New Leadership At Wallace McCain Institute
FREDERICTON— The University of New Brunswick’s Wallace McCain Institute (WMI) has named Sally Ng its new chief executive officer. Ng will take over from founding CEO Nancy Mathis on October 11.
Ng is coming into the position with a background in the technology start-up industry.
“A lot of my, I’ll say, bread and butter has been focused on helping individuals become more entrepreneurial and sort of navigate that, both from working with founders but also in the corporate environment in the corporate innovation world,” says Ng.
The WMI was founded in New Brunswick and offers programs and support for entrepreneurs.
Growing up, Ng was exposed to entrepreneurship through her parents, who owned businesses and properties after immigrating to New Brunswick from Malaysia.
Ng spent eight years facilitating TechStars’ Startup Weekend. Throughout the years, she travelled from places like Shanghai to Los Angeles to Cincinnati to facilitate those accelerator events.
She came back to Fredericton in 2012 and became the founding executive director for Planet Hatch.
With Ng’s background in tech startups, she has launched a number of organizations in the last decade and has worked within the startup entrepreneur space for a while.
A lot of the consultation work she did through organizations like Planet Hatch, Startup Zone, and The Triple Effect was running programs like the Indigenous Business Incubator through Joint Economic Development Initiative (JEDI) and working with Brightspark Ventures and the National Angel Capital Organization (NACO).
Most recently, Ng was the chief operating officer for Tribe Network, a social enterprise focused on helping Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour founders.
“I’ve seen the power of … that peer network piece when it comes to entrepreneurs supporting entrepreneurs,” she says. “When that’s facilitated and moderated well, it’s definitely really like a creative, massive impact.”
As Ng comes into her role as CEO, the first thing she will focus on is listening to participants, alumni, stakeholders, and funders through a community approach. She wants to be aware of what support is needed for the WMI and what would help participants thrive.
“Right now, I think the organization is in this really interesting place where, how do we support entrepreneurs and organizations for the next 100 years to thrive?”
“You’ve got governance issues; you’ve got diversity, equity, inclusion; you’ve got ESG, which is environmental, social, and governance. You’ve got all these pieces that entrepreneurs and businesses have to face, love it or not.”
Ng was not expecting to have this role as CEO fall into her lap. She recently resigned from her previous position and was planning on going back to consulting. She got recruited for WMI’s CEO by Knightsbridge Robertson Surrette (KBRS), a recruitment agency.
RELATED: Wallace McCain Institute Looking For New CEO
“The more I dug into it, the more I realized I think I’m in a place that I think I’ve probably as a female, as an immigrant, as a person of colour, I don’t think I realized, to a certain extent, how well-connected I personally actually am and the impact that I have had on entrepreneurs,” she says.
Ng asks herself how she can create a ripple effect across Atlantic Canada so businesses can not only thrive locally, but globally. She wants Atlantic Canada to thrive and believes in the power that entrepreneurs and their organizations can have in their communities.
Ng says a lot of businesses are being purchased by immigrants but also depend on immigrants and foreign workers.
“If I can help a little, tiny bit of being that catalyst in the ecosystem for that and also have representations I think [it] does matter because … in Atlantic Canada immigration is on the rise,” says Ng. “There’s this incredible opportunity that I think organizations need to dig into.”
Jessica Saulnier is an intern for Huddle in Fredericton. Send her feedback or story tips: [email protected]