About the Tula Foundation
The Tula Foundation is a family foundation formed in 2001 and having its headquarters at Heriot Bay on Quadra Island in the province of British Columbia on the Pacific west coast of Canada.
Heriot Bay, Quadra Island
Biography and Background from Eric Peterson, Founder & President
People are rightly concerned about the background, motivation and financing of any organization that is active in the public arena, so in the interest of transparency:
I was born in Port Alberni on the west coast of Vancouver Island and grew up on the Saanich Peninsula on southern Vancouver Island. My family has roots in British Columbia that go back to the 1880’s. I attended local schools, the University of Victoria, the University of British Columbia and the University of Sussex in the UK, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University for two years, all in various branches of biology with mathematics mixed in. I was a faculty member and researcher at McGill University in Montreal for several years before leaving to pursue a career in technology, mostly based in Waterloo, Ontario. Most notably, in 1990 I founded Mitra, a company that developed software and systems for managing diagnostic images and other clinical information in hospitals and health networks. In 2001 I sold my interest in Mitra (which became part of Agfa HealthCare) and used part of the proceeds to create the Tula Foundation in partnership with my wife Christina Munck. We moved back to British Columbia and now divide our time between Quadra Island at the north end of the Strait of Georgia and Calvert Island on the Central Coast.
Via the Tula Foundation we sponsor activities that we believe to be in the public interest, and where our experience, resources and network of contacts gives us an edge. Tula has become a full-time, hands-on, volunteer mission for both of us. Our areas of activity are as follows:
- Health care in remote communities
- Education (with an emphasis on science and technology)
- Protecting the environment
- Social justice
We have narrowed our focus to two regions:
- The northern highlands of Guatemala (via our TulaSalud program)
- The British Columbia Central Coast (via our Hakai program)
Both of these regions are characterized by:
- Profound challenges of transportation, isolation and lack of services
- Traditional territories of indigenous peoples
- Tension between the environment, culture and economic development
- Long history of conflict, discrimination and social injustice
In both areas we seek out the same partners:
- Local community leaders
- Local technical experts
- Educational institutions that serve the region
- Progressive elements within government agencies
Christina Munck and I are the sole funders of the Tula Foundation. Moreover, we regularly supplement Tula-led projects with additional funding from our personal resources, particularly in circumstances where Tula itself is barred by statute from funding. For example, as a private foundation Tula cannot operate a business or run an operating charity, and can fund only registered Canadian charities. Whether we fund personally or via the Tula Foundation, our motivation is always the same. Taking these two channels into account, since the inception of the Tula Foundation we have spent an aggregate of approximately $80 million on programs and other donations.
Two organizations effectively act as agents of the Tula Foundation. Both administer programs that were originally managed inside the Tula Foundation:
TulaSalud is a non-profit organization, registered in Guatemala, that administers programs in nursing education and primary health care in rural remote indigenous regions of that country.
The Hakai Institute administers a variety of programs on the BC Central Coast. Christina Munck and I manage this initiative directly.
Please note that the Tula Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals.
Contact me at the Tula Foundation via email (eric at tula.org), or by surface mail at:
Tula Foundation
P.O. Box 309
Heriot Bay
British Columbia
Canada
V0P 1H0