Board Member Bios
Aboriginal land claim organizations nominate half of the board members, and the federal and territorial governments nominate the other half of the board members. The entire board nominates the Chairperson. As the federal minister responsible for the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act, the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations appoints all the members to the Review Board.

JoAnne Deneron, Chairperson
Ms. JoAnne Deneron was appointed as the Chairperson of the Review Board on March 29, 2014 and reappointed on March 29, 2017.
Originally born in the Yukon, Ms. Deneron is a member of the Tlingit First Nation. She has lived in Fort Liard for the past 40 years and is an entrepreneur operating her family's successful retail outlet and motel. A community-minded leader, she has been a public figure in Fort Liard having been elected by residents to several positions ranging from Band Councilor to Mayor. She has also served the people of the Northwest Territories in a wide range of roles focusing her efforts on improving education, employment, health and social services, transportation, economic development and the environment.
Ms. Deneron continues to live in Fort Liard where she is an avid gardener who also enjoys traditional on the land activities with her five children and six grandchildren.

Yvonne (Doolittle) Nakimayak, Board member (Sahtu nominee)
Ms. Yvonne Nakimayak was appointed to the Review Board on May 8, 2014.
Ms. Nakimayik was born in Inuvik and raised in Norman Wells. She attended Samuel Hearne High School and Arctic College in Inuvik. She believes that knowledge and skill building is a life- long commitment so she is continuously studying and learning from others.
Ms. Nakimayik began working building community capacity in the sport and recreation field in the 90's. Her leadership roles have ranged from local education authorities to national boards such as the Aboriginal Sport Circle of Canada. She started working for GNWT Department of Municipal and Community Affairs in 2001 in Inuvik and now leads the North Slave Regional Operations out of Yellowknife/ Behchoko office.
Ms. Nakimayik is a proud Sahtu Dene woman and mother of four amazing children (Alyssa, Dwight, Will and Marie). She currently resides in Yellowknife with her family. She travels home to the Sahtu throughout the year to reconnect with friends and family and for hunting and harvesting.

David Krutko, Board member (Gwich ın nominee)
The Review Board members and staff welcome Mr. David Krutko. He is a Gwich'in nominee and he was appointed on February 16, 2017. Mr. David Krutko comes to the Review Board with a wealth of knowledge and experience.
As a Member of the Legislative Assembly for the Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko was first elected in 1995 to the 13th Assembly, re-elected in 1999 to the 14th Assembly, was acclaimed to the 15th Assembly in 2003, and re-elected to the 16th Assembly in October, 2007. During his time at the Assembly, Mr. Krutko has served as: Chair and Member of a number of Standing and Special Committees; Deputy Speaker and Speaker of the Assembly; Minister responsible for the Workers Compensation Board and as the Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.
Mr Krutko has most recently (2012-2016) been a Board of Director for the Gwich'in Tribal Council and also serves currently on the Gwich'in Designated Organization. Mr. Krutko worked as a negotiator on the Dene Metis Land Claim Agreement and was a senior negotiator on the Gwich'in Comprehensive Land Agreement and the Sahtu and Metis Comprehensive Land Agreement. He continues to work on the Gwich'in Self Government. Mr. Krutko has served as the vice president of the Metis Nation of the Northwest Territories, vice president of the Mackenzie Delta Tribal Council (now known as the Gwich'in Tribal Council), councilor with the Hamlet of Fort McPherson, director of the Mackenzie Delta-Beaufort Sea Regional Planning Commission, member of the Gwich'in Land and Water Board, member of the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board, director of the Metis Development Corporation and co-chair of the Northwest Territories Tourism Training Group. Mr. Krutko also worked in the oil and gas industry in the Beaufort Sea and in Norman Wells in the 70s and 80s.
Mr. Krutko has four children: Gordie, Laura, Joanne, and Michelle and he lives in Fort McPherson.

Sunny Munroe, Board member (Federal nominee)
The Mackenzie Valley Review Board members and staff welcome Ms. Sunny Munroe back to the Review Board, who was re-appointed on January 11, 2017 for a second term.
Ms. Munroe, nominated and appointed by the federal government, brings a thorough understanding of the regulatory process from her previous three-year appointment to the Board that ended September, 2015.
She lives in Yellowknife from where she has worked and travelled extensively throughout the north for more than two decades. For her work for the Board Ms. Munroe can draw on a wide range of northern knowledge and experience. She has worked as a journalist, editor, community relations consultant, business liaison and communications manager and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications, a Certificate in Public Consultation from the International Association of Public Participation and is a member of the Editors Association of Canada.

Jim Edmondson, Board member (Federal nominee)
Jim Edmondson was appointed to the Review Board on December 14, 2017.
Jim Edmondson has lived and worked in the North since the fall of 1984, based primarily in Yellowknife but also in several other communities in Yukon, the NWT and Nunavut. He has done extensive work over the years with Aboriginal governments and organizations, with a focus on Aboriginal and treaty rights negotiations and implementation. This has involved him in many issues relating to self-government and to land and resource management and regulation. He has assisted interveners in several environmental assessments of development projects, beginning with the Norman Wells Pipeline Project and more recently with the proposed Mackenzie Gas Project. Jim was also part of the consulting team that reviewed the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Act (YESAA) regime in Yukon. He continues to live in Yellowknife and helps to tend his wife’s garden.

Ron Wallace, P.h.D, Board Member (GNWT Nominee)
The Review Board welcomes Mr. Ron Wallace as a Board Member. He was appointed to the Review Board on June 2, 2019. He is a GNWT nominee.
A graduate of the University of Waterloo and the Stanford University School of Business Executive Program, Mr. Wallace began his career in Yellowknife with Environment Canada concerned with onshore and offshore projects in the Mackenzie Delta and the Beaufort offshore region and where he also provided technical advice to the NWT Water Board and the Berger Pipeline Enquiry. He led several investigations which resulted in successful environmental prosecutions of certain mining companies in the NWT. He was subsequently based in Pond Inlet, NU with the Eastern Arctic Marine Environment Studies Program.
With extensive experience in the Siberian Arctic, in 1992 Mr. Wallace led an internationally-recognized World Bank engineering and assessment team charged with the management of the massive Kharaga Oil Pipeline spill in the Pechora Region near Usinsk, Russia work which was awarded with the 1996 Alberta Emerald Award for Environmental Excellence. He has been a technical advisor and mediator between Aboriginal bands and oil sands producers, was appointed to the Alberta Environmental Enforcement Task Force, the Northern Rivers Board and served as Vice Chairman of the Alberta Environmental Management Monitoring Board.
Mr. Wallace served as the Executive Director of the NWT Water Board (2008) and the Inuvialuit Water Board (2012) where he coordinated the licencing process for the Inuvik – Tuktoyaktuk Highway Project. In 2013 was appointed as Permanent Member to the National Energy Board (NEB).
He is extensively published in scientific and public policy journals and is currently a Fellow of the School of Public Policy and the Canadian Global Affairs Institute at the University of Calgary and serves as a Board Member at the Canada West Foundation.
His twin boys were born in Yellowknife and he currently resides in Calgary with wife, sons and grandkids.