Barry Kyle

Barry Kyle is the President of Industrial Rubber Company, located in Bathurst. Industrial Rubber Company is a supplier and manufacturer of industrial rubber-moulded products and linings for the Canadian military, and for mining, chemical and pulp-and-paper companies worldwide.

In 2007, Mr. Kyle was recognized for business excellence at The Atlantic Art of Success, an event designed to showcase 20 of Atlantic Canada's accomplished entrepreneurs. He was presented with Atlantic Business Magazine's Top 50 CEO Awards in both 2009 and 2010. Mr. Kyle currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Port of Belledune, and is also the President of CTS and GreenKore. He and his wife, Arlene, have two sons, Colin and Blaine.

Normand Caissie

Normand Caissie is the President and CEO of Imperial Manufacturing Group. The company produces more than 7,000 products for the heating, ventilation, air conditioning and building industries. The Imperial Manufacturing Group employs more than 800 people in six locations across Canada and the U.S. The company supplies more than 5,000 building supply stores in Canada and 20,000 in the U.S.

Mr. Caissie is also the President & CEO of MACC Commercial Properties, a leading business in commercial real estate. In total, Imperial Manufacturing Group and MACC Commercial Properties occupy over one million square feet.

He was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year by the Conseil économique du Nouveau-Brunswick, Ernst & Young's 2002 Entrepreneur of the Year and received an honorary doctorate in business administration from the Université de Moncton in 2007.

In 2010 he was inducted into the Canadian Hardware & Housewares Manufacturers Association Business Hall of Fame. Mr. Caissie is married to Alma and they have two children, Mario and Andrée, and five grandchildren.

J. W. Bud Bird

Bud Bird founded J.W. Bird and Company Limited in December, 1958. Over the past 53 years, through branches across Atlantic Canada, the company has served the construction industry with specialized products for the concrete and masonry trades, as well as with general building materials, plumbing and electrical supplies. Under the leadership of Mr. Bird, the company expanded rapidly, including the acquisition of James S. Neill and Sons Limited of Fredericton in 1969 and of William Stairs Son and Morrow Limited in Halifax in 1975. Following that, the marketing name of the business has become known as Bird-Stairs.

In the late 1990s, Mr. Bird was engaged by Enbridge Inc. to lead the formation of a local New Brunswick investment group to help compete for the new natural gas franchise in the province, which was successfully accomplished in 1999 to become Enbridge Gas New Brunswick (EGNB). Today, Mr. Bird remains a director of EGNB, as well as Acadian Timber Corporation, and continues to manage Bird Holdings Ltd. as a private family investment business.

Devoting a major portion of his career to public political service, Mr. Bird has been elected to office at all three levels of government. He became Mayor of Fredericton in 1969; an MLA and Minister of Natural Resources for New Brunswick in 1978; and a Member of Parliament in 1988. Long active in conservation, he served six years as Chairman for the Miramichi Salmon Association and almost two decades as a Director of the Atlantic Salmon Federation.

Awarded an honorary doctorate degree by the University of New Brunswick in 1987, Mr. Bird was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2001. He is married to Peggy Lawson Huet; they have raised a family of seven children and currently have 12 grandchildren.