Former Aliant head Gerry Pond says it is crucial to mentor young entrepreneurs

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Gerry Pond believes companies that are bound to have the biggest impact on the New Brunswick economy are not those that come from outside the province but are those created from the ground up, right here in the province.

Greg Agnew/Times & Transcript

Former Aliant president Gerry Pond says young entrepreneurs in N.B. need to be encouraged.

"Locally-based entrepreneurs are going to add more value," he says.

Pond, former president of Aliant and CEO of NBTel and now chairman of Mariner Partners in Saint John, spoke to the Moncton Rotary Club yesterday about the importance of entrepreneurship in the province.

Pond has been involved in the start-up of nine companies in the last 10 years. Only four of them are still operating, he admits, but Pond says it's OK to fail and one should never give up on their ideas.

Pond is excited about a new program developed by the Wallace McCain Institute that will see experienced business leaders mentor entrepreneurs. He believes it is crucial to mentor young talent.

He is one of a handful of mentors involved in the project.

Speaking about one of his own mentors, former NBTel head Kenneth Cox, Pond said Cox taught him early on that anything could be done in New Brunswick.

"We should never consider ourselves as inferior to anybody," Pond says.

Pond has over 40 years of experience in the information and communications technology industry in the province. He has worked with such start-up IT companies as Q1 Labs, iMagicTV, and Brovada Technologies.

Mariner Partners, where he serves as chairman, is currently doing some interesting work with Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) software.

Software the company is introducing at a trade show this week in Las Vegas allows telephone companies that offer IPTV services to provide several different features that cable companies offer as well as some they don't.

Pond has over 40 years invested in the New Brunswick economy and he shows no signs of slowing down.

"We want New Brunswick to be the best place to start and grow a company in North America," he says. "Maybe the world, but let's start with North America."