Gil Namur – President / CEO 
Gil has thirty three years experience in sales, marketing and management in the consumer electronics, software and computer hardware industries. He has owned and operated five successful businesses in the Victoria BC area, was the sales manager for Western Canada for DEC’s PC Business Unit and has held VP Sales and Marketing roles at DSG Communications and Victoria-based Tactex Controls Inc.
Involved in internet-based initiatives since 1996, Gil continues to develop web properties through his business Synaptic Systems Inc. He also provides consulting services to companies in the areas of management, sales, marketing, web development and product development strategies.
Vivian Pura – VP Administration and Human Resources
Vivian joined Abebooks.com while still in its infancy; assisting in the overall management of the company, running the Finance department in the earlier years and later becoming the VP of Human Resources. Previously Vivian worked for a number of years as a consultant, writing technical documentation to a variety of audiences. Vivian graduated with Master of Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of Manitoba.
Dan L. Hays – Director Of Public Relations
Dan has a Marketing Degree, an MBA, and 30 years experience in the in the oil and gas and real estate title insurance industries. He has worked on projects ranging from oil rights acquisition teams to managing a large computer database network.
Dan has published a book which received a positive review by the New York Journal of Books. He has published numerous articles, regularly writes for his own blog and provides guest posts for other sites. He is a co-host of the radio show Dialogues With Dignity, and offers the inspirational messages Minute to Freedom.
If you are a publisher or publicist who would like to explore opportunities with Life As A Human, please contact Dan, he’d love to hear from you.
Lochinvar Roome – Software Development Manager
Lochinvar is a computer scientist and software engineer. A technical architect with a wealth of experience in systems architecture, Lochinvar has repeatedly proven his worth for numerous private and public sector clients in application development, web development, documentation, project management, business analysis, process development and much more. He is proficient in multiple programming languages, code optimization as well as systems and database design. Lochinvar holds a B.Sc., Computer Science, with Co-op and Software Engineering from the University of Victoria.
Will Winter – Photo Site Editor
Will Winter is a passionate documentary photographer/photojournalist based in Victoria, BC.
Deciding to put his talents to a better use, Will has dedicated his life to using photography to create a positive impact on this world. It is Will’s hope that his photos will help to open people’s eyes, not only to the problems, but also the triumphs of this world.
As both an artist and a photojournalist, it is Will’s goal to create images that are both aesthetically and emotionally moving, with the hopes of compelling not sympathy, but action.
As the Photo Site Editor, it is Will’s goal to further explore and create dialogue about “Life As A Human”.
Will is also pursuing work locally with non-profit groups as well as overseas within the NGO community. If you are aware of any opportunities, please get in touch with him here.
Christine Shaw Roome – Associate Editor
Born on Alberta soil, Christine made her way to British Columbia to attend the University of Victoria 20 years ago and has not looked back. Why? Because the government of British Columbia truly got their rhetoric right when they said BC is “The Best Place on Earth”.
Christine dreams up story ideas and marinates them with her Master’s Degree in History. One day, these ideas will come to fruition when she has more than five-minute intervals in which to write. She writes and edits in the mean early hours of morning, during children’s naps, on coffee and lunch breaks, as she’s falling asleep in the evenings, and in any other nook and cranny of time and space that she can carve out.
Christine reigns as queen over her household of boys which includes her husband, Loch, her five-year-old, Corbin, and her nearly three-year-old son, Hamish. She works as a professional fundraiser for the University of Victoria and spends her free time working as writer and assistant editor for Life As A Human.
Sarah Gignac - Associate Editor
Having a hard time deciding what to be when she grows up, Sarah has worked in a variety of different fields. She has dabbled in theatre, customer support, e-commerce, and of course the old standbys of waiting tables and making coffee.
She has worked as a freelance writer for several years, and has experience editing works ranging from medical texts, academic papers, novels, memoirs and comic books.
In June 2009, Sarah began her blog Raggedy Threads to chronicle her move from the rat race into a lazy life of travel and self discovery. She is currently living, writing, and teaching yoga in Halifax, NS.
Tess Wixted – Associate Editor
Tess Wixted has worked in a kaleidoscopic landscape of professions including travel, retail sales, advertising, the film industry, building management, environmental law, hospitality and education. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration/Marketing and has been writing something or other for most of her life.
In addition to being a Regular Author and Associate Editor for Life As A Human, Tess has written screenplays, articles, short stories, a bit of a novel, some hints of a play and the promising start of a memoir. She practices meditation, yoga and dance, adores lattes of many persuasions, seeks out fine fiction, small films and full refrigerators. She’s a cat wrangler and a bit of a nibbana hound. Find out more about her at her blog, Suhurat . . . Day’s End
Bennett R. Coles – Associate Editor
Bennett R. Coles is a professional author and publisher with nearly thirty years of experience in writing, editing and, more recently, wrestling with the publishing industry. He published his first fiction novel, Virtues of War, in 2010 and has over the past two years made it his mission to educate new authors on the realities of modern publishing.
With a background in both local and international business development, Coles teaches authors about the business side of writing, and has helped many West Coast authors prepare their works for publication. He makes his home in Victoria, B.C. and works throughout the Pacific Rim region. Bennett is also a Regular Author for Life As A Human.
Ross Lonergan – Associate Editor
Ross’s background is a mosaic of endeavours and of both fleeting and enduring interests, including two degrees in Chinese language and literature, stints as telephone operator and first-level manager at BC Tel (now Telus), two years living illegally in Hong Kong, many years in ESL and international education, as teacher, head teacher, and principal in small for-profit institutions, and ten years as part-time instructor in Chinese history and culture at Langara College in Vancouver.
He loves classical music, opera, and jazz, great works of fiction and non-fiction, cooking, baseball, and most of all writing, a passion he discovered late in life. He is also stumbling joyfully through a spiritual journey, begun at age 55; the current resting place on the journey is the Anglican Church.
Ross is a professional editor, working primarily with students on term papers, final projects, and theses and dissertations. He has also edited a book: Frog or Prince: The Smart Girl’s Guide to Boyfriends, by Kaycee Jane. Ross is also a Regular Author for Life As A Human.
Advisory Board
Rick Pura – Technical Adviser
Rick co-founded Abebooks.com, the world’s largest marketplace for new, used, out-of-print, and antiquarian books, boasting an inventory of over 100 million books and over 13,000 booksellers. Previously he had concentrated on using the power of distributed communications to effect business solutions serving small and medium sized business. Within 6 months of launch, BC Online, his initial effort, grew to be the largest civic network in the world. Rick’s combined technical and business skills enable him to envision and create easy to use, streamlined solutions to business problems. Rick graduated Honors Computer Science from the University of Manitoba.
Chris Holt – Communications Adviser
Chris Holt has ten years of technology research, development and sales in the public, private and community sectors. Chris co-founded LogicLynx Technologies Inc. to bring best-in-class electronic case management and public health IT solutions to government and NGO organizations. Chris led a team of business analysts and programmers to develop SectorLynx, an enterprise framework for the rapid application development of case management systems for government human and health services departments. As well, Chris developed the first fully configurable Case Management ASP Service for Community Based Human Services Providers.
Kerry Slavens – Branding Adviser
Kerry Slavens served as Life As a Human’s editor in chief since July 2009 before before accepting the position in Fall 2011 as editor of YAM (You and Me :: Living Smart), Victoria’s lifestyle magazine. Her former creative agency created the logo and branding for Life As a Human. Kerry also worked with LAAH’s president and team to define the direction of LAAH and recruit more than 80 international writers.
Kerry is an experienced brand strategist and a well-published writer whose genres include fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. For 15 years, Kerry served as creative director of Artemis, an international award winning PR and design studio. She graduated with a BA in Writing from the University of Victoria and went on to teach creative non-fiction, journalism and creative writing. She has been a feature writer and editor of numerous publications and has ghostwritten several books for CEOs and inspirational speakers.
Follow Kerry on LinkedIn
Breen Liblong – Technical Adviser
Breen Liblong has more than 20 years of advanced technology and executive management experience in the creation of Internet search and enterprise product technologies. Most recently, in a consulting role as VP Product Development for Wurldtech Security Technologies Inc., Breen developed the product strategy, plans and roadmaps for the Achilles Satellite Security Analysis Platform and Achilles Delphi Security Vulnerability Database, and built out the development team and processes for sustainable delivery of quality products. Prior to Verano, Breen served as Director of both Desktop and Specialty Searches at AltaVista Company, a world leader in search technology. Breen holds B.Sc. (Dist.) and M.Sc. degrees in Computer Science from the University of Calgary.
