New Interim Director

Wycliffe Canada Board Names New Director

Mar. 18/09

Don Hekman

Wycliffe Canada is in a period of transition. Current executive director,Dave Ohlson, will complete his service in November 2009.

Today Hart Wiens, chair of the board of directors, announced the unanimous decision of the board to appoint Don Hekman as interim executive director upon completion of Ohlson’s term.

Hekman will serve for a period of two years, providing quality executive leadership, while he guides “Wycliffe Canada through a period of transition as we bring our by-laws in line with current realities,” explained Wiens.

Don Hekman and his wife Martha have been members of Wycliffe internationally for 37 years and Wycliffe Canada for 21 years.

"Don brings a rich diversity of experience and talent to this position,” said Wiens.

Hekman currently serves as director of language program services for the Americas Area of SIL, Wycliffe’s partner organization dedicated to training, language research, translation and literacy.

In this position, working with the director of SIL Americas Area and a staff of about a dozen people, Hekman has built the language program services department from the ground up. He and his staff have helped implement Vision 2025, seeing Bible translation in progress for every language group that needs it by the year 2025.

In the SIL Americas Area, it is expected that by 2010 translation projects will have been started in 99 per cent of the language groups where the language is still being spoken. The only exceptions would be signed languages and other language groups that are inaccessible for language survey.

The Hekmans are able to communicate in both official languages of Canada, having lived in Québec for 15 years, where they served in a language project with one of Canada’s First Nations.

“With the support of the Wycliffe family," Wiens added, "he will seek to identify and nurture an expanding pool of leaders to ensure that Wycliffe Canada will continue to play a vital and effective role as a major partner in Vision 2025.”

Link: High-resolution photo of Don Hekman