Meet the New Swim Ontario Board of Directors

Swim Ontario has two new members of the Board of Directors for the 2025-2026 season. Today we meet Lloyd Noronha!

Lloyd Noronha has always been known to have a meticulous plan – one that is perpetually specified, comprehensive and often exhausting.

One who is diligently effective in his work, Noronha focuses on the challenges, takes on the task of allotting time for issues, deals with variations of the same questions and, when the occasion arises, celebrates the accomplishments.

As a modest and caring individual, Noronha has certainly put himself as a driving force to be there for others. Leadership is a strength that has always been important to him. Those who have known and worked with Norohna, even new colleagues and associates, will find the words collaboration, commitment and innovation to be a strong part of his routine.

In July of 2025, Noronha was appointed Executive Vice-President Corporate Services and Chief Financial Officer of Halton Healthcare. While he’s based in Oakville, he serves hospitals in that city as well as Milton and Georgetown.

Three months later, he added to his portfolio. This time, he was chosen to serve a three-year term with a team of other experienced and knowledgeable individuals in the role of governance as a member of the Board of Directors for Swim Ontario – Canada’s largest provincial swim organization.

Filling an executive role is not new to the 46-year-old, a son of south Asian immigrants. In fact, working in the public sector has been a huge part of his professional career. Senior managerial and policy making responsibilities may zoom back to business and financial duties with both the cities of Brampton, and later Vaughan.

Not to be forgotten, in a move from the municipal scene to education, are three important years as Associate Director of Education and Chief Financial Officer with the Toronto Catholic District School Board. Then, it was off to Waterloo as Vice President of Finance and Administration at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Just before he joined Halton, Noronha had another influential senior position. He was elected Chair of the Board with the Canadian Universities Reciprocal Insurance Exchange, known as CURIE.

“It has been an interesting journey for me, great experience, and able to take on major responsibilities,” said Noronha. “I care about the roles that I take on and the people around me. For me, it has always been about doing my part to positively impact on society.”

Noronha has come a long way since that first job as a teenager teaching first aid. Then, at age 19, he was coordinating various leadership duties in Brampton.

He’s a graduate of St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary. His Dufferin-Peel Board of Education school had business courses – but Noronha never signed up for them as business and accounting were not a major interest to him at the time. That would change and it would be a career that he would eventually excel in.

His extracurricular time was devoted to involvement in various school musicals and swimming, where his athleticism, diligence and hard work resulted in him winning the coveted Most Valuable Player award.

With academic honors, Noronha would pursue studies in computer sciences at Ryerson. Then, he would cap his formal post-secondary years with two degrees from York University science/psychology and commerce/accounting.

For every move he would make, the function of leadership perked his wherewithal.

“There was always something about leadership that interested me – and, especially, during those teenage years,” he said. “Looking back, municipal life shaped who I am today.”

Norohna’s link to swimming, other than his early days of lessons, involved a few years with Brampton’s COBRA Swim Club. There were no major personal races or superb record-breaking performances. The celebratory achievements in water, for him, came down to the enjoyment of the sport, the fun and physical exercise.

“Funny thing is that, until age nine, I was afraid of water,” he said. “Breaststroke, butterfly - those strokes I enjoyed. I was also not one for piling up major competitive awards.”

Noronha remembers the early days of being associated with something called the Esso Swim Program. No longer active, it was a collaborative effort between the major petroleum company and the Canadian Amateur Swim Association that focussed on water safety and skills development.

“With a busy work schedule, I try to swim once a week – (swimming is) also so important to our family,” said Noronha, whose wife is a member of the Board of the Orangeville Otters Swim Club, and their three children are swimmers. “From a guy who once didn’t know how to swim, I now have my Level 3 certification and am toying with Master level competition.

“Driving the kids to swim practices, constantly being at the pool, I started to volunteer – from a timer to a meet manager – and enjoyed doing my part to help out.”

When Noronha saw a posting for an opening on the Board of Directors of Swim Ontario, it perked his interest.

“I thought there was an opportunity to contribute to the sport a bit more,” said Noronha, who lives in Mono, a small town about 45 minutes northwest of Toronto.

“I’m not there to shuffle papers, I’m there to understand, assess, learn, and focus on opportunities and challenges. To examine opportunities that enhance and produce international swimmers – and emphasize that the sport is a healthy physical program for people of all ages.”

David Grossman is a veteran multi award-winning Journalist and Broadcaster with some of Canada’s major media, including the Toronto Star and SPORTSNET 590 THE FAN, and a Public Relations professional for 50+ years in Canadian sports and Government relations.