Join alumni and friends for the 9th Annual Acadia Alumni Gala Dinner to support Acadia students, and to honour our 2011 Distinguished Alumni Award winners Henry Demone ('76), CEO High Liner Foods Incorporated, and Joan Clark ('57) and ('99), award-winning fiction author.

Venue: The Lord Nelson Hotel
Date: Saturday, May 7, 2011
Time: 6:00 p.m. reception, 7:00 p.m. dinner, awards and entertainment
Tickets: Individuals $125, Tables of 10 $1250, Student/recent graduate $50*

To reserve your space, please click here 

*In an effort to conserve resources, this is a ticketless event. After registering online, you will receive a confirmation via email and your name will appear on the guest list at the door. 

Please contact Ryan McCarthy ('09) for more information:
Ryan.McCarthy@acadiau.ca
1-902-585-1818

 

2011 Distinguished Alumni

Henry Demone (’76)

Following his education, Henry Demone started his career in the seafood business with National Sea Products, High Liner’s predecessor company.  He worked for a Swedish company, Franz Witte AB, from 1980–84 as Managing Director of their Canadian and French subsidiaries.  After his return to National Sea Products in 1984, he was appointed as President in 1989 at a time when the company faced the challenges of heavy debts, money-losing operations and the catastrophic decline of the East Coast fishery.  During Henry’s tenure as President, the company focused on brand marketing, value-added processing and acquisitions.  High Liner Foods today is North America’s leading value-added seafood company with a track record of profitable growth and innovation.

Henry has held leadership positions in many trade associations and volunteer organizations during his career, including the Young President’s Organization, Fisheries Council of Canada, National Fisheries Institute in Washington, D.C. and Groundfish Forum, a global trade association whose members are the world’s leading seafood companies.

His interests are one-design sailboat racing, hiking, travel and fitness.  Henry lives in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia with his wife, Rena.  They have three adult children: Tiffanie, 27; Elliott, 24; and Andreas, 21.  Elliott is a B. Kin graduate from Acadia’s class of 2010 and Andreas is currently a sophomore Business student at Acadia.

Joan Clark (’57 and ’99)

Joan Clark is a novelist and short story writer who was born in Liverpool, NS and grew up in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Acadia in 1957 and then attended Edmonton’s University of Alberta, where she studied education and later spent several years teaching. She married Jack Clark, an engineer with the Royal Canadian Air Force, and went with him to Winisk, Hudson Bay, which provided inspiration for her novel, The Victory of Geraldine Gull. She lived in Alberta for two decades before moving to St. John’s, NL, where she served as president of the Writers’ Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador.

She has written numerous children’s books, short story collections and adult fiction and her work has been recognized by several literary awards: the Marian Engel Award; the Canadian Authors’ Association Award for The Victory of Geraldine Gull (1988); and for The Dream Carvers (1995), the Mr. Christie Award for best Canadian children’s book and the Geoffrey Bilson Award for historical fiction for young people. In 2010, she was made a Member of the Order of Canada.