By his own admission, Ron Lovett was a juvenile delinquent and a troublemaker on the wrong track in his early life but also a born entrepreneur. His first business was selling weed. He also has had to learn to deal with both ADHD and dyslexia. In his first book "Outrageous Empowerment", he outlines his management philosophy that is based on employee empowerment, a philosophy that helped him grow Source Security to one of Canada's largest security firms from Halifax with more than 1,500 full-time employees. His personal experience providing executive protection is discussed in the podcast, including an interesting experience with Ringo Starr. After growing his revenues to more than $10 million annually, he sold his business to Pavion in 2023, a large US based technology and systems integration company. After selling Source Security, Lovett started VIDA (formerly VIDA Living) and has since developed a portfolio of 190 buildings with nearly 3,000 affordable rental units employing a new model of offering quality housing at reasonable cost. Lovett is in the process of raising $300 million to grow the number of units to 10,000. His innovative approach to this sector is turning heads. This is a great story and worth a listen.

On this week’s Insights podcast, Don and David speak with Sara Napier, the CEO of United Way Maritimes. United Way has been supporting the social sector in the Maritime Provinces for more than 100 years. Recently, seven local United Ways combined to create one larger organization that covers most of the Maritime Provinces (except southeastern New Brunswick and Cape Breton). Sara discusses the motivations for this amalgamation as well as some of the big issues and challenges facing the social sector across our region. We are seeing increased homelessness, crime, food insecurity and youth mental health challenges in all three provinces. The United Way is at the forefront trying to address these challenges in partnership with dozens of community partners.

On this week’s Insights podcast, Don and David speak with the Honourable John Herron, Minister of Natural Resources with the Government of New Brunswick. No other province in Canada has seen a larger decrease in economic activity associated with mining in the past 30 years. The GDP from mining has declined by more than 85 percent. Minister Herron is on a mission to change this. He would like to see New Brunswick become an important producer of critical minerals creating high paying jobs as well as tax and royalty revenue for government. Don, David and Minister Herron discuss how to make New Brunswick an attractive location for mining investment, the partnership with First Nations and how to achieve community support. For anyone interested in economic development, this is well worth an hour of your time.