Insights with Don Mills and David Campbell- An Acadia Broadcasting Podcast

Francis McGuire has a very interesting background, having been both a Deputy Minister during the Frank McKenna era and the CEO that built Moncton-based Major Drilling into the second biggest company in its sector in the world.In this edition of the Huddle "Insights" podcast, McGuire talks with co-hosts David Campbell and Don Mills about the strategies he used to grow Major Drilling and the current ones he is employing to take Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) in a new direction.Convinced by others, including Frank McKenna, to take on his current role as the CEO of ACOA, McGuire has taken the organization in a new direction. The organization has placed a greater emphasis on immigration to help address the growing labour market needs within the region, as well as preparing organizations for automation and the digitalization of the economy in Atlantic Canada.

This week's Huddle "Insights" podcast features a conversation with arguably the most influential IT leader in Atlantic Canada: Gerry Pond.Pond chats with co-host David Campbell about his career starting out in the mid-1960s at NBTel dealing with "party line" complaints in rural New Brunswick rising to CEO of Aliant and then nearly two decades of founding and investing in IT startups across Atlantic Canada, including Radian6 and Q1 Labs.He weighs in on everything from the pipeline for tech entrepreneurs in the region; the role of government to help encourage tech startups; and why he is bullish on the ocean technology cluster.

In part two of their conversation with longtime CTV Atlantic broadcaster Steve Murphy, Don and David chat with Steve about his favourite interview in 45 years of broadcasting. Steve also shares his thoughts on the most significant Atlantic Canadian premiers in the last four decades.

In the first of a two-part interview, longtime CTV broadcaster Steve Murphy relinquishes his role as an interviewer and becomes the interviewee, as co-hosts Don Mills and David Campbell quiz him about his 45-year career, including the most significant events he has covered, his assessment of the most consequential premiers, most interesting interviews and how Atlantic Canada has changed over his the course of four decades in the business.

BioVectra plans to build a facility on Prince Edward Island that will eventually manufacture enough doses of mRNA vaccines to supply all of Canada, which is big news for Canadians as well as Atlantic Canadians. The recent announcement shines a light on a 50-year old company that employs more than 550 people in P.E.I. and Nova Scotia."There are 35 million-plus Canadians. We could probably within a year single-handedly make sure the demand for Canada has been taken care of if we were the ones to produce the vaccine in the future," says company CEO Oliver Technow.On this episode of the "Insights" podcast, Technow speaks with co-host Don Mills about the origins of the company and the original vision of its founder Regis Duffy, and how the company has grown over the decades to its present capabilities.

Envision, the new economic development agency for the Great Saint John Region, has just released its five strategic plan that calls for growing the population by 25,000 and the regional economy by 30-35 percent over the next 10 years. On this week's podcast, Don Mills talks with Envision CEO Paulette Hicks about the organization's aggressive growth plans and the development of a new brand for the region that will be introduced early in 2022. 

John Bragg got his entrepreneurial start as a teenager in the blueberry business. He quit law school because he decided he was meant to be a businessman, not a lawyer, and started off down a path that led to the creation of Oxford Frozen Foods and the telecommunications company Eastlink, both headquartered in Nova Scotia.Bragg is one of the Maritimes business titans that have inspired books by Donald Savoie, who joins David Campbell and Don Mills on the "Insights" podcast this week to talk about The Rural Entrepreneur: John Bragg.

If you haven’t heard of James Mullinger, it’s time to get acquainted. An immigrant from the UK who recently became a Canadian citizen, he is now a central figure in Atlantic Canadian cultural and media circles. James is a comedian, magazine editor, author, podcaster and, most of all, entrepreneur. He joins Don Mills and David Campbell to talk about his journey and how he became an accidental champion for Atlantic Canada.  

35 podcasts. That's roughly 35 hours of conversations with business and thoughts leaders about Atlantic Canada's economic success stories and the challenges and opportunities ahead for the region.On this episode of the "Insights" podcast, Don Mills and David Campbell chat with Huddle editor Mark Leger about the people they've spoken to (a group that includes former Newfoundland finance minister Cathy Bennett, JDI co-CEO Jim Irving and Frank McKenna) and the issues they've discussed (from labour force development to immigration to energy development and innovation).

There are relatively few publicly held companies based in Atlantic Canada. In recent years, the region’s high-flying technology companies have typically grown to a point and then sold to a national or international firm. The region is also known for its intergenerational family-owned businesses. Should more firms look at listing on the public stock markets such as the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX)?On the week's episode of the "Insights" podcast, Denis Larocque, President and CEO of Major Drilling and Andrew McLaughlin, the company’s VP of Legal Affairs and General Counsel, weigh in on the pros and cons of being a publicly-traded company. Moncton-based Major Drilling, one of the province’s few publicly traded firms, has used its ability to raise capital to become one of the world's largest drilling services companies. McLaughlin has written a persuasive report outlining the benefits and believes more publicly held companies would be good for the economy, which Huddle will be publishing later this week. He says New Brunswick has a lot of large family-owned businesses and a strong ecosystem of smaller businesses. "What seems to be missing is that middle layer that can expand into titan status. I'm talking about companies with $200-million in revenue that can grow up to the $1-billion mark," McLaughlin tells "Insights" co-host David Campbell. "It's this layer of companies that are the drivers of wealth creation and economic dynamism in other provinces. It's this realm where public companies can play a particularly prominent role."