Craig Leonard’s Transition from Politics to Tech
Craig Leonard isn’t what you’d call a one trick pony. With experience in both the public and private sectors, he has a unique perspective on how to enact change in a community.
With fifteen years of experience with his family’s business, Leonard Corporation, under his belt, Leonard decided to take the political plunge and was elected as an MLA in 2010 and served as New Brunswick’s Minister of Energy and Minister of Energy and Mines. Four years later, Leonard left politics and got involved with Ali Ghorbani’s online media monitoring project Eyesover.
“The opportunity came along as I had met with Ali Ghorbani while I was an MLA because UNB was part of my riding,” Leonard said. “We had a number of discussions about what kinds of things were going on at UNB and some of the projects he was working on.”
“After I was finished with politics, he called me up and said ‘we’re still working on this project and I’d be interested in you taking a look at it again.’”
Leonard starting working on the commercial development of the research that had been done as part the project. He says when they got to a point where they realized it could be commercialized, they decided to go all in.
Eyesover has now been operating commercially for nearly a year and a half and it’s been two years since Leonard first got on board on a full-time basis. Leonard believes there are many opportunities for both those in the public and private sectors to take advantage of what they’re offering.
“I kept saying that if governments used systems like this, it would completely change the way they operate because all of the sudden, you have all of this access to all of this public opinion, basically what people are talking about, any particular issue or policy that you’re trying to move forward,” Leonard said.
“Not only would you be able to see generally whether people are for or against it, you’d also be able to pick up on a lot of details that people who have expertise in the area can bring to the table.”
Leonard says this concept translates into the private sector as well since more and more, companies need to have the surrounding communities on board with what they are doing to move forward with projects. Access to public opinion for this can prove invaluable.
Leonard says while both public and private sectors need access to this kind of data, the ways they can make use of the data are very different.
“In the private sector, when you see something that needs to be changed, you simply do it,” Leonard said. “Whereas in the public sector, when you see something that needs to be changed, there’s an entire process that’s been built up to where it generally takes way longer than you’d ever expect it to.”
“That’s the rap that governments often have, that they’re very slow moving and not adept to react to changes in the social opinion or environment that they’re operating in. With information and technology the way they are today, there’s really no excuse for that anymore.”
Leonard says while his approach to change in the public sector versus the private sector has been different since working in government is often about improving situations for large groups of people while corporate work is more focused on one-to-one, his end goal is similar: to improve the community around him.
“Personally, [I believe] there’s no better place to live than Fredericton,” he says. “I’ve been here all my life and to see Fredericton grow from a smaller, quiet community focused on university and government into [somewhere that’s] culturally vibrant and known for our technological sector, it’s just been amazing to watch.”
Eyesover is now looking to expand their markets and branch out beyond Eastern Canada.
“We’re in a position now where we feel our system is at a point where we can go out and talk to anyone in North America and show them the benefits of using our system,” Leonard says.
“We’re very much focused on growth at this stage and adding as many customers are we can.”