Past Presidents' Memorial Medal - Description
The Past Presidents' Memorial Medal is presented to a member not more than 45 years of age, who, by his or her accomplishments has set an outstanding example to young members of the Institute and to young men and women contemplating a career in the minerals industry.
This Year's Winner - 2009
Eira ThomasVancouver, BC
"For her visionary leadership and phenomenal promotion of the Canadian diamond exploration sector and as an inspiring role model to young people."
Eira Thomas is the executive chairman and a director of Stornoway Diamond Corporation. She worked as a geologist with Aber Resources Ltd. (now Harry Winston Diamond Corp) from 1992 to 1997, leading the field exploration team that discovered the Diavik Diamond Project pipes in the Northwest Territories in 1994 and 1995. She was promoted to vice president exploration for Aber in 1997, a post she held for two years, and served on the Board of Directors from 1998 to 2006.
Thomas is also a director of a number of other public companies and organizations, including Suncor Energy, the Northwest Territories Chamber of Mines, the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada and the Lassonde Advisory Board of the University of Toronto. Previously, she held the positions of president of Navigator Exploration Corporation, CEO and director of Stornoway Ventures Limited, and president and CEO of Stornoway Diamond Corporation.
In 2004, Thomas was honoured as one of "Canada's Top 40 under 40" by the Caldwell Partners and the Report on Business magazine. Three years later (May 2007), she was awarded The William Harvey Gross Award, bestowed annually by the Mineral Deposits Division of the Geological Association of Canada to a geoscientist less than 40 years of age who has made a significant contribution to the field of economic geology in a Canadian context. In November 2007, she was selected as one of “Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100.”
Thomas graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Science in geology in 1990.