Patti Pon
Patti is a passionate and visionary champion for her community with a deep belief in the power and potential that creativity and innovation bring to cities and communities. She has a reputation as a strong, collaborative leader who possesses extraordinary community engagement skills and is highly regarded by those in the arts and entertainment industry, the not-for-profit sector and city-building agencies. One of her greatest honours was to be gifted the Blackfoot name Miss’tommohtsaamiaakii – Two Standing Headdress Woman in the Fall of 2021.
Patti is a veteran community and arts champion with an extensive track record of leadership and service in Calgary and beyond. She has deep and diverse experience in the arts sector, having served in senior leadership positions at the EPCOR CENTRE for the Performing Arts (now Werklund Centre), Alberta Performing Arts Stabilization Fund and Alberta Theatre Projects, among others. She has been President & CEO of Calgary Arts Development since 2013 and led the organization through the process of tripling its budget in 2019.
In the community, Patti has served as a board member for many organizations. She currently chairs the board of the Toronto-based Agora Foundation, publisher of the online journal The Philanthropist. Patti was the first person of colour to be elected to the Calgary Stampede board, a position she held from 2021 to 2024, and in 2020 she completed her full nine-year term on the board of Calgary Foundation. Patti is a founding board member of the Asian Heritage Foundation (Southern Alberta), served on the steering committee for imagineCalgary and is a past board chair of Canada’s oldest public radio station, CKUA Radio Network. She also served as a board member for the Calgary Bid Exploration Committee and related entities who explored the potential for Calgary to submit a bid for the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.
From March to June, 2025, Patti was the inaugural policy fellow at the Cultural Policy Hub at OCAD University. Also, in 2025 she was appointed to the boards of the National Theatre School and the Inspirit Foundation.
Patti has been awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal, the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and was the 2013 Harry and Martha Cohen Award recipient, recognizing significant contribution to Calgary’s theatre community. In 2025, she received an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Mount Royal University in recognition of her community service and work in the arts.
