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Michael James Audain (born July 31, 1937) is a fifth-generation British Columbian, home builder, arts philanthropist and art collector. He is the Chairman and major shareholder of the privately-held Polygon Homes Ltd., one of the largest multi-family builders in British Columbia

Early life
Michael Audain was born July 31, 1937 to James Guy Payne Audain and Madeline Marie Stulik in Bournemouth in Dorset, England. The couple were living near Yeovil in Somerset. His father was a retired British Army officer, while his mother had a career as a London dress model.

Audain Ancestors
The Audain family originated in France where their name was originally spelt Audoen. The founder of the family was St. Audoen, King of the Lombards,  who in the 6th century A.D. was celebrated for his indomitable energy and fortitude in leading his people against the Roman Emperor Justinian. The descendants of the Audoen settled in Normandy where St. Audoen had a handsome abbey church dedicated to him in Rouen, which was regarded as one of the finest testaments of Gothic architecture and in which was deposited the heart of Richard Coeur de Lion and the remains of most of the early rulers of Normandy.

St. Audoen’s Church in Dublin, Ireland was built by Anglo-Norman settlers around the close of the 12th century to honour the patron saint of Rouen. But, the family remained active as land owners of consequence in Normandy until the Edict of Nantes was revoked by King Louis XIV in 1688, which obliged the “Huguenots” as French Protestants were called to flee. They emigrated to the island of St. Kitts, West Indies in the Caribbean Sea, where they established sugar plantations.

In St. Kitts, John Audain, a descendent, married Ann, the daughter of Lord Mulgrave. More commonly known as the “Pirate Parson”, John Audain’s numerous exploits around the Caribbean have been well documented.

John Audain’s grandson, Colonel John Willett Payne Audain, lived in Belfast, Northern Ireland, while his great grandson, Colonel Guy Mortimer Audain, followed in his father’s footsteps into the Indian Army.

While returning home on leave, Guy Audain met and married Byrdie, the daughter of the Honourable James Dunsmuir, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. Their son, James Guy Payne Audain (Jimmy), born in 1903, spent some of his early years in India, then after schooling in England, attended the Royal Military College in Sandhurst, Berkshire, after which he joined the Queen’s Own 7th Hussars, a cavalry regiment. After a military career, James Audain returned to Canada where he served as a civil defence official in Victoria, British Columbia and became a prominent member of the community known for his interest in amateur boxing and race horse breeding.

After a ten day courtship, James Audain married Madeline Stulik in 1934. A son, Michael, was born in 1937. The couple were divorced in 1942, immediately after which James married Marie Clark, the former wife of French General Fagalde of Basque origin. She died in 1955, after which in 1962 James Audain took Isobel Rose Temple to be his wife until his death in 1970.

Dunsmuir Ancestors
Michael Audain’s great great grandfather is Robert Dunsmuir of Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, Scotland, who arrived on Vancouver Island at Fort Rupert, British Columbia in 1851. A servant of the Hudson’s Bay Company, he later established his own coal mines and became a major figure in the economic and political history of British Columbia. Craigdarroch, the castle that he built for his wife Joan in Victoria, British Columbia is today a national monument and museum site. Robert Dunsmuir’s son, James, succeeded him as heir to his fortune and served as Premier and Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. His estate on the outskirts of Victoria, originally called Hatley Park, eventually became a Canadian naval college and today is the site of Royal Roads University.

Stulik Ancestors
Michael Audain is also the grandson of Rudolph C. Stulik, who was born out of wedlock to a Syrian dancer in the Vienna State Opera and a French nobleman. The boy was educated by the Jesuits until when at the age of 11 he entered the kitchens of the Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria. His personality, talent, and hard work enabled him to achieve distinction as a maître d’hotel to Emperor Francis Joseph I by his early twenties. In 1905, Stulik opened the La Tour Eiffel Restaurant in London’s Soho neighbourhood, with funds he had accumulated from catering the officer’s mess for Lord Kitchener’s expedition up the Nile to vanquish the Mahdi in the Sudan. The restaurant soon became famous as a habitat for artists, musicians, and political celebrities until Stulik was forced to close it due to economic conditions in 1938. He died the same year. Audain donated La Tour Eiffel’s guest book to the Museum of London.

Rudolph and Helena Stulik’s oldest daughter, Madeline, was educated at schools in Switzerland and Germany, after which she was sought out by fashion houses as a model. After her divorce from James Audain, she became associated with a tennis clothing retailer until she married George Carmichael in 1951, moving with him to reside for many years in Georgetown, Guyana and later Kingston, Jamaica. The couple retired in Hove, Sussex in England where she died in 1998.

Marriages
Residing back in Canada, in 1962 Michael Audain married Tunya Swetleshnoff, daughter of Nick and Nellie Swetleshnoff of Canora, Saskatchewan. They had two children, Fenya Bijou Chanel Audain born in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1966 and Kyra Anastasia Michele Audain born in Ottawa, Ontario in 1968.

Fenya married James Sutherland of Nelson, British Columbia in 1993. The couple had four children: Brennan Cameron James Sutherland born in 1993, Aidan Michael Louis Sutherland born in 2000, Desmond LaShean Albert Audain born in 2002 and Beatrice Kiara Margaret Audain born in 2005. The couple were divorced in 2008.

After becoming divorced from Tunya, in 1984 Michael Audain married Yoshiko Karasawa in Vancouver, British Columbia, the daughter of Goro and Ai Karasawa of Gunma, Japan.

Education
Michael Audain attended numerous U.K. schools due to frequent moves by his split-up family during World War II. His first nursery school was named St. Georges, located on Castle Street in Farnham, Surrey, while his first boarding school was called Melbreak Preparatory School situated in the countryside outside Farnham. Later, he attended Eagle House (now Wellington College) near Sandhurst in Berkshire.

In Canada, Audain attended Glenlyon School (now Glenlyon Norfolk School) and University School (now St. Michael’s University School). Both are situated in Victoria, British Columbia. Later, he was sent to Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario.

In terms of higher education, Audain attended the University of Lyon in France, where he acquired a Diploma in French Civilization in 1959. At the University of British Columbia he earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1962, a Bachelor of Social Work in 1963, and a Masters in Social Work in 1965. He later attended the London School of Economics and Political Science as a Ph.D. student but did not submit a thesis. In 1977, Audain obtained a Certificate in Farm Management and Rural Appraisal from the University of California Davis.

Activism
During the 1960s Michael Audain led a colourful life as a social activist. At the University of British Columbia he founded and was President of the Nuclear Disarmament Club, which among other initiatives, organized peace marches. In 1962 Audain organized the largest peace march in Vancouver since the 1930s. Also at the University of British Columbia, together with a group of faculty members, Audain founded The Penthouse Radical Society, which met monthly on the top floor of the Faculty of Arts Buchanan Building to discuss social and economic issues.

Audain also served as an editor of the international magazine, Our Generation Against Nuclear War, and was also a delegate to the 1961 founding convention of Canada’s New Democratic Party.

In the summer of 1962, he saw action as a Freedom Rider in the US south, being sentenced in Jackson, Mississippi to a jail term and a $250 fine. He served part of his sentence in the city jail in Jackson, as well as the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.

Together with a group of University of British Columbia faculty, Audain was instrumental in founding the BC Civil Liberties Association in 1962, the first executive meeting being held in his Kitsilano, Vancouver apartment. Later he served for two years as Executive Secretary of the BCCLA before leaving Canada for New York and eventually London.

While a student in London, Audain was an active member of the campaign to end the Vietnam War, and was also involved in left wing student activity.

Sports and Recreation
The only sport that Michael Audain excelled at was amateur boxing, winning the Glenlyon School cup as the best boxer. As a member of the Victoria City Police Boxing Club, Audain fought in over two dozen tournaments in the Pacific Northwest, winning a third of his fights. Among them was the Vancouver Island Silver Gloves Championship. Audain’s main outdoor recreation was sailing, having owned a number of sailing vessels including a Cheoy Lee 36 that he lived on for a period in Hong Kong, a Danish Spitzgatter 26, a French built Dufour 24, and a Rhode Island built Altair 29.

Career
Like many Canadians, Audain worked at numerous summer jobs while he attended school and university, including gardener, parking lot attendant, postal clerk, dude ranch hand, and a guard at the Oakalla Prison Farm in Burnaby, British Columbia. His first full-time job was with Canadian Pacific Airlines in Edmonton, Alberta and in Norman Wells, Northwest Territories where at the age of 20 he became an assistant station manager.

Audain was later employed as a juvenile protection officer by the Vancouver Family and Children’s Court (now Childhood and Families Advisory Committee of the City of Vancouver), and as a United Way local area council organizer. In the early 1970s Michael Audain established a reputation for himself as one of Canada’s leading housing policy experts. After moving from the position of Director of Community Relations at the Ontario Housing Corporation in Toronto, Ontario (now Ontario Mortgage and Housing Corporation) in 1969, he was appointed Housing Program Director at the Canadian Council on Social Development in Ottawa, Ontario where he conducted a number of research studies on housing issues, most notably a national study on housing for the elderly, which was published as a book called Beyond Shelter. In Ottawa he also started and became editor of a quarterly publication called Housing and People.

In late 1973, Audain was called to the Provincial Government in Victoria, British Columbia by Premier David Barrett and appointed Special Advisor to the Minister of Housing, with the task of setting up a housing ministry. During this period he initiated policies that resulted in a significant increase in social and cooperative housing throughout British Columbia. To aid the process, he negotiated the purchase of Dunhill Development Ltd. which became the Housing Corporation of British Columbia.

After a term as Chairman of the Provincial Commission on Mobile Homes, which published a well-received report, in 1976 Audain established a company called Audain Planning Ltd. to undertake research and provide advice on housing policy across Canada. Later in 1994 he was appointed by Premier Michael Harcourt as Co-Chairman of the Commission of Affordable Housing Options, which held public hearings and whose report ultimately played a significant role in revising municipal government’s attitudes to so-called “illegal suites” and a host of other housing related matters.

Audain also taught on a part-time basis at the University of British Columbia’s School of Urban and Regional Planning (now School of Community and Regional Planning).

In September 1980 Audain was appointed Executive Vice President of Polygon Properties Limited, becoming a partner in the firm. Then in 1988 he was appointed President, and in 1992 Chairman of Polygon Homes Ltd. He has continued to serve as Chair of the Board since Neil Chrystal’s appointment as President in 2003.

Polygon Homes Ltd.
The history of Polygon Homes started in 1980 when Michael Audain was invited by W.K. Paulus to become the Executive Vice President and a partner in a company that owned an interest in three rental apartment properties. Initially, Audain built residential communities for housing cooperatives and non-profit organizations, but in 1983 he started building townhomes and apartments for the market. The company expanded in 1988 when Paulus sold his interest to Laing Property Corporation.

After Laing Property Corporation was taken over by P&O Limited, a British conglomerate, Audain and his partner Rick Genest negotiated the acquisition of all the shares in the company in 1992, with Polygon becoming 100 percent British Columbia owned and managed. After Genest’s death as a result of a highway accident in 2002, Neil Chrystal became a major shareholder in the company and assumed the title of President and CEO. Since 1980, Polygon Homes Ltd. and its affiliated single-family builder Morningstar Homes Ltd. have completed the construction of over 23,000 homes in Metro Vancouver.

Awards and Honours
1.	Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal (2002)

2.	Order of BC (2007)

3.	Order of Canada (2009)

4.	Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012)

Honorary Degrees
1.	Doctor of Letters – Emily Carr University of Art + Design (2005)

2.	Doctor of Laws – Simon Fraser University (2005)

3.	Doctor of Laws – University of Victoria (2009)

4.	Doctor of Laws – University of British Columbia (2014)

Industry
Michael Audain is a governor and past Chairman of the Business Council of British Columbia, and a past President of the Urban Development Institute Pacific Region.

1.	Builder of the Year Award – Urban Development Institute Pacific Region (1987)

2.	Individual of Distinction – Urban Development Institute Pacific Region (1989)

3.	Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association Hall of Fame (2005)

4.	Business Laureate of the British Columbia Hall of Fame (2009)

5.	Member Urban Development Institute Hall of Fame (2012)

Culture
1.	Edmund C. Bovey Award – Business for the Arts (2004)

2.	British Columbia Museums Association Award for Distinguished Service (2005)

3.	Simon Fraser University President’s Distinguished Community Leadership Award (2008)

4.	The Vancouver Board of Trade Community Leadership Award (2008)

5.	Vancouver Biennale Philanthropy in the Arts Award (2011)

6.	Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award for Philanthropy (2012)

7.	Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Medal (2013)

Visual Art
Michael Audain has been a supporter of the visual arts in British Columbia and beyond. In 1992 he joined the Board of Trustees of the Vancouver Art Gallery and with a brief interregnum has been involved in the affairs of the Gallery until finishing his term as Chair of the Vancouver Art Gallery Foundation in 2014. He served as the Association’s President/Chair from 1996 to 1998.

In 2005, Audain was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the National Gallery of Canada, and then as Chair from 2009 to 2012. He also served as a Director of the National Gallery Foundation until 2014.

== [http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/ebci/haip/srch/charity-eng.action?bn=878890060RR0001&r=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cra-arc.gc.ca%3A80%2Febci%2Fhaip%2Fsrch%2Fbasicsearchresult-eng.action%3Fk%3DAudain%2BFoundation%26amp%3Bs%3Dregistered%26amp%3Bp%3D1%26amp%3Bb%3Dtrue&m=1%20–%20Canada%20Revenue%20Agency%20–%20Canadian%20Registered%20Charities%20–%20Detail%20page. Audain Foundation] == Michael chairs the board of the Audain Foundation, which was established in 1997 to support the visual arts in British Columbia with grants and endowments for capital projects and exhibitions at major public art galleries and educational institutions.

The Audain Foundation has supported many initiatives in the visual arts during its 17 year history, among them the Audain Endowment for Contemporary Canadian Art and the Audain Curator of Indigenous Art at the National Gallery of Canada ; the Audain Curator of British Columbia Art, the Audain Emerging Artists Acquisition Fund, the Audain Prize Endowment Fund, and the Post-Secondary Student Engagement in BC Program at the Vancouver Art Gallery; the Audain Curator of First Nations Art Endowment Fund at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria ; the Audain Professorship in Contemporary Art Practice of the Pacific Northwest and the Audain Gallery and Atrium at the University of Victoria; the Audain Endowment for Curatorial Studies and the Audain Art Centre at the University of British Columbia; the Audain Gallery at the Museum of Anthropology ; the Audain Visual Artists in Residence Program/School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University ; the Audain Art Studio at Brentwood College ; the Audain Great Hall at the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art ; the Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art ; and the Audain Distinguished Artist-in-Residence Program and the Audain School of Visual Arts at Emily Carr University of Arts + Design.

Audain Collection
Michael Audain and his wife Yoshiko Karasawa have amassed a significant art collection which is considered among Canada’s most outstanding. Particularly strong is a large group of Northwest Coast First Nations masks which have been repatriated to the Northwest Coast from the United States and Europe, a major collection of Emily Carr’s works, and Canada’s most important collection of Mexican modernist works. The collection was in part exhibited at the Vancouver Art Gallery in late 2012 and early 2013.

Audain Art Museum
In September 2012, Michael was invited to Whistler, British Columbia to discuss establishing a museum for his family collection. Less than a year after his visit, the 56,000 sq.ft. museum building designed by Patkau Architects commenced construction. To be completed by late 2015, the museum will house a portion of the Audain Collection as well as offer space for temporary exhibitions.

Audain Prize
The annual Audain Prize was established in 2004 to recognize outstanding achievements of British Columbia’s senior artists. The $30,000 award is administered by the Vancouver Art Gallery. The prize winners include: Ann Kipling (2004), Edward J. Hughes (2005), Eric Metcalfe (2006), Gordon Smith (2007), Jeff Wall (2008), Liz Magor (2009), Robert Davidson (2010), Rodney Graham (2011), Marian Penner Bancroft (2012), Takao Tanabe and Gathie Falk (2013), and Fred Herzog (2014).

Original Version
Michael James Audain, OC OBC (born July 31, 1937) is a fifth-generation British Columbian, home builder, arts philanthropist and art collector. He is the Chairman and major shareholder of the privately-held Polygon Homes Ltd., one of the largest multi-family builders in British Columbia.

BIRTH
Michael Audain was born July 31, 1937 to James Guy Payne Audain and Madeline Marie Stulik in Bournemouth in Dorset, England. The couple were living near Yeovil in Somerset. His father was a retired British Army officer, while his mother had a career as a London dress model.

Audain Ancestors
The Audain family originated in France where their name was originally spelt Audoen. The founder of the family was St. Audoen, King of the Lombards,  who in the 6th century A.D. was celebrated for his indomitable energy and fortitude in leading his people against the Roman Emperor Justinian. The descendants of the Audoen settled in Normandy where St. Audoen had a handsome abbey church dedicated to him in Rouen, which was regarded as one of the finest testaments of Gothic architecture and in which was deposited the heart of Richard Coeur de Lion and the remains of most of the early rulers of Normandy.

St. Audoen’s Church in Dublin, Ireland was built by Anglo-Norman settlers around the close of the 12th century to honour the patron saint of Rouen. But, the family remained active as land owners of consequence in Normandy until the Edict of Nantes was revoked by King Louis XIV in 1688, which obliged the “Huguenots” as French Protestants were called to flee. They emigrated to the island of St. Kitts, West Indies in the Caribbean Sea, where they established sugar plantations.

In St. Kitts, John Audain, a descendent, married Ann, the daughter of Lord Mulgrave. More commonly known as the “Pirate Parson”, John Audain’s numerous exploits around the Caribbean have been well documented.

John Audain’s grandson, Colonel John Willett Payne Audain, lived in Belfast, Northern Ireland, while his great grandson, Colonel Guy Mortimer Audain, followed in his father’s footsteps into the Indian Army.

While returning home on leave, Guy Audain met and married Byrdie, the daughter of the Honourable James Dunsmuir, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. Their son, James Guy Payne Audain (Jimmy), born in 1903, spent some of his early years in India, then after schooling in England, attended the Royal Military College in Sandhurst, Berkshire, after which he joined the Queen’s Own 7th Hussars, a cavalry regiment. After a military career, James Audain returned to Canada where he served as a civil defence official in Victoria, British Columbia and became a prominent member of the community known for his interest in amateur boxing and race horse breeding.

After a ten day courtship, James Audain married Madeline Stulik in 1934. A son, Michael, was born in 1937. The couple were divorced in 1942, immediately after which James married Marie Clark, the former wife of French General Fagalde of Basque origin. She died in 1955, after which in 1962 James Audain took Isobel Rose Temple to be his wife until his death in 1970.

Dunsmuir Ancestors
Michael Audain’s great great grandfather is Robert Dunsmuir of Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, Scotland, who arrived on Vancouver Island at Fort Rupert, British Columbia in 1851. A servant of the Hudson’s Bay Company, he later established his own coal mines and became a major figure in the economic and political history of British Columbia. Craigdarroch, the castle that he built for his wife Joan in Victoria, British Columbia is today a national monument and museum site. Robert Dunsmuir’s son, James, succeeded him as heir to his fortune and served as Premier and Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. His estate on the outskirts of Victoria, originally called Hatley Park, eventually became a Canadian naval college and today is the site of Royal Roads University.

Stulik Ancestors
Michael Audain is also the grandson of Rudolph C. Stulik, who was born out of wedlock to a Syrian dancer in the Vienna State Opera and a French nobleman. The boy was educated by the Jesuits until when at the age of 11 he entered the kitchens of the Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria. His personality, talent, and hard work enabled him to achieve distinction as a maître d’hotel to Emperor Francis Joseph I by his early twenties. In 1905, Stulik opened the La Tour Eiffel Restaurant in London’s Soho neighbourhood, with funds he had accumulated from catering the officer’s mess for Lord Kitchener’s expedition up the Nile to vanquish the Mahdi in the Sudan 10. The restaurant soon became famous as a habitat for artists, musicians, and political celebrities until Stulik was forced to close it due to economic conditions in 1938. He died the same year. Audain donated La Tour Eiffel’s guest book to the Museum of London.

Rudolph and Helena Stulik’s oldest daughter, Madeline, was educated at schools in Switzerland and Germany, after which she was sought out by fashion houses as a model 10. After her divorce from James Audain, she became associated with a tennis clothing retailer until she married George Carmichael in 1951, moving with him to reside for many years in Georgetown, Guyana and later Kingston, Jamaica. The couple retired in Hove, Sussex in England where she died in 1998.

Marriages
Residing back in Canada, in 1962 Michael Audain married Tunya Swetleshnoff, daughter of Nick and Nellie Swetleshnoff of Canora, Saskatchewan. They had two children, Fenya Bijou Chanel Audain born in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1966 and Kyra Anastasia Michele Audain born in Ottawa, Ontario in 1968.

Fenya married James Sutherland of Nelson, British Columbia in 1993. The couple had four children: Brennan Cameron James Sutherland born in 1993, Aidan Michael Louis Sutherland born in 2000, Desmond LaShean Albert Audain born in 2002 and Beatrice Kiara Margaret Audain born in 2005. The couple were divorced in 2008.

After becoming divorced from Tunya, in 1984 Michael Audain married Yoshiko Karasawa in Vancouver, British Columbia, the daughter of Goro and Ai Karasawa of Gunma, Japan.

EDUCATION
Michael Audain attended numerous U.K. schools due to frequent moves by his split-up family during World War II. His first nursery school was named St. Georges, located on Castle Street in Farnham, Surrey, while his first boarding school was called Melbreak Preparatory School situated in the countryside outside Farnham. Later, he attended Eagle House (now Wellington College) near Sandhurst in Berkshire.

In Canada, Audain attended Glenlyon School (now Glenlyon Norfolk School) and University School (now St. Michael’s University School). Both are situated in Victoria, British Columbia. Later, he was sent to Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario.

In terms of higher education, Audain attended the University of Lyon in France, where he acquired a Diploma in French Civilization in 1959. At the University of British Columbia he earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1962, a Bachelor of Social Work in 1963, and a Masters in Social Work in 1965. He later attended the London School of Economics and Political Science as a Ph.D. student but did not submit a thesis. In 1977, Audain obtained a Certificate in Farm Management and Rural Appraisal from the University of California Davis.

ACTIVISM
During the 1960’s Michael Audain led a colourful life as a social activist. At the University of British Columbia he founded and was President of the Nuclear Disarmament Club, which among other initiatives, organized peace marches. In 1962 Audain organized the largest peace march in Vancouver since the 1930’s. Also at the University of British Columbia, together with a group of faculty members, Audain founded The Penthouse Radical Society, which met monthly on the top floor of the Faculty of Arts Buchanan Building to discuss social and economic issues.

Audain also served as an editor of the international magazine, Our Generation Against Nuclear War, and was also a delegate to the 1961 [New Democratic Party leadership election, 1961|founding convention] of Canada’s New Democratic Party.

In the summer of 1962, he saw action as a Freedom Rider in the US south, being sentenced in Jackson, Mississippi to a jail term and a $250 fine. He served part of his sentence in the city jail in Jackson, as well as the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.

Together with a group of University of British Columbia faculty, Audain was instrumental in founding the BC Civil Liberties Association in 1962 30, the first executive meeting being held in his Kitsilano, Vancouver apartment. Later he served for two years as Executive Secretary of the BCCLA before leaving Canada for New York and eventually London.

While a student in London, Audain was an active member of the campaign to end the Vietnam War, and was also involved in left wing student activity.

SPORTS AND RECREATION
The only sport that Michael Audain excelled at was amateur boxing, winning the Glenlyon School cup as the best boxer. As a member of the Victoria City Police Boxing Club, Audain fought in over two dozen tournaments in the Pacific Northwest, winning a third of his fights. Among them was the Vancouver Island Silver Gloves Championship 31  Audain’s main outdoor recreation was sailing, having owned a number of sailing vessels including a Cheoy Lee 36 that he lived on for a period in Hong Kong, a Danish Spitzgatter 26, a French built Dufour 24, and a Rhode Island built Altair 29.

CAREER
Like many Canadians, Audain worked at numerous summer jobs while he attended school and university, including gardener, parking lot attendant, postal clerk, dude ranch hand, and a guard at the Oakalla Prison Farm in Burnaby, British Columbia. His first full time job was with Canadian Pacific Airlines in Edmonton, Alberta and in Norman Wells, Northwest Territories where at the age of 20 he became an assistant station manager.

Audain was later employed as a juvenile protection officer by the Vancouver Family and Children’s Court (now Childhood and Families Advisory Committee of the City of Vancouver), and as a United Way local area council organizer. In the early 1970’s Michael Audain established a reputation for himself as one of Canada’s leading housing policy experts. After moving from the position of Director of Community Relations at the Ontario Housing Corporation in Toronto, Ontario (now Ontario Mortgage and Housing Corporation) in 1969, he was appointed Housing Program Director at the Canadian Council on Social Development in Ottawa, Ontario where he conducted a number of research studies on housing issues, most notably a national study on housing for the elderly, which was published as a book called Beyond Shelter. In Ottawa he also started and became editor of a quarterly publication called Housing and People.

In late 1973, Audain was called to the Provincial Government in Victoria, British Columbia by Premier David Barrett and appointed Special Advisor to the Minister of Housing, with the task of setting up a housing ministry. During this period he initiated policies that resulted in a significant increase in social and cooperative housing throughout British Columbia. To aid the process, he negotiated the purchase of Dunhill Development Ltd. which became the Housing Corporation of British Columbia.

After a term as Chairman of the Provincial Commission on Mobile Homes, which published a well-received report, in 1976 Audain established a company called Audain Planning Ltd. to undertake research and provide advice on housing policy across Canada. Later in 1994 he was appointed by Premier Michael Harcourt as Co-Chairman of the Commission of Affordable Housing Options, which held public hearings and whose report ultimately played a significant role in revising municipal government’s attitudes to so-called “illegal suites” and a host of other housing related matters.

Audain also taught on a part-time basis at the University of British Columbia’s School of Urban and Regional Planning (now School of Community and Regional Planning).

In September 1980 Audain was appointed Executive Vice President of Polygon Properties Limited, becoming a partner in the firm. Then in 1988 he was appointed President, and in 1992 Chairman of Polygon Homes Ltd. He has continued to serve as Chair of the Board since Neil Chrystal’s appointment as President in 2003.

POLYGON HOMES LTD.
The history of Polygon Homes started in 1980 when Michael Audain was invited by W.K. Paulus to become the Executive Vice President and a partner in a company that owned an interest in three rental apartment properties. Initially, Audain built residential communities for housing cooperatives and non-profit organizations, but in 1983 he started building townhomes and apartments for the market. The company expanded in 1988 when Paulus sold his interest to Laing Property Corporation.

After Laing Property Corporation was taken over by P&O Limited, a British conglomerate, Audain and his partner Rick Genest negotiated the acquisition of all the shares in the company in 1992, with Polygon becoming 100 percent British Columbia owned and managed. After Genest’s death as a result of a highway accident in 2002, Neil Chrystal became a major shareholder in the company and assumed the title of President and CEO. Since 1980, Polygon Homes Ltd. and its affiliated single-family builder Morningstar Homes Ltd. have completed the construction of over 23,000 homes in Metro Vancouver.

AWARDS AND HONOURS
1.	Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal (2002)

2.	Order of BC (2007)

3.	Order of Canada (2009)

4.	Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012)

Honorary Degrees
1.	Doctor of Letters – Emily Carr University of Art + Design (2005)

2.	Doctor of Laws – Simon Fraser University (2005)

3.	Doctor of Laws – University of Victoria (2009)

4.	Doctor of Laws – University of British Columbia (2014)

Industry
Michael Audain is a governor and past Chairman of the Business Council of British Columbia, and a past President of the Urban Development Institute Pacific Region.

1.	Builder of the Year Award – Urban Development Institute Pacific Region (1987)

2.	Individual of Distinction – Urban Development Institute Pacific Region (1989)

3.	Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association Hall of Fame (2005)

4.	Business Laureate of the British Columbia Hall of Fame (2009)

5.	Member Urban Development Institute Hall of Fame (2012)

Culture
1.	Edmund C. Bovey Award – Business for the Arts (2004)

2.	British Columbia Museums Association Award for Distinguished Service (2005)

3.	Simon Fraser University President’s Distinguished Community Leadership Award (2008)

4.	The Vancouver Board of Trade Community Leadership Award (2008)

5.	Vancouver Biennale Philanthropy in the Arts Award (2011)

6.	Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award for Philanthropy (2012)

7.	Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Medal (2013)

VISUAL ART
Michael Audain has been a supporter of the visual arts in British Columbia and beyond. In 1992 he joined the Board of Trustees of the Vancouver Art Gallery and with a brief interregnum has been involved in the affairs of the Gallery until finishing his term as Chair of the Vancouver Art Gallery Foundation in 2014. He served as the Association’s President/Chair from 1996 to 1998.

In 2005, Audain was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the National Gallery of Canada, and then as Chair from 2009 to 2012. He also served as a Director of the National Gallery Foundation until 2014.

== [http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/ebci/haip/srch/charity-eng.action?bn=878890060RR0001&r=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cra-arc.gc.ca%3A80%2Febci%2Fhaip%2Fsrch%2Fbasicsearchresult-eng.action%3Fk%3DAudain%2BFoundation%26amp%3Bs%3Dregistered%26amp%3Bp%3D1%26amp%3Bb%3Dtrue&m=1%20–%20Canada%20Revenue%20Agency%20–%20Canadian%20Registered%20Charities%20–%20Detail%20page. AUDAIN FOUNDATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS] ==

Michael chairs the board of the Audain Foundation, which was established in 1997 to support the visual arts in British Columbia with grants and endowments for capital projects and exhibitions at major public art galleries and educational institutions.

The Audain Foundation has supported many initiatives in the visual arts during its 17 year history, among them the Audain Endowment for Contemporary Canadian Art and the Audain Curator of Indigenous Art at the National Gallery of Canada ; the Audain Curator of British Columbia Art, the Audain Emerging Artists Acquisition Fund, the Audain Prize Endowment Fund, and the Post-Secondary Student Engagement in BC Program at the Vancouver Art Gallery; the Audain Curator of First Nations Art Endowment Fund at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria ; the Audain Professorship in Contemporary Art Practice of the Pacific Northwest and the Audain Gallery and Atrium and at the University of Victoria; the Audain Endowment for Curatorial Studies and the Audain Art Centre at the University of British Columbia; the Audain Gallery at the Museum of Anthropology ; the Audain Visual Artists in Residence Program/School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University ; the Audain Art Studio at Brentwood College ; the Audain Great Hall at the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art ; the Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art ; and the Audain Distinguished Artist-in-Residence Program and the Audain School of Visual Arts at Emily Carr University of Arts + Design.

AUDAIN COLLECTION
Michael Audain and his wife Yoshiko Karasawa have amassed a significant art collection which is considered among Canada’s most outstanding. Particularly strong is a large group of Northwest Coast First Nations masks which have been repatriated to the Northwest Coast from the United States and Europe, a major collection of Emily Carr’s works, and Canada’s most important collection of Mexican modernist works. The collection was in part exhibited at the Vancouver Art Gallery in late 2012 and early 2013.

AUDAIN ART MUSEUM
In September 2012, Michael was invited to Whistler, British Columbia to discuss establishing a museum for his family collection. Less than a year after his visit, the 56,000 sq.ft. museum building designed by Patkau Architects commenced construction. To be completed by late 2015, the museum will house a portion of the Audain Collection as well as offer space for temporary exhibitions.

AUDAIN PRIZE
The annual Audain Prize was established in 2004 to recognize outstanding achievements of British Columbia’s senior artists 65. The $30,000 award is administered by the Vancouver Art Gallery. The prize winners include: Ann Kipling (2004), Edward J. Hughes (2005), Eric Metcalfe (2006), Gordon Smith (2007), Jeff Wall (2008), Liz Magor (2009), Robert Davidson (2010), Rodney Graham (2011), Marian Penner Bancroft (2012), Takao Tanabe and Gathie Falk (2013), and Fred Herzog (2014).