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Rivette’s Shuswap roots feature big-city trips to Vernon

Vernon School District trustee candidate Mark Rivette remembers coming to Vernon for A&W burgers
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Mark Rivette

Going to Vernon to do laundry, grocery shop and grab a hamburger at A&W was a big-city outing for Mark Rivette, growing up in the 20th century in Seymour Arm on the northern part of Shuswap Lake.

Today, Rivette and his wife, Carla Phillips, make their home in Vernon where they’ve raised four boys, all in post-secondary institutions.

Rivette is running for one of the Vernon School District trustee seats.

“With your support, I can bring significant executive experience in running public sector organizations to the governing board of the Vernon School District,” said Rivette. “The most important aspect of childhood learning is to build confidence; confidence in finding their own life paths and the confidence to define their own success in adult life.

“I hope my passion for education and life-long learning encouraged my sons to enrol in post-secondary education.”

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While his father homesteaded at Seymour Arm, Rivette received his formal education in Alberta, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree, a medical laboratory technology certificate and a Masters degree in health services administration.

His career was dedicated to working in and for the public sector, specifically in education, healthcare and provincial governments. Some of the highlights of Rivette’s 40-year career include:

* Working with patients as a blood bank laboratory technologist;

* Allocating a budget of over $200M as the budget 0fficer;

* Creating business cases for new programs, examples being an AIDS clinic and an in vitro fertilization clinic;

* Providing key data inputs and ideas for the new healthcare funding formula during 1995 healthcare regionalization in Alberta;

* Becoming the president of a company that provides payroll services to over 200,000 public sector employees in Canada;

• Negotiating very large service contracts (over $750M of commercial value) and partnership agreements gaining a depth of legal contract knowledge.

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roger@vernonmorningstar.com

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