After 19 years in operation, and recent leadership changes, it’s an opportune time to take a closer look at the Wallace McCain Institute, what they’ve accomplished and what’s next on their agenda.

In 2007, Nancy Mathis was at a crossroads.

The year prior, the New Brunswick Business Council had been asked for advice on what to do with a $2 million donation Wallace McCain had made to University of New Brunswick. Mathis contributed an appendix to a report on the donation and went back to running the 40-person company she’d started the decade before.

Twelve months later, that company had gone into receivership. Yet change was afoot in more ways than one, and thanks to that appendix, Mathis found herself presented with a new opportunity. “I had gone through a bankruptcy. I was trying to recreate myself, and [UNB President] John McLaughlin approached me and said, ‘I love the ideas that you had. Now that you have the freedom to do it; will you throw your name into the ring?”

That question gave rise to the Wallace McCain Institute, an organization dedicated to supporting Atlantic Canadian entrepreneurs. Nearly two decades later, the organization is once again at a crossroads, as it’s transitioned to new leadership. There are also new opportunities and new challenges to contend with. In the midst of that flux, past and present members of the Wallace McCain Institute say one thing is consistent—the Institute’s dedication to ensuring Atlantic Canadian entrepreneurs have the greatest possible success in making the region a better place.

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