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Black Business Initiatives: 25 Years and Beyond (Webinar)

Black Business Community has been an integral part of Nova Scotia’s economic and social fabric for over 200 years. Despite enormous struggles and challenges over the years, many successful Black-owned businesses in the region only demonstrate the resilience and tenacity of Black Nova Scotians. Over the years, Saint Mary’s University and the Sobey School of Business have contributed to the progress of the Black Community by graduating hundreds of Black students from Africa, the Caribbean, and the Black Nova Scotian community who went on to establish successful businesses. To strengthen this partnership and to celebrate the contribution of Black Businesses in Nova Scotia, the Sobey School of Business is launching a series of conversations with the Black Business Community, first, to highlight and celebrate the contribution of Black Businesses in our region’s economy and, second, to identify gaps, challenges, and opportunities to foster resiliency of Black Businesses in the post-COVID economic landscape.

The first in this series is a conversation joined by Dr. Rustum Southwell DCL’18, CEO of the Black Business Initiative (BBI), the premier business development organization supporting Black businesses in Nova Scotia, and Ms. Cynthia Dorrington, the President of Vale & Associates Human Resource Management and Consulting Inc. The conversation will focus on lessons learned from 25 years of Black Business advocacy, including many challenges inherent to Black Canadians that constitute an impediment to business startups and continued growth and scaling. Furthermore, the conversation will touch on how we can mobilize support programs and initiatives for Black Businesses so that the community can emerge stronger and more prosperous in the post-COVID environment.

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About Dr. Rustum Southwell DCL’18 (presenter):

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Dr. Rustum Southwell is a passionate leader who has invested heavily in his community – locally and globally – working tirelessly as an advocate for economic diversity and capacity building. Originally from the island of St. Kitts in the West Indies, Rustum has called Nova Scotia home for more than four decades. Dr Southwell holds honorary degrees in law from Saint Mary’s and Dalhousie Universities, and an honorary diploma from the School of Business at the Nova Scotia Community College. He started breaking barriers by becoming one of the first Black franchise operators in Nova Scotia, therefore understanding and appreciating the entrepreneurial landscape of this province, and has worked diligently over many years to guide many a budding and established entrepreneurs through their arduous journeys of business ownership. 

Rustum is the founding Chief Executive Officer of the Black Business Initiative (BBI), a business development initiative that addresses the unique needs of the African Nova Scotian business community which he, with his “it can be done” attitude, has led to become the strong, vibrant, and well respected standard bearer organization that it is today. As leader of the BBI, his quietly innovative and highly effective management style was instrumental in enhancing the credibility and success of Nova Scotia’s growing Black business community in the past, and under his guardianship, BBI will have a strong voice and solid hand as it strategically positions to be an effective support and pertinent resource for Black and minority entrepreneurs of Nova Scotia for the next two decades. In his tenure, he has overseen the creation and expansion of hundreds of Black businesses, not only within the province and parts of Canada, but also globally across the U.S., the Caribbean and beyond. 

About Cynthia Dorrington (presenter):

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Cynthia Dorrington is the President of Vale & Associates Human Resource Management and Consulting Inc. Established in 2004, Vale & Associates is a boutique consulting firm specializing in providing strategy and advisory services as well as customized training and development for organizations. As President, Cynthia does consulting work with small to medium-sized organizations across various industry sectors from start-ups, to businesses undergoing growth, to mergers/acquisitions with an emphasis on strategic positioning of its human resources and managing change. Expertise in areas such as organizational strategy, people strategy, equity, diversity and inclusion, supplier diversity, change management, governance, performance management, as well as HR advisory services has allowed Vale & Associates the opportunity to provide consulting services to a number of clients locally, nationally and internationally. 

Aside from her Canadian business endeavours, Cynthia is a principal partner in an Australian business venture and balances her time strategically between her global work commitments and her various board commitments. Cynthia currently is the Chair of the Black Business Enterprise and Chairs of HR, Governance & Nominations Committees for Africville Heritage Trust, Halifax Hospice and Canadian Urban Institute. She is a member of the Governance and Finance and Audit Committees for VON Canada. Cynthia is a Commissioner on the board of the Nova Scotia Human Rights. Having recently completed her term as the Past Chair of the Halifax Chamber of Commerce, Cynthia has become a Life-Time Member of the Board of Governors for the Halifax Chamber of Commerce.