Meet Our Executive Team

CAMRA Vancouver’s Executive team were elected at our January 2013 Annual General Meeting. Please check back soon for executive bios.

President: Adam Chatburn
Vice President: Brad Curran
Treasurer: Ryan Baker
Secretary: Tony Smerychynski
Membership: Brad Tollefsen
Corporate Liaison: Samantha Gough
Communications Director: Monica Frost
Events Coordinator: Amanda Barry
Education Liaison: Danny Seeton
Newsletter Editor: editor@camravancouver.ca
Creative Director & Website Editor: Sam Gilchrist

Executive Bios

Amanda Barry
She is a lover of all things local, and at the top of her list is craft beer. She had always liked the better beer on tap, but it wasn’t until 2007 that she found out what real ale really was. Now in her 4th year on the CAMRA Vancouver executive, Amanda credits 2010 for really propelling the scene in Vancouver to a new height and knows that each year will be even bigger than the last as education surrounding craft beer reaches a new height. She surrounds herself with eccentric brewers, crafty home brewers, and conscientious industry folk that enjoy promoting and supporting a common objective; bringing local, craft beer to the masses through education, awareness and changes in archaic liquor laws. If you want to chat beer with Amanda, you can find her at the Steamworks Liquor Store, where she is the Beer & Liquor Manager.

Tony Smerychynski
Member of CAMRA since way back. Enthusiastic Beer Traveller, extensive beer related travel in the Western US/Canada. Mostly a beer taster, looking into expanding into homebrewing. Prefer epic lagers, Belgian styles, natural carbonation and sweet beautiful banana notes. Professionally, a Water Treatment Plant Foreman for MetroVancouver. Outside of CAMRA, an avid Volleyball player and board gamer.

Brad Curran
In the 80′s Brad was importing beer, almost daily at times, (for his own consumption, of course,) as he found there was something better out in the real world than what was available locally.  He grew into brewing his own beer and vinting his own wine, port, sherry, champagne, including at working at WineArt, as he was able to produce better for less.  Brad interested in CAMRA started with contacting the UK, learning of the Victoria chapter, leading to the Richmond group, which was just too far to travel at the time; he finally joined CAMRA Vancouver in 2007.  These days, Brad works in technology, allowing him to travel in search of the perfect food-drink pairing presentation.  He has found over the years, there is far more interesting pairing with beer than any other drink, but he still keeps an open mind.  He strongly believes in equality, confident that in everyone needs the opportunity to prove themselves and no one should dominate… there is a place for beer and wine in the world (even though he would never admit it, he secretly knows beer is better).

Adam Chatburn
Originally from Blackburn, Lancashire this passionate Brit has been an award-winning homebrewer since the age of 15, his dream came true in 1998 when he took over as head brewer at the Blackburn Brewing Company and becoming involved with CAMRA UK. He was also a pro-wrestler for 3 years and hopes to re-enter the ring one-day. Since moving to Vancouver he has been a keen volunteer with CAMRA Vancouver and Vanbrewers. He works in Community Social Services when he isn’t drinking, brewing, volunteering or supporting the Whitecaps as a member of the Southsiders. He hopes to build relationships with groups across Cascadia, encourage CAMRA members to volunteer time and to become more politically active representing the interests of craft beer enthusiasts.

Danny Seeton
Danny has been an active member of the craft beer and homebrew community since before 2009. As a graduate student at UBC, he is passionate about education and has been a guest lecturer at UBC for the past 4 years, teaching students about beer within the context of sustainability. He is also very active in the beer judging community; as a National Rank BJCP judge he is currently in charge of administering exams and evaluating new judges. Managing the Parallel 49 Brewing Company quality assurance lab, his technical understanding of beer is ever growing. He is eager to increase the educational profile of CAMRA Vancouver and to help spread brewing knowledge to all that share his passion.

Brad Tollefsen
Brad dove head first into the craft beer industry in 2010 when he signed on to be the marketing intern for Vancouver Craft Beer Week.  Since then he has been actively volunteering at CAMRA events talking to strangers about beer, home brewing, spreading the word on quality craft brew and occasionally things that aren’t even related to beer.   He hopes to use these passions and his marketing background to help grow CAMRA Vancouver’s membership to over 1,000 in 2013.

Sammie Gough
Had always enjoyed a good micro brew, but upon moving from Australia to BC four years ago discovered the amazing beers coming out of the Pacific Northwest and has never looked back. She recently moved to the big smoke from Victoria (BC) where she has been a CAMRA member for several years, most recently serving on the executive as communications spokesperson. She’s excited to continue CAMRA’s role of connecting craft beer organisations and businesses with consumers.

More bios coming soon.