Our Team
Meet the Team
Our team consists of John Moonen, Kirk Miller and Stephen Bruyneel, all with unique skills and experience. Between us we have over 5 decades working within government, 5 decades of lobbying experience and 5 decades in the party political process. We’re available to help at any stage of your lobbying process: determining your government relations needs/objectives, identifying the relevant decision-makers (and those who influence them), crafting effective messages, delivering those messages and securing the government decisions you need.
John Moonen
John is one of the most experienced lobbyists in British Columbia.
Between 1981 and 2001 he worked as a lawyer and civil servant for the Government of British Columbia, a lobbyist in the Jim Pattison Group and a partner in western Canada’s largest lobbying firm. In 2001 he founded John Moonen & Associates Ltd. His clients have included many of BC’s largest and most successful firms. He has also advised large and small industry and professional associations, not-for-profit organizations, private individuals and governments.
For over 30 years John has also been a political strategist and campaigner for a wide variety of political organizations and politicians. These have included BC MLAs, MPs, Cabinet ministers and candidates; federal, provincial & municipal political parties; and local government mayors and councillors. He has worked on over 50 election campaigns – federal, provincial and municipal – since 1979.
Throughout his career John has also served on the boards of community groups, educational bodies and business associations. He has been a keynote speaker and contributing writer on such topics as political organization and lobbying. John is one of the only full-time lobbyists in BC who has also practiced law in both the public and private sectors. This has given him a unique perspective on the legal environments in which JMA’s clients operate.
John earned his Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of British Columbia and his Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Victoria. He also studied at the Université de Paris where he earned his Certificat de Langue.
Kirk Miller
Kirk Miller is the former Chair and General Manager of BC’s Agricultural Land Commission and the Forest Land Commission. He worked for the provincial government for over 25 years and joined JMA in 2006.
Kirk enjoys excellent contacts at the senior levels of the BC civil service, municipal governments around the province, federal and provincial elected officials, the land development sector and the agriculture/food industry. During his tenure with government he chaired the government/industry committee which wrote BC’s private land forest practice regulations. He also helped to develop provincial legislation related to the Agricultural Land Reserve, farming and land use. He has worked with government and industry to resolve several major land and resource issues. Including those involving gravel extraction, resource taxation and aboriginal land claims. Kirk was also the ALC liaison to the BC Federation of Agriculture and the BC Agriculture Council.
As a testament to his ability to work with politicians of all parties Kirk was appointed General Manager of the Agricultural Land Commission by the Social Credit government; Chair & CEO by the NDP; and Chair by the BCLiberals. Kirk has worked closely with scores of mayors and councillors, MLAs, ministers, federal, provincial and municipal bureaucrats in BC and across Canada.
Kirk has also been active in a variety of community, political and charitable bodies, including the Burnaby Association for Community Living, Vancouver’s Health Initiative for Men, several political parties and more.
Stephen Bruyneel
Stephen has over 30 years of senior executive experience in the private, public and government sectors. His clients and employers span many industries, including provincial Crown corporations and agencies, resource and energy companies, the transportation and infrastructure industry, the clean tech sector, progressive real estate developers, not-for-profit groups and First Nations.
Stephen has developed and led the communications and public affairs function at some of BC’s leading companies, including BC Hydro and Power Authority, the Corix Group and Couverdon, the real estate business of TimberWest Forest Corp. During this time he gained a reputation as an industry leader in strategic communications, issues management, business media relations and stakeholder relationship building. He joined JMA in 2009 and also operates his own business. In recent years Stephen has increasingly focused on public and stakeholder engagement as well as relationship building with First Nations in BC.
Stephen has a Bachelor of Science Degree (Biology) and Masters of Arts Degree (Political Science), both from the University of British Columbia. In additional to his professional endeavors, he has always been very active in the local community. For instance, he was a mentor in the Vancouver Board of Trade’s Leaders of Tomorrow program and a member of the Campaign Cabinet of the United Way of the Lower Mainland. Here he was an in-demand speaker for the Leadership Giving program.