On the September 25 episode, host Mark Leger chatted with Gordon Pitts about “Unicorn in the Woods”, his new book about the creation and eventual sale of cybersecurity firm Q1 Labs and social media company Radian6, which together sold for more than a billion dollars.

 

On this episode, Mark chats with new Propel CEO Kathryn Lockhart and Peter Moreira, business journalist and owner of Entrevestor, about nurturing “baby unicorns” too. Mark chats with Kathryn and Peter about the region’s emerging success stories, the challenges and opportunities of Covid-19 for the tech sector, and how to create a “baby unicorn farm.”

A true marriage of hearts and minds, Blair and Rosalyn met through Junior Achievement in Halifax and talked about starting a business together on their first date. More than 30 years later, they co-own Mrs. Dunster’s, a much-loved food business that continues to grow through new product lines and acquisitions of other companies like Kredl’s Corner Market in Hampton and McBuns Bakery in Moncton. Blair and Rosalyn join host Mark Leger to chat about their plans for expansion in Moncton and their desire to see the regional food sector grow as it recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The president of the Atlantica Centre for Energy says the sector is complex, a “bowl of spaghetti” that includes interconnected power grids and energy sources across the Atlantic region. But one thing is clear, she says, consumer demands are changing the landscape, forcing the region to look at low-carbon alternatives like wind farms and small modular reactors that aren’t “your dad’s Buick,” old-style nuclear reactors. Colleen joins host Mark Leger to talk about economic opportunities in this post-Energy East environment and they also chat about their shared love of hiking and travelling.

Huddle editor Mark Leger has chatted with many business leaders on “Home Office” bullish about their views to safely open up the economy as the Covid-19 caseloads have dropped across the region.

 

On our first podcast, Marcel LeBrun and David Alston presented a plan of their own, a week before New Brunswick rolled out the official one. Then we talked to business leader and columnist Don Mills, who didn’t want to see Nova Scotia left behind and was an early advocate for the “Atlantic Bubble.”

 

This week Mark chats with Halifax Chamber CEO Patrick Sullivan, who says our cities are hurting, particularly the downtown cores where restrictions need to loosened so the workers can repopulate the largely empty office buildings and eat at area restaurants again.

Fifteen years ago, journalist and author Gordon Pitts wrote “The Codfathers”, a book about regional business tycoons like the Irvings, McCains and Sobeys. He’s back now with “Unicorn in the Woods”, a book about the region’s tech titans. The story revolves around the creation and eventual sale of cybersecurity firm Q1 Labs and social media monitoring company Radian6. Gordon joins Mark Leger to talk about his page-turner, a compelling story about the founders, and how they grew globally competitive companies out of Saint John and Fredericton and influenced a generation of tech entrepreneurs across the Atlantic region.

Atlantic Canadians see the Irvings as a regional economic powerhouse. But since the family’s beginnings in northern New Brunswick in the 19th century, they have never seen themselves that way. K.C. was a “David”, not a “Goliath” - a tenacious entrepreneur who built a network of gas and service stations in the depression and an oil refinery in a competitive global environment. This is a subject of Donald Savoie’s new book on Irving Oil, “Thanks for the Business” and he joins Mark Leger to talk about it. They talk a little politics too, with the results of the N.B. election fresh in their minds. The Irving book chat starts at around the 25-minute mark.

In the final “Home Office” conversation with party leaders, Huddle editor Mark Leger speaks with PC leader Blaine Higgs about a range of issues, including the decision to cut ties with a candidate who shared a social media post promoting violence against the transgender community; his opposition to funding abortion services at a private clinic; a proposed ban on glyphosate spraying; and economic growth in a province feeling good about its ability to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the fourth of five “Home Office” conversations with party leaders, Huddle editor Mark Leger speaks with NDP leader Mackenzie Thomason about working in the hotel industry and what it teaches him about paying New Brunswickers adequately for the work they do. Mackenzie also talks about the dangers of concentrated corporate power and how he does door-to-door campaigning in a safe, respectful way for voters.

In the third of five “Home Office” conversations with party leaders, Huddle editor Mark Leger speaks with Liberal Leader Kevin Vickers about transforming the N.B. economy in cybersecurity, nuclear and tourism sectors; growing the population to 1 million people; advancing a progressive social vision by doing things like funding abortion services at the Clinic 554 in Fredericton…and cycling the backroads and main streets of the province.