acre living roof on Vancouver’s new Convention Centre has an SFU component. Reece Rehm (CLA’02) of Holland Landscapers supervised the project and hired as many SFU and other students as possible to prepare and plant Canada’s largest living roof.

Fired A new web site, FiredWithoutCause.com, is launched to help individuals get what they are entitled to from their employers when they have been fired or laid off. Its creators are lawyer Chilwin Cheng (MBA’08) and e-commerce expert Jim Hamlin (MBA’08), both of Paradigm Shift Solutions, Inc., who met while doing their MBAs and who share a dream of harnessing the web to change industry. aq

Photograph of Kayfabe; Moni El-Batrik, Alan Bevan; Dale Northey/LIDC

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