UNB Alumni
Telling our #ProudlyUNB stories
UNBeknownst #42: Josh LeBrun on social enterprise and building community
UNB Alumni
Posted: October 24, 2024 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Young Alumni , Podcast , Management , UNB Fredericton
Josh LeBrun (BBA’17) is Executive Director of 12 Neighbours, the tiny-home affordable housing community in Fredericton which has seen success – and global admiration – over the past couple of years. Now complete at 96 homes, the community-focused organization has turned its attention to social enterprise, providing low-barrier, progressive employment opportunities for the people it serves. Josh has a passion for social enterprise, entrepreneurship and meaningful...
UNB grad returns to Fredericton to lead the Chalmers Foundation
UNB Alumni
Posted: March 25, 2024 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: UNB Fredericton , Inspiring Stories , Management
Charles A. Diab (BBA’83) came from Toronto to study at UNB in Fredericton in 1980 by chance. He hadn’t felt the value from his first year of college in Ontario, and while his parents were on vacation in New Brunswick, they picked up an application from UNB. “It was the summer and I figured it would be much too late to apply, but I tried it anyway and got in,” he remembers. “I arrived in September without a clue about the region, and I enjoyed the experience, but...
UNBeknownst #37: Victoria LaBillois on economic reconciliation in Canada
UNB Alumni
Posted: March 20, 2024 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: UNB Fredericton , Management , Podcast , Arts
Mi’gmaq entrepreneur Victoria LaBillois (BA’91, MBA’04) is the owner of Wejipeg Excavation Inc. and co-owner of Wejuseg Construction Inc, and oversaw the completion of a major wind park in Gaspesie, Quebec, where the companies trained and engaged over 100 Mi’gmaq tradespeople. Victoria has served both the First Nation and federal public service, working at the Band, regional, and national levels. She is currently serving as Vice-Chair of the National...
Growing the global SABIAN brand in rural New Brunswick
UNB Alumni
Posted: January 18, 2024 12:00:00 AM AST
Category: Inspiring Stories , UNB Fredericton , Management
While Meductic might not be a place that’s widely known even within the Province of New Brunswick, let alone internationally, the flagship company that calls this small village home certainly is. SABIAN is world-renowned in the music industry, and the company behind it is considered one of the largest manufacturers of cymbals globally, distributing its products to more than 80 countries. The SABIAN brand has been built from the ground up over the past 40 years to reflect the...
The UNB graduate inside one of the biggest deals in Canadian corporate history
UNB Alumni
Posted: October 13, 2023 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Management , UNB Fredericton , Inspiring Stories
Mergers and acquisitions are exciting to read about –especially when they involve two of the largest entrepreneurial companies in Canadian history: Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications. In April 2023, after over two years of intense negotiations, a regulatory battle, fierce public opinion, and, finally, government approval, the $26 billion transaction that created one national cable, media and wireless company under the Rogers banner was completed. Whatever opinion you held...
From sales rep to CEO: Habib Dable shares lessons from a career in biotech
UNB Alumni
Posted: September 26, 2023 12:00:00 PM ADT
Category: Inspiring Stories , UNB Fredericton , Management
Taking calculated risks and doing meaningful work is what Habib Dable (BBA’91, MBA’94) says helped him build a successful career. That career is not only successful, it’s impressive. Habib has risen to the highest ranks of the biotech industry, including as former president, U.S. pharmaceuticals for Bayer and former president and CEO of Acceleron Pharma. He says it’s ironic, given where he was in his first term as an undergraduate student at UNB. “I entered...
Get to know your Associated Alumni president: Jennifer Sutherland Green
UNB Alumni
Posted: September 26, 2023 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Management , Law , Inspiring Stories , UNB Saint John , UNB Fredericton
Jennifer Sutherland Green (LLB'99) has a longtime connection to UNB and to the alumni community. Throughout her combined 14 years of volunteer involvement with both the Alumnae and Alumni Associations, she has become progressively more passionate about UNB. A proud law alum, she brings great commitment to her new role. How did your engagement with UNB Alumni Council begin? I first became involved as the president of the UNB Associated Alumnae Council, which is a group made up of...
Alumni-owned Ethos Athletics is inspiring the next generation of athletes
UNB Alumni
Posted: September 21, 2023 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Management , Young Alumni , UNB Fredericton , Inspiring Stories
Motivated by his own experiences growing up in New Brunswick, UNB alum and professional volleyball player Connor McConnell (BBA’21) is inspiring young athletes one sport clinic at a time, through his business Ethos Athletics. With a lack of advanced sports camps being held across the province, McConnell and his business partner Nathan Brown are now filling this void for up-and-coming athletes. “We’re really trying to inspire the next generation and our goal is to reach small...
The value of building connections for young alum Ria Sabitry (BBA'22)
UNB Alumni
Posted: August 21, 2023 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Young Alumni , Inspiring Stories , Management , UNB Fredericton , UNB Saint John
For 2022 grad Ria Sabitry (BBA’22), attending university was all about fostering and nurturing connections. Through co-op education, experiential learning, and volunteerism, she certainly did just that – and even landed a job before receiving her diploma. Now as a junior accountant (Chartered Professional Accountant candidate) with Irving Oil, Sabitry works and studies full-time through the company’s CPA program. While studying towards her certification, she’s gaining...
UNBers dominate Atlantic Business Top 50 CEO list
UNB Alumni
Posted: May 26, 2023 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: UNB Saint John , Law , Inspiring Stories , Kinesiology , Engineering , Computer Science , Management , UNB Fredericton
Atlantic Business Magazine’s 2023 Top 50 CEO Awards were recently announced, and 16 UNB alumni and alumni of the UNB Wallace McCain Institute’s (WMI) Entrepreneurial Leaders Program (ELP) made the prestigious list. In its 25th year, the Top 50 CEO Awards celebrate accomplished business leaders in the Atlantic region. Over the past 25 years, they have recognized 552 Top 50 award winners who have collectively created more than a million jobs and generated almost $1.9 trillion in...
Relationships and hard work led to success for this SIF alum
UNB Alumni
Posted: January 22, 2023 12:00:00 AM AST
Category: Management , Inspiring Stories , UNB Fredericton
Sean McNulty (BBA’07) is principal and co-founder of XIB Financial Inc., a Toronto-based capital markets advisory and asset management business. A BBA graduate member of the Student Investment Fund (SIF) program at UNB’s Faculty of Management, Sean says that his career path was both serendipitous and the result of hard work and building good relationships. “I had top grades and had taken a lot of psychology and HR courses in my first years but by third year at UNB I...
UNB alumni make up a quarter of Atlantic Canada’s Top 30 Under 30 Innovators list
UNB Alumni
Posted: November 4, 2022 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Engineering , Management , UNB Fredericton , Young Alumni , Inspiring Stories
Atlantic Business Magazine’s Top 30 Under 30 Innovator awards program recognizes young people who are turning their creativity and passion into revenue-generating pursuits. This year’s list includes a diverse group of marketers, scientists, entrepreneurs, inventors, artists and advocates. Eight(!) UNBers were named to the 2022 list. They exemplify what it is to be innovators, carving their own path to success and making a difference in their communities along the...
Terry Malley rewarded for innovation, lifelong learning and giving back to the community
UNB Alumni
Posted: October 27, 2022 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Management , Arts , Inspiring Stories , UNB Fredericton
It was a big year for Terry Malley (BA’81) in 1979. Two years into a business degree at UNB, he and his father, A.J. Malley, decided to start a business together by opening a small manufacturing facility in Moncton to build truck caps, campers and van conversions for the recreational market. Two weeks before that, he had met Kathy (BEd’79), his soon-to-be-wife, at a dorm party on the Fredericton campus. He walked her home on a snowy night and the two talked business until early...
International student and alum returns to UNB
UNB Alumni
Posted: August 30, 2022 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Management , UNB Fredericton , Inspiring Stories
When Sunil Pathak (MBA’18) was working in Delhi as a team manager after finishing his undergraduate degree in India, his dream of doing an MBA overseas kept nagging at him. He’d been to Canada as a tourist and loved the country and its people, so when a friend introduced him to Dr. Devashish Mitra, the Dean of the Faculty of Management at UNB, Sunil was excited to learn more about the program. “I met Dr. Mitra in India and he spoke highly of the campus and the MBA program...
UNBeknownst Episode 17: Tom Liston on Bay Street and how the Canadian tech sector can help us overcome big global challenges
UNB Alumni
Posted: April 22, 2022 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: UNB Fredericton , Management , Podcast
Tom Liston (BBA’96) is one of the most sought-after minds in Canada’s tech investment sector. Tom currently serves on several Board of Directors for public and private technology companies, and he has a strong track record of shareholder value creation in that capacity. As chief investment officer of a leading technology-focused venture capital firm, he made investments in SaaS, FinTech, and healthcare IT fields – two of which were among the top exits in Canadian technology...
UNB alum building a bridge to Asia for New Brunswick company
UNB Alumni
Posted: March 23, 2022 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Inspiring Stories , Management , Young Alumni , UNB Fredericton
Jay Yang (BBA’16, MBA’18) is a prime example of why recruiting international students is a good growth strategy for New Brunswick. After working in a plywood export company in China, Jay decided to study in Shanghai, where he ran into a teacher from Montreal who had spent time in Oromocto. He encouraged Jay to apply to UNB for a business degree program, and Jay ended up travelling around the world to a place he hadn't heard of before. While studying for his BBA on the Fredericton...
Emily Scott: Five ways to include your children in your exercise
Emily Scott (BsKin’12, BBA'21)
Posted: February 22, 2022 12:00:00 AM AST
Category: Kinesiology , Insights , Management
Photo: Tori Claire Photography Emily Scott (BsKin’12, BBA'21) is a two-time UNB graduate, a kinesiologist, holistic nutritionist and Certified Personal Trainer through the Canadian Society of Exercise Physiology. She's also a mom of two, a runner, weight-lifter, and health advocate. In 2014, as a woman who had been athletic my entire life, I approached my postpartum fitness intentions with a wildly optimistic plan. I was a personal trainer and had a home gym equipped...
UNBeknownst Episode 13: James Gitau on the dangers and rewards of leading humanitarian work with UNICEF around the globe
UNB Alumni
Posted: February 17, 2022 12:00:00 AM AST
Category: UNB Fredericton , Management , Podcast
James Gitau (BBA'87,MA'89) came from Kenya to Canada in the 1980s to study at UNB and later returned to Africa to cultivate an esteemed career with UNICEF across the globe. He’s part of UNICEF’s senior leadership and operations group, and over the years has developed cross-cultural team leadership skills and has gained international experience within the humanitarian and development context. He’s currently Deputy Representative, Operations for Yemen. In this...
Meaghan Donahue Wies shares her path to Canadian Sport Centre Atlantic
Meaghan Donahue Wies
Posted: November 17, 2021 12:00:00 AM AST
Category: Management , UNB Fredericton , Kinesiology
SPOTLIGHT SERIES: WOMEN IN KINESIOLOGY, RECREATION AND SPORT MANAGEMENT Written by Meaghan Donahue Wies (MBA'11) My name is Meaghan Donahue Wies and I am the Athlete Services Manager and Game Plan Advisor with the Canadian Sport Centre Atlantic. The path that led me to this role is a winding one, but it comes as no surprise to those who know me that I have landed in the sport sector. I have always been a sport person - playing, watching, managing fantasy...
Four young alumni named in Atlantic Business Magazine’s Top 30 Under 30 list
UNB Alumni
Posted: November 4, 2021 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Engineering , Management , Law , Young Alumni , Inspiring Stories
In its second year, Atlantic Business Magazine’s Top 30 Under 30 awards program recognizes young people who are turning their creativity and passion into revenue-generating pursuits. They may be entrepreneurs; they may have yet to achieve personal commercial success; and/or they may be employed by someone else. The 2021 list is a diverse group of marketers, scientists, entrepreneurs, inventors, artists, and advocates. The four...
BBA alum joins forces with current business students to increase recruitment and retention of newcomers
UNB Alumni
Posted: October 19, 2021 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Management , UNB Fredericton , Inspiring Stories
Young alum Nicole Andrade (BBA’20) has only just begun her career, but she's already doing exciting and meaningful work as part of FLIP, the Fredericton Local Immigration Partnership. Not only is she using the skills she learned in the sales accelerator program in the Faculty of Management, she’s also drawing on her own experience of being a newcomer to New Brunswick. Nicole moved to Fredericton in 2016 from Quito, Ecuador to study business, after encouragement from her mother to...
Julia Hurst: Navigating a seller's real estate market
Julia Hurst (BBA'11)
Posted: September 27, 2021 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Young Alumni , UNB Saint John , UNB Fredericton , Insights , Management
At the height of the pandemic, young alumna and Saint John REALTOR® Julia Hurst (BBA'11) shared her insights and advice with us on buying or selling a home during COVID-19. Now over a year later, she provides her updated tips for buying and selling during a fast-paced seller's market and what you can do to best prepare. What should sellers think about when considering listing their home in today’s high-priced seller’s market? Sellers have a few things to consider when...
“Teaching true and detailed Indigenous history is the first step to changing the perception of our people”
Trey Lewis
Posted: June 9, 2021 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Young Alumni , Management
This story is part of the Voices of UNB Alumni series and written by Trey Lewis (BBA'18, BEd'20). My name is Trey Lewis. I grew up in a small village named Aldouane, New Brunswick. This small town is right outside of Elsipogtog First Nation, which I am a proud member of, and also where my mother has lived the majority of her life. Like a lot of kids from rural Canada, I’ve been playing hockey for as long as I can remember. I was fortunate to have had very knowledgeable and...
Passion and intensity have fuelled Jody Glidden’s exciting career path in tech startups
UNB Alumni
Posted: April 28, 2021 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Management , UNB Fredericton
Jody Glidden (BBA’06) believes that bringing passion and intensity to what he does has been his ticket to winning the tech startup game. He’s got the track record to back that up: Introhive is the fourth company he’s been involved in founding and building, and over the past year, it’s expanded its customer base by 52% and grown to almost 300 employees. Entrepreneurship and “messing around with computers” have been part of Jody’s world since he was a...
Volunteer Spotlight: Shawn Quinlan
UNB Alumni
Posted: April 20, 2021 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Inspiring Stories , Management , UNB Fredericton
Shawn Quinlan (BBA'94, MBA'96) - Fredericton, NB What is your most memorable moment from a UNB alumni volunteer experience? My most memorable moment was when I realized that a new hire at my office was a student I first met while serving as a table panelist during a Career Talks event at the Wu Centre. What are some of the volunteer roles you have participated in with UNB? I was on the advisory board of the Faculty of Administration for approximately 15 years and more recently I have...
Volunteer Spotlight: Haley Bungay
UNB Alumni
Posted: April 19, 2021 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Inspiring Stories , Management , Young Alumni , UNB Fredericton
Haley Bungay (BBA'13) - Fredericton, NB What is your most memorable moment from a UNB alumni volunteer experience? My most memorable moment from my alumni volunteer experience definitely has to be the first Career Talks I attended! Being able to share a bit of my career experience with students currently attending UNB was incredible. I’ve always enjoyed being able to connect with students attending UNB to support them in their education and their future careers. Meeting with them...
UNB alumnae #ChooseToChallenge
UNB Alumni
Posted: March 8, 2021 12:00:00 AM AST
Category: UNB Saint John , Young Alumni , Inspiring Stories , UNB Fredericton , Management
On International Women's Day, March 8, 2021, we celebrate all women, including these 10 incredible UNB alumnae who are changemakers and disruptors, and who #ChooseToChallenge. While this is just a small sample of the great work being done by alumnae all over the world, we acknowledge the work of these women and celebrate the strides they have recently been making in their fields. Jenica Atwin (BA'09, MEd'15) Member of Parliament for Fredericton and the first Green Party MP...
Innovating the restaurant of the future
UNB Alumni
Posted: November 19, 2020 12:00:00 AM AST
Category: Inspiring Stories , UNB Fredericton , Management
Everyone knows restaurants are a tough business in the best of times. These are not the best of times. The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on the restaurant industry globally, and New Brunswick is no exception. When the lockdown happened in March of 2020, the owners of Pomodori Pizzeria in Saint John worked quickly and innovatively to be able to not only stay afloat but turn out even more of their delicious Neapolitan-style wood-fired pizzas. Being innovative is nothing new for co-founders...
Returning to New Brunswick to work from home
UNB Alumni
Posted: November 18, 2020 12:00:00 AM AST
Category: Inspiring Stories , Management , UNB Fredericton , Kinesiology
There’s an interesting trend happening these days. Real estate in New Brunswick is a hot commodity and there’s a migration of young people into the province instead of out. The COVID-19 work-from-home movement, along with the safe reputation of the Atlantic Bubble and housing prices that are affordable, have created the perfect storm that’s attracting many New Brunswickers back home again. One of those is Nathan White (BBA’05). Nathan grew up in Fredericton as a big...
A rising star’s journey from Trinidad to Fredericton to Toronto
UNB Alumni
Posted: October 21, 2020 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: UNB Fredericton , Inspiring Stories , Management , Young Alumni
When Cilise (Legendre) Connell (BBA’12) made the move from her home in Trinidad and Tobago to Fredericton in 2009, her goal was to finish her business degree at UNB – (which she began through the UNB-ROYTEC partnership program) then return home to the small Caribbean Islands to find work. Eleven years later, she’s still in Canada. “I had such an amazing experience in Fredericton and at UNB that I didn’t want to go home,” she recounts. “I went back...
Young alumna brewing a new marketing strategy at Picaroons Brewing Company
UNB Alumni
Posted: September 17, 2020 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Management , Inspiring Stories , Young Alumni , UNB Fredericton
Experience counts when you’re developing growth and marketing strategies for companies. Kate McPherson (BBA’19) has it – even though she’s only 23. Kate graduated with a business degree from UNB’s Faculty of Management in 2019 with a ton of experience under her belt. First, she opted to take advantage of the exchange program and studied at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore for a year, doing a lot of focused market research directly with Asian-based...
Back to work in the COVID-19 era: What will it look like for you?
UNB Alumni
Posted: June 30, 2020 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Insights , Management
Dr. Jeffrey J. McNally is an associate professor in UNB’s faculty of management who studies human relationships with work and learning organizations. As Canadians and employees around the world start packing up their home offices and heading back to work, they have one big question: "What is going back to work in the age of an unprecedented global response to the novel coronavirus going to look like?" Let's look at some answers to that question at the local, national, and global...
Management students hitting experiential learning out of the park
UNB Alumni
Posted: June 30, 2020 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: UNB Fredericton , Inspiring Stories , Management , Young Alumni
It may have been one of the strangest and most challenging semesters at UNB because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the winter 2020 term ended with some good news for students in the Master in Quantitative Investment Management (MQIM) program. Just as exams were ending, they learned two of their teams placed high in two global competitions: one team tied with Rutgers for third place out of 58 universities in the MATLAB competition, hosted by the Professional Risk Managers’ International...
Tom Liston: The impact of COVID-19 on your investments
UNB Alumni
Posted: June 30, 2020 12:00:00 AM ADT
Category: Insights , Management
Tom Liston (BBA'96) is one of the most sought-after minds in Canada's tech investment sector and has offered his insights into the current market. Large declines in your investment portfolio often bring an understandably emotional response. Many investors’ first thoughts are to ‘protect’ their portfolios by selling. Others look at these market moves as an opportunity to ‘buy the dip’. Most often, our first reaction is an emotional one, which is not necessarily...
A life in service to vulnerable children
UNB Alumni
Posted: January 16, 2020 12:00:00 AM AST
Category: Inspiring Stories , UNB Fredericton , Management
James Gitau (BBA’87,MA'89) has never been one to shy away from a challenge. In 1982, Kenya was embroiled in an attempted coup, which led to the indefinite closure of the sole University of Nairobi. James’ high school advised students who could afford it to seek further studies abroad. He was given a list of potential universities in Canada, the U.K and the U.S: James and his family chose to apply to Canadian Universities. Based on his ‘A” levels examination...
UNB Associated Alumni awards the inaugural Alumni Legacy Scholarship
Young Alumni
Posted: July 17, 2019 4:00:00 PM ADT
Category: UNB Fredericton , Management , Young Alumni , UNB Saint John , Inspiring Stories
A University of New Brunswick student was announced as the inaugural winner of the Alumni Legacy Scholarship, established and presented by the UNB Associated Alumni. This year’s recipient, Laura Palmer, is an outstanding example of the values outlined through the scholarship – fiercely proud of the institution, dedicated to making a difference on campus and committed to carrying on the UNB alumni legacy for years to come. Valued at two-years of tuition and fees, the scholarship...
From the V-Reds to the Maple Leafs: Young alumnus makes his mark
Young Alumni
Posted: February 11, 2016 4:00:00 AM AST
Category: Management , Inspiring Stories , UNB Fredericton
What began as a marketing project in the BBA program became much more for UNB young alumnus, Andrew Brewer (BBA '08). As Assistant Coach for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Brewer works on and off the ice in a hockey career he has always dreamed of. From the Aitken Centre, to the Olympic stage and now the NHL, the Fredericton native is making his mark on the sport. Brewer joined the Leafs in June of 2015, alongside Coach Mike Babcock, where he brings an eye for detail to the team. Analyzing...
Q&A: Nathan Munroe
Young Alumni
Posted: November 9, 2015 4:00:00 AM AST
Category: Management , Young Alumni , UNB Fredericton , UNB Saint John
Whether you're a recent grad or an experienced professional, there's no better time to be thoughtful about your professional life and career. Two-time UNB young alumnus, Nathan Munroe (BBA '12, MBA '14,) shares his experiences since graduating and chimes in with great advice for fellow alumni. Q: Did you come to UNB knowing which degree program and career path you wanted to explore? Like many, I came to UNB pretty unsure of what my future had in store. I finished high-school with grades...