The Heroic Journey of Innovation: From R&D to Enterprise and Back

In this presentation, Chet Wesley describes the methods the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation (NBIF) employs to turn innovation into enterprise. Using several examples from both its R&D and company portfolios, he explains how the organization uses venture capital, professional support and cultural mechanisms to accelerate the province’s growing innovation-based economy. By investing in new startup companies, university research, and R&D within established SMEs, NBIF has brought innovation full circle—putting research into the hands of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial ideas into the hands of researchers, altogether creating over a billion dollars of value since its inception in 2003.

About Chet Wesley

Chet Wesley is the Director of Marketing & Communication at the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. At NBIF, he develops creative and market strategy for the Foundation and a selection of its most prolific portfolio companies and researchers. Before joining NBIF in 2007, he worked as a producer and writer for Atlantic Mediaworks, CBC Television and BNN, Canada’s National 24-hour business news network. He has published numerous articles on innovation and creativity in various magazines including Canadian Business, Progress, Investment Executive, and Atlantic Business. He has also worked as a full-time lecturer in business communications and finance at the University of New Brunswick. Chet received his undergraduate degree in commerce at the University of Toronto, his MBA at the University of New Brunswick, and conducted post-graduate research on champions of innovation at the Richard Ivey School of Business where he worked as a research associate and case writer. As a volunteer, he is Secretary-Treasurer of the New Brunswick Arts Board, the province's primary arts funding agency, sits on the advisory council of the New Brunswick College of Craft & Design, and a senior member of the Premier’s Task Force on the Status of the Artist.