May 25, 2023

Jennifer Jones Joins Fighting Blindness Canada as New President and CEO

Tara James, Chair of the Board of Directors of Fighting Blindness Canada, is delighted to announce the appointment of Jennifer Jones as the new President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) effective May 23, 2023.

A visionary, strategic, and empathetic leader, Jennifer has devoted over 20 years to social impact, advocacy, and fundraising across the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors.

Most recently, Jennifer was the highly regarded President of the Toronto Public Library (TPL) Foundation where she helped transform the 20-year-old charity through the redevelopment of its strategic and operational plans. She proudly led the team to achieve significant revenue growth through corporate, individual, legacy, endowment and major gifts, as well as key events such as founding TPL Foundation’s annual gala, Biblio Bash.

Previously at Indigo, Jennifer built and scaled up the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation, by winning the hearts and minds of Indigo staff, customers, partners, and vendors. At CIBC, Jennifer managed CIBC’s Run for the Cure peer-to-peer fundraising and volunteers nationwide in support of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. Jennifer received her MBA from The Ivey Business School at University of Western, Ontario.

“We are thrilled Jennifer is joining Fighting Blindness Canada. She will bring fresh energy, perspective, and leadership to our mission and work,” said Tara James, Board Chair. “She has a proven track record of driving sustainable growth and making a difference in the not-for-profit sector. Her timing to join the organization is perfect. Fighting Blindness Canada is about to celebrate our 50-year anniversary of funding critical vision research. After five decades of raising over $40 million towards sight-saving research, we see the positive impact that investment is having and how transformative it is to the lives of those in the vision loss community.”

Thank you to our past President and CEO, Doug Earle who left the organization in 2023 after 4 years of dedicated service. Doug led the organization through the challenging years of the COVID-19 pandemic, while advocating for improved eye health care and access to Canada’s first gene therapy for an eye disease (Luxturna™). We wish Doug all the very best on his new journey.

As new President and CEO, Jennifer will be able to leverage her vision, strategic mindset, engaging leadership style, and passion for our mission – to advance vision research. Jennifer is well-placed to bring the organization forward in this next phase of our growth and impact – toward an even brighter future.

In addition to her professional commitment to the social impact sector, Jennifer remains the Vice Chair of PACE Independent Living Board of Directors, an organization dedicated to providing people with disabilities with the support to live with dignity and independence.

“I am thrilled to join Fighting Blindness Canada,” said Jennifer Jones. “It’s deeply rewarding to be part of an organization with a rich history of research, education, and expertise for a cause that is near and dear to my heart and to so many Canadians. I am very excited to bring my years of leadership experience and my passion to this role.”