Phase Two – Returning to a New Normal

Jeff White

CEO

New Brunswick has earned top marks for its effective management of the COVID-19 crisis, showing some of the best results in North America. Government, healthcare professionals and the people of our province worked together collaboratively to stop this virus largely in its tracks. Now, like other businesses and organizations, we’re taking our first steps in returning to our office. It’s a new normal.

Our team has spent more than 60 days working remotely and I believe we responded well to the challenges presented by the rapid switch to “work from home.” Business continued to move forward. Our venture capital team met virtually with entrepreneurs about funding and supported many of our portfolio companies as they worked through the new threats and opportunities this crisis presented.

Similarly, our research team worked closely with New Brunswick’s research community. Our team partnered with the New Brunswick Health Research Foundation (NBHRF) to quickly establish a new COVID-19 research fund to explore the public health impacts arising from this virus.

Our new branding and new website were also launched. These new platforms allow us to better tell the stories of how we help entrepreneurs and researchers take their ideas further.

I’m proud of our team. We rallied together during this crisis, with everyone working hard to continue to provide exceptional service to our portfolio companies, researchers and others in the innovation sector. With online meetings and our regular embrace of technology, it has been largely business as usual for us in this most unusual time. I also want to thank the partners and vendors who worked closely with us to maintain our consistent business operations during this extraordinary period.

As the province enters the yellow phase, businesses and offices are re-opening but with considerable caution. We will be allowing half of our team to return to the office next week (Monday, May 25th) , while the other half will continue to work remotely. This will help maintain appropriate two metres social distancing and other policies and procedures as outlined by public health professionals.

While our office will remain closed to the public for the time being, we are all available for virtual meetings. In fact, all internal meetings will still be held online to minimize the risk for exposure. We recognize that while half of us are going to be back in the office, things will not entirely return to normal for some time but, as always, we are only a phone call or email away.

COVID-19 is the defining crisis of our time. As New Brunswickers, we have tackled it with focus and determination and helped drastically minimize the scope of the outbreak. We all hope that continues to be true. 

We’ll be doing our part at NBIF, and we encourage everyone to stay vigilant. We are here and available to provide support and leadership to our network.

Cheers,
Jeff White
CEO – NBIF