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Mi’gmaq entrepreneur as well as national and community leader, Victoria LaBillois (BA’91, MBA’04), has been honoured with the University of New Brunswick (UNB) Faculty of Management Certificate of Achievement Award and inducted permanently on the Faculty’s Alumni Wall of Fame. On a sunny April afternoon at the Alumni Memorial Building, friends, family, classmates, faculty and alumni gathered to celebrate the achievement.

Hailing from Listuguj, QC, in the traditional territory of Gespe’gewa’gi, Victoria attended UNB first for an undergraduate degree in arts and later for a master’s degree in business. She is the owner of Wejipeg Excavation Inc. and co-owner of Wejuseg Construction Inc., two companies which were instrumental in the construction of a major wind park development in the Gaspésie region and which have been key to creating employment opportunities for Mi’gmaq community members and fueling economic development in the region.

Victoria has served both the First Nation and federal public service, working at the Band, regional, and national levels, and is a mentor and coach to Indigenous women and youth. She was also co-chair for a national steering committee with the Canadian Construction Association, overseeing development of an Indigenous engagement guide for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

She is currently serving as vice-chair of the National Indigenous Economic Development Board and represents the National Indigenous Economic Development Board in the development of Canada’s first National Indigenous Economic Strategy. In these roles, she advocates for and facilitates conversations at the highest levels around economic reconciliation in Canada.

UNB is not the first to honour her achievements: she was named one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women by the Women’s Executive Network (WXN) in both 2019 and 2020, and the Indspire 2024 Award for Business & Commerce.

Dean of the Faculty of Management, Devish Mitra, said at the celebration event, “There are few leaders today who can boast such an impact as both an entrepreneur and a regional and national community leader as Victoria can. We are so proud to acknowledge her accomplishments and are thankful for her continued support of our students and faculty.”

Michelle McNeil, executive director of the UNB Associated Alumni agreed. “Victoria is an impressive entrepreneur, but maybe even more impressive is the way she gives back to her communities. She spends considerable time on mentorship and education and, very importantly, to furthering Indigenous reconciliation at the national level. She is a strong voice and a changemaker, and we are so proud to celebrate her.”

Victoria acknowledged UNB as a key piece of her journey. “When I started my excavation company, I knew I didn’t want our community to be bystanders while others swept in to do the work. I wanted to bring highly skilled Mi’gmaq people to the table. It was my MBA degree that gave me the confidence to move forward and to be taken seriously. For that I’m forever grateful.”

You can learn more about Victoria’s career – and in particular her current work at the national level advancing economic reconciliation – on the UNBeknownst podcast.

Banner photo: Victoria LaBillois and Devish Mitra, Dean of the Faculty of Management.