John Chow’s Scouting journey began at age ten. He joined the 2nd Vancouver Scout Troop in Centre District and earned the Queen’s Scout Award at age 16. As he took on the roles of Troop Scouter and District Scoutmaster, he began to recruit his friends and colleagues to assist him in his volunteer endeavours in Vancouver.

Later in Burnaby, John led the 5th Mountain Scout Group and the 8th Northview Scout Group. At the time, the 8th Northview was a struggling group, but John’s experience in growing membership and ‘thinking big’ at the grassroots level helped turn the group around. In 1995, John became the Regional Vice-President of Membership (and later President) and assisted his Region in growing the membership by more than 30%.

As Council Commissioner, John has led the Pacific Coast Council (PCC) to membership growth of over 30% during his term and has found new ideas to encourage youth involvement. His focus on camaraderie and teamwork has restructured and united the Service Team to produce large-scale events such as the Centennial Scouter Conference in 2007. At this conference, more than 600 Scouters from Canada and representatives from around the world were in attendance.

John is the Advisor of the PCC Rover Crew. He is also the Deputy Executive Commissioner - West and member of the Scout Canada National Operational Advisory Committee. As the holder of the Silver Acorn and four Gilwell beads, John is a dedicated and accomplished leader who has attended numerous Provincial Jamborees and Canadian Jamborees, as well as the World Scout Jamboree in 1963. His enthusiasm and commitment to the Movement has inspired the Scouting community to work together to achieve our goal of educating young people and creating a better world.

Outside of Scouting, John has had an accomplished business career. After graduating from the University of British Columbia, John worked for BC Tel, ISMBC (an Information Technology company), and TELUS International (a branch of TELUS Corporation). John was a Principal and Vice-President for TELUS International in Korea, where he was also a Vice-President of TELSK (a joint venture of TELUS and a major Korean conglomerate). He has experience in executive change management consulting, sales and marketing, mergers and acquisitions, and process re-engineering.

John is married with 3 children and lives in Vancouver, BC.